By the time we lazily got ready this morning, ate some breakfast, researched activities, read reviews, studied some maps, and packed the car for the day, it was approaching noon.
(It doesn't take long to adjust to Island Time, apparently.)
I have a few more tidbits for you about this Nissan March: It beeps loudly, inside, when you put it in reverse, and the door locks basically don't work.
[After some non-scientific testing, it appears that it's possible to lock oneself in the car, but not lock oneself (or others) out of the car, if that makes sense.
Meaning... if you lock the doors as you get out, and then close your door, nothing has been accomplished; the doors all open as if you never locked them, including the rear hatch. But if you get back in the car, start it, roll down the windows, and then lock the doors... you cannot open the door by reaching out the window and pulling the handle.
Perhaps Alamo has decided to enforce their "don't leave any valuables in the car, and to prevent broken windows, don't lock it while parked in remote areas" suggestion. Perhaps the car has had a rough life. Who knows?]
Upon leaving the house, our plan was simply "go to the beach", which is easy enough to do since there are beaches everywhere on Providenciales.
We headed to the north coast of the island, vaguely in the direction of Grace Bay again, and took the first obvious "beach access" road that we encountered.
We spilled onto the beach, around where The Bight Beach and Grace Bay Beach meet on this map.
We lazed around this spot for about 2 hours, swimming, reading, people-watching, and lounging. Our almost-randomly-chosen spot happened to be between Bight Reef and some of the Grace Bay resorts, so there was an endless trickle of people walking back and forth with snorkel gear in mesh bags.
Around 2:30, we agreed that it was time to eat lunch, so we packed up the Nissan and continued along the coast, about a mile, to the Bay Bistro. The food was reasonable and the view was better.
After a light lunch, we continued east, back to the far end of the Leeward Highway towards the Conch Farm and the Blue Haven Marina.
[Take a moment to ponder this paragraph, from the Leeward Highway information page that I just found:
"As the busiest road in the Turks and Caicos, most of the vehicle collisions in the country occur here. Poor driving by jitneys and taxis, and the misuse, small size of and lack of roundabouts are a significant cause of crashes. Efforts have been made to educate drivers, yet reckless and dangerous driving remains an issue."
I enjoy the shameless blaming of taxi drivers, but surely some of the fault goes to tourists, no? Know your audience, I suppose.]
The Conch Farm website says nothing about tour hours (or even where it is, exactly), and Google Maps suggests that it closes at 4 PM, so we put that back on the To Do list.
Instead, we popped into the office at the marina to inquire about kayak rentals for tomorrow, and took a quick look around.
With our plans for tomorrow semi-solidified (I won't spoil the surprise), and still having several hours of perfect weather/sunlight remaining, we decided to see what beach life is like on the east coast of the island. This (again) involved some "unimproved" roads.
Had we not been in possession of the finest free map the rental car company had to offer (also Google Maps), we never would have found this clandestine beach entrance path.
About halfway to the beach, we startled a random dog that was sunning in the middle of the path. There are random dogs all over this island, so this didn't seem too unusual. Plus, it seemed friendly.
Having done absolutely no research on this beach, our first indication that there might be something interesting here was this sorry sign.
There was some sort of... conch shell garden? on the edge of the beach where the path ended.
We spent about an hour on the beach and in the water, relaxing and watching the kiteboarders zip back and forth. The wind made the water somewhat choppy, but it also made it feel warm and inviting.
It looked to me like there was a wide range of experience and ability on display, but it's the first time I've ever seen kiteboarding up close, so what do I know?
A few times, it almost seemed like they were performing for the camera. I managed to catch a few airborne stunts.
By 5:30 PM, we'd had enough beach time for one day, so we again packed up and trekked to the car. On the return trip, we found a much more palatable path through the vegetation. In fact, it was hard to miss (only from this side, somehow).
This little guy nearly experienced the indecent fate of being crushed under my foot. No dogs on this path, though... only lizards.
More (yet different) dirt roads on the way back to the highway. The sad state of the rental car's suspension is starting to make sense.
We headed back to the house for a shower and some dry clothes, then eventually ventured back out for dinner, around 7:30 PM.
Our culinary choice this evening was The Mango Reef.
Naturally, there is a bird of some sort in residence. The waiter assured us that it only eats seafood, and "views anything else as an insult".
[Sabrina claims to have had a close encounter with a random deck kitten during yesterday's lunch, but I've seen no evidence. It's possible that she is the one attracting the attention of all this wildlife, like some sort of cursed Dr. Dolittle who is allergic to most of nature.]
After dinner, we took a short stroll on the boardwalk, stopping to admire a tiki bar pontoon boat, which I probably would not have noticed except that a car happened to start right in front of it, lighting it up.
And, of course, I can't resist a good sign.
Tomorrow's forecast includes perfect weather and a kayak.
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