About Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos (pronounced cay-cos) is actually two groups of islands, The Turks islands and The Caicos islands. Eight of the
Turks and Caicos islands are inhabited and 20 are not. Providenciales, called Provo by its 6000 residents, is part of The Caicos
islands and is an area of 38 square miles. The North side of the island faces straight out into the Atlantic Ocean and it is also
where the island curves inward (called the Caicos or Columbus Passage) so that the water flows gently to shore. It is also the side
of the island where the hotels are located. The South side of the island would face the Caribbean Sea if Cuba wasn't in the way.
This side of the island welcomes the cool trade winds and the homes are mostly residential at this point. There was a lot of building
construction on Provo, which is a good sign that the economy is good. There is one main road, called Leeward Highway, that runs
through the middle of the island. Most of the roads near the tourist area were paved and some of the inner residential roads were
paved, but they were few and far between. The downtown area was practically nonexistent and consisted of a few strip centers scattered
on both sides of the Leeward Highway just outside the airport. The government seat of Turks and Caicos is on Grand Turks island.
Turks is the name of the Turk's Head "fez" cactus that is indigenous to the islands and Caicos means "string of islands" in Lucayan. Columbus was said to have discovered the islands in 1492, but some still argue that Ponce de Leon arrived first. Whichever it was, the first people to truly discover the islands were the Taino Indians, who unfortunately left little behind but ancient utensils. Then the Lucayans eventually replaced the Tainos, but by the middle of the 16th Century they too had disappeared, victims of Spanish enslavement and imported disease. There seems to be much disagreement about exactly who set foot on Turks and Caicos first, Columbus or Ponce de Leon. Some say Columbus first discovered the islands by landing on what is now Malcolm Road and some say Ponce de Leon was the first to discover it by landing on Grand Turk. Who knows... Nontheless, we all know that whomever it was that landed first, they intended only to enslave the Lucayan indians who lived there or else they killed them by importing their diseases to the islands. But that's another story altogether... Known for having the third largest coral reef system (7000ft deep) in the world, Turks and Caicos is a great place to dive and relax. Locals, called "Belongers", are known for their friendly spirit, which makes you feel welcome and comfortable. Although shopping and eating out are minimal experiences on Provo, the grocery store we visited was stocked with all the comforts of home at a slightly high import price. All in all, Provo was great place to relax and laze around, but if activity and people-watching is what you're looking for, it is not the place to go. It is a slightly rugged island with a tinge of commercialism on its edges, which makes it perfect for those looking for seclusion with the option of mingling with civilization at your own pace. Of course, we were renting a private house on a private beach, which makes our experience different than if, say, we were staying in a resort on the other side of the island. Because half of our foursome wanted secluded beaches and half of us wanted activities to be available, this was a great destination for us all. Although I suspect, in retrospect, there are some preferences we would change before our next vacation together.
Day One
July 3, 2003
7am - 10pm
Alcohol Consumed: Rum, pineapple/orange/mango juice
Being the organized, slightly nerdy, people that we are, we had stayed the night before in Miami so that we could arrive on the
island as early as possible and maximize our time on the island. Except for the ever-present unpredictablity of the weather in
Dallas, there was no travel stress on the way to the island and back, which is a definite bonus.
We deplaned in Provo along with a 60ish woman dressed in a flowing, lime green, tie-dyed mumu with matching shoes and rather large, round leopard-print eyeglasses. As she rushed out the door of the airport brandishing her holistic medicine magazine in the air, her dress billowing dangerously upward in the strong breeze, we stood nearby saying silent goodbyes to our embarrassingly flamboyant American compatriots and wistfully thinking about spending the next few days away from that world.
Doric Quant, the builder and caretaker of Caribbaway, was to meet us at the airport and drive us to the house. However, he was not among the people holding up hotel signs at the airport exit, so we began to ask around. I suspected that, like small towns in the US, everyone would know each other and someone might know Doric. So I asked a man who was directing people out of the airport if he knew where I could find Doric. He answered that "Derek was around here awhile ago, but is probably down at the restaurant" and pointed to a door about 50 feet away. When I asked what he looked like, he said that Doric was tall and handsome. With these definitive characteristics in mind, Amy and I walked down to the restaurant and looked for a man fitting the description. The bartender/waitress said she hadn't seen him today, so we left. As we passed a tall man of about 6' 5", I asked if he was Doric Quant and he mumbled something along the lines of "get away from me weird lady, I don't want your drugs." By the time we found Omid and Brian, Doric had already located them and they were arranging for a rental car since the Jeep that came with the house would be in the shop until tomorrow.
I rode with Doric so he could explain Provo's inner-workings, while the remainder of the group followed us down the left side of the road in a tiny white rental car. As we drove, Doric pointed out shopping centers, liquor stores and the buildings he had worked on. "See that brown roof over there?" he'd say, pointing to a group of houses with brown roofs, "I did that one." There appeared to be quite a few churches and when I asked Doric how many there were on Provo, he said there were as many churches as there were schools. Eventually, we stopped at the grocery/liquor store that was closest to the house, but we didn't have our bearings yet to know what we would need for the rest of the week, so we just got enough snacks and liquor for the day. Once we were done, we got back in the cars and continued down the road.
The paved road soon turned left and went into the tourist area, but we continued straight and went onto a dusty, white, rocky road. It was so bumpy and uneven, we thought we would vibrate the parts right off the car. "Its less bumpy the faster you go," Doric said. "See that street sign there? That's where you turn right." Then we'd go a little further and he'd say, "See that sign for horseback riding? You turn left there. At night, that blue-roofed house up there on the hill has green lights." Just when I was starting to think this place was out in the boonies, he said "At the dead end, you turn right. This is your road."
In the not-so-far distance, I could see a 2-story cinderblock house left half finished. My mind flashed back to Barbados and the dark
winding road the driver took us down on the way from the airport to the house. I remembered how anxious we were in the last few
minutes just before we saw it. Would it be as it appeared on the web? Is this guy going to kill us? Who knows… And to make it worse,
Doric swung to the right toward the cinderblock house and said, "You know, Colin
The house was made of white stucco and had stairs that wound up to the front door. Once inside, he explained how things worked while we walked around and checked it out. It was just as it was on the internet. As you walk through the front door, you can see the aqua blue ocean beyond the french doors leading out to the huge multi-level deck. The main rooms were on opposite ends of the house with the living room and kitchen in between. King beds, AC in the bedrooms, etc. It was a gorgeous house. We put our bags in our rooms and opened all the windows and doors to freshen the place up. Then we put on our "swimming costumes" and went down the steps to the beach, which was about 100 feet away.
We sat in our fold-out lawn chairs and joked about how ugly the view was for awhile. There was no sign of civilization as far as we could see. There were houses on each side of ours, one of which belonged to the horseback riding place. Supposedly, according to Doric, they had a cat that occasionally visited in search of food. At one point, a woman and a little girl strolled by and introduced herself as Hazel Greenwood. The little girl was her granddaughter. Dressed in a loose-fitting polo shirt and shorts, Hazel was about 50 or 60 with red curly hair, skin with multiple layers of sunburn, a hearty laugh, and no bra. She told us about all the local politics and how she had lived on the island for 20 years. Once she left, we decided we should probably go back to the grocery store so we would have something to eat tomorrow morning and coffee too. Then we would go out to eat.
So we bought $250 worth of liquor and food for the next couple of days and we were on our way. Little did we know at this point that we would be back there almost every day of our trip for ice, liquor and fruit. We decided to pick a restaurant in the tourist side of town and we had heard good things about the restaurants in Turtle Cove, so that's where we headed. At The Tiki Hut, Amy had some delicious snapper pasta, while Brian and Omid had grilled/jerked (best) tuna steak. I had the fried chicken. It was all good. We bought ice cream on the way out and walked around the water a bit before we got in the car and headed home.
We followed the landmarks that Doric had provided and easily made it back home over the dirt roads with no streetlights. We sat on the back porch while the strong trade winds whipped around us until one of us suggested we go down to the beach. It was pitchblack down there, but it was really nice out. At the end of the path down to the beach is a wooden deck or platform that you can sun on. We stood on it and looked back up to the house. As we wondered if anyone was home at the house two doors to the right, Brian or Omid (can't remember which) said they saw a shadow in the lower window. Then we watched to see if we could see it again, but to no avail. Amy mentioned something about "dead bodies" and we all laughed. And that's when all the lights went out on the island… There we stood, four American yuppies on a small wooden platform in the pitchblackness on a semi-deserted island in the Caribbean. Visions of Friday the 13th danced in all of our minds or at least mine as we made our way back up the path and into the house. As as lit the rather large candles, it struck me that the power must go out frequently if the owner keeps candles like this in the house. And sure enough, the power would go out occasionally each day we were there, as indicated by the flashing clock on the stove.
Eventually, the lights came back on and our anxiety dissipated. So we went to bed. We all slept with our AC units on in the bedrooms because it was so humid and salty. We hadn't yet acclimated to the weather… The units vibrated so loudly that even Brian, who I have surmised could sleep through a hurricane, was concerned that he wouldn't be able to sleep with it on.
Day Two
July 4, 2003
8am - 11pm
Alcohol Consumed: White wine Sangria (chardonnay, mangoes, strawberries, bananas, and blood oranges) and Turk's Head beer
Since the island doesn't recognize Daylight Savings Time and the bedrooms were not hermetically sealed from the light, we were forced
to wake up early each day. Sad, isn't it? Gradually, we all staggered out to the back porch with our books and coffee and read for a
good couple of hours. This would become our regular morning routine. Amy, who was reading The Tropic of Cancer, decided it was too
crass and had no plot, so she switched to another book by Jean Luis Borges. Omid read about the history of Iran, Brian was struggling
to finish the new Harry Potter book that was 3,000 pages long, and I was in the last quarter of an old Harlan Coben mystery that held
me in its grip.
Eventually, we all put on our suits and went down to the water for a few hours where we frolicked in the surf and collected shells. I obtained two very nice and unusual conch shells to put in my garden. Apparently, this particular side of the island was where the conch shells washed up once the fishermen had removed the conch meat and thrown the shells back into the ocean. We didn't see one shell that wasn't cracked already. And there were literally hundreds of them on the shore. At one point, Omid picked up one that was sticking up rather dangerously out of the sand and there was another one buried underneath it. We all agreed that the danger here would be hurting your foot on the point of one of them as it protruded out of the sand.
The water was very rough and there were a lot of whitecaps because of the wind far out in the ocean. But at least there was a breeze. You just couldn't float or you'd be brought right back to shore and it was too shallow to swim. You could probably walk out into the ocean for 200-300 feet before you'd be shoulder deep. So most of the time, we just flailed about in the water and attempted to use our floats.
Doric called at one point and said the Jeep was ready to be picked up at the repair shop. Amy couldn't find her contact lens solution, so Brian and Omid went to return the rental car, get the Jeep and go back to the grocery store. While Amy was instructed to make White Wine Sangria. Left with no chores, I sat on the porch and read. Two hours later, the guys returned with the Jeep, sundries, and food from a place called Lamonts. Apparently, the smell of food is what made them stop, and it was a good thing they followed their noses because it was good… Stewed pork, fried chicken, brown rice with peas, and macaroni salad for $7. We ate like kings. And queens. The guys had bought a pork loin for us to grill sometime this week too. Like all men, they're suckers for a good piece of meat.
Afterwards, we all sat on the porch and read until we fell asleep. A couple of hours later, Omid decided to get the windboard out and try to use it. Amy and I watched from shore as he and Brian tried to paddle out and we shouted good wifely encouragement at them as they failed. Omid finally consigned himself to laying on the inflatable hot pink raft on the shore as the water rushed at him and then retreated. Soon we found ourselves back on the porch with a book and a fruit drink in our hands. The cat food bowl was empty from the night before, so we refilled it with the cat food we had purchased at the store. I watered the only Turks Head cactus I had seen so far, which was actually on the porch with us. Apparently, the cactus is more prevalent on the other islands.
Around sunset, Amy and Brian began playing cards while Omid and I read our books. Someone grunted something about hunger, so Brian and Omid dragged the BBQ pit up onto the porch and tried to get the charcoal to light. Their eyes alight with glee, they played with the fire like the boys of their youth. We soon dined on burgers and tater tots, along with a hefty glass of white wine sangria. The smell of the grill lured the kitties to our porch and we watched as they peeked their heads through the railing and eventually started eating the food we had left out. There was a rather healthy looking black one and a white/gray one with very large eyes and ears that looked like those fish that live in the deep dark abyss of the ocean. We wondered what they could possibly find to eat on this island that was devoid of much except lizards and people food.
Amy and Brian stayed up late playing cards, but tonight (and every night hereafter) we all slept with the AC off and the doors and windows to the ocean flung wide open. It was like a dream to sleep with the sound of the ocean and the cool wind whipping through the room. No sound machine or ceiling fan can compare with the real thing.
Day Three
July 5, 2003
9am - 10pm
Alcohol Consumed: Bourbon and Coke, Rum Punch (with Vodka), beer
Since I had committed to making breakfast at least one time on vacation, I got up early and made bacon, eggs and toast. As we
congregated on the porch to eat, Amy and I decided that today we would go into "town" and shop later. We entertained ourselves
by making fun of Brian who said something about "church-farin", but then we realized he hadn't had his coffee yet. Eventually,
we decided to get into the water for awhile. So far, none of us were burned and we didn't really look as if we had been on an island
for two days.
A couple of hours later, I came back with a sunburn, but everyone else seemed to be okay. Amy did some yoga and we all ate a sandwich. Then we decided to go on our shopping expedition. We took the Jeep and went to the tourist side again in search of some small shops. Most of them were souvenir/tshirt shops, which didn't interest us that much. But eventually we struck gold in a small shop that sold fairly stylish clothes and shoes. Amy bought a really cool dress that the sales clerk said was "a new Versace piece", but really just had some very nice metal tags on it with French names on it. I bought a good quality linen outfit and some shoes and we were done. We stopped at the local dive shop for a tshirt for a Brian and ended up buying tickets to a sunset snorkeling cruise for tomorrow night. Then we stopped at the grocery store for enough liquor and fruit to last us through tomorrow, which was Sunday.
When we got home, Brian and Omid were in the midst of grilling the pork ribs we had bought the day before. Amy sauteed some brocolli, which would be good with the potatoes and onions they were grilling to go with it. After dinner Omid and I argued about whether the Marquis de Sade was really worth anything as a writer since he is only famous because he stuck up for his right to write whatever he wanted. Soon the argument ended and we all made our way to the darkened porch where Amy let it slide that she is afraid of mummies and zombies. I confessed that I am afraid of natural disasters, but no one seemed to get as much joy from my fear as we did from hers. I was sadly disappointed in Amy's apparent lack of experience. She should know better than to tell her friends what she is truly afraid of… As a result, we spent the rest of the evening walking with our arms outstretched in front of us and making zombie jokes. As the night wore on, Amy confessed the origin of her fear. Apparently, when she was four, she was staying with her uncle and one night she joined him in front of the television. A zombie movie flickered on the screen as she asked what he was watching. "The 6 o'clock news," he said in all seriousness, "they'll be here soon, so you better go to bed."
Day Four
July 6, 2003
7am - 12am
Alcohol Consumed: Rum Punch, beer, Kir Royals
One by one, we appeared on the porch with coffee and books where we sat for three hours. At lunch time, we dined on sandwiches,
chips, and pickled okra. Then everyone went down to the water to frolic while I sat in the shade with my sunburn and read. I was
now into my Dorothy Parker anthology, which I found very intriguing. Within a few hours, everyone rejoined me on the porch where
we had large glasses of Rum Punch. A small kitten, unseen until now, came out from under the porch and balanced himself precariously
over the small cooler we were using to clean the sand from our feet. Inevitably, he fell in and then seemed to look surreptitously
around to see if there were any witnesses before he bounded off into the shrubs.
>At 3:30, we all got in the Jeep and drove to the point of origin for our sunset/snorkeling cruise. The boat was a large catamaran that, when all was said and done, held about 30 people. Rum punch flowed freely as we cruised out into the ocean.
We stopped at Iguana Island (formally known as Little Water Cay) and some of us clamored off the boat to visit the iguanas with cameras in hand. A few minutes later, they got back on and we continued on to the designated snorkeling spot. I hung out on the boat as Amy, Omid and Brian swam around in their Scuba Steve gear. By the time they got back on the boat, my stomach was feeling a little queasy from too much alcohol. Luckily, I was able to regain my composure at sunset when our hosts provided us with chips and salsa to snack on.
Once we were back on shore, we headed to the house for a shower and then left again to go eat at Magnolia's. We had spied the restaurant from The Tiki Hut a couple of nights ago. Magnolia's sat perched on top of a cliff and, although it was now night-time, we guessed that the few from the patio was pretty spectacular during the day. It was the end of the high season, so we were practically the only diners. Amy had a ceasar salad, while Brian and Omid dined on sesame-encrusted tuna steak, and I ate the spaghetti rustica. The best part was that they had Kir Royals, our favorite drink. After dinner, we went back to the house and sat on the porch.
Day Five
July 7, 2003
8am - 10pm
Alcohol Consumed: White wine sangria, beer
Today was lazy. Our goal was to consume as much of our food and drink supplies as we could so we wouldn't waste much. We read most
of the morning and Omid was the only one of us that got in the water today because the rest of us were sunburned. Brian and I went
to get more water and when we returned, Omid was heating up the grill in preparation for the pork loin they planned to grill for
lunch. I made a salad and we microwaved the mac and cheese we had purchased at the grocery store. Then we all gathered at the bar
in the kitchen and ate. It was all good…
Afterwards, we resumed our positions on the porch and read. At one point, I looked over and everyone else was asleep, so I went and laid on the bed for a nap myself. A couple of hours later, I thought everyone else was awake so I got up. But it turned out to be the horseback riding neighbors who were outside talking to each other.
About 7pm, we decided to go try the restaurant called SharkBite. So we dressed and headed over there. The food was average, but the seafood was fresh. Unfortunately, Amy began to feel upset to her stomach, so we headed back home and we all went to sleep early. We were sad that tomorrow was our last day.
Day Six
July 8, 2003
7am - 9pm
Alcohol Consumed: Beer
Brian and I got up very early to maximize what little time we had left on the island. We all began to wash the dishes, put all the
patio chairs inside, pack our bags, etc. Then Brian and I went down to the water for one last dip and a walk in the sand. We allowed
ourselves 30 minutes… Once we were all packed and the house was in reasonable condition, we climbed into the Jeep and headed to the
airport.
