Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 8: da Conch Shack, return home

After breakfast, we filled out our COVID attestation forms on the veranda. These turned out to be useless, as JetBlue now requires passengers to use their online form, instead; this apparently changed during the last week.

 

We got to enjoy one last beautiful morning overlooking the ocean, before packing up and leaving around 11:30. Our flight wasn't until 5:45 PM, so we had a few hours left on Providenciales.

First, we went back to the Grace Bay area and wandered the shops in the Salt Mills area. The sun was hot, but I couldn't resist a coffee and a custom-built donut.

A few blocks from the Salt Mills, there are a few restaurants/bars with a bit more character than the high-end shopping district. 

On the drive out of the Grace Bay area, we encountered a tour group on ATVs and three-wheel scooter things.

On the way back towards the middle of the island, we took a detour down the scenic road to the end of Turtle Tail.

At the end of the road, there's a small area with a view over half of the island, which doesn't require much elevation since everything here is so flat.

Having completed our shopping and sightseeing before 1 PM, we decided to spend our last afternoon at da Conch Shack. We had dinner here, almost 4 years ago... it hasn't changed much; the white fence is new, and the bushes are bigger.

It wasn't crowded, so we nearly had the beach to ourselves for a light lunch (and a few drinks).

One of the activities that we saw advertised was horseback riding at the beach, offered in several different areas of the island. I'm guessing this one was Unique tours and rentals. We happened to have front row seats to their afternoon tour, today.

I guess da Conch Shack is the end of the tour, because the tour guide gave a brief talk about the place, then they turned around in the water and headed back down the beach.

The weather was perfect, and we were only about five minutes from the airport, so we stayed for almost 2 hours.

On the way to returning the rental car to Avis, I stopped to fill up on $6/gallon gas. We got a very short shuttle ride over to the airport, where there was absolutely no line for security.

Other than the aforementioned need to fill out the online attestation form for JetBlue, we breezed through to the single-terminal departure area, which has maybe 4 or 5 gates.

Having maybe 45 minutes to kill, we perused the gift shops, and headed to the upstairs waiting area to watch the sunset one last time.

The upstairs section was literally empty, with a handful of people having drinks at the (very loud) outdoor bar area.

We weren't scheduled to land until 9:30 PM; I was looking forward to eating two slices of leftover pizza during the flight. I checked to make sure they hadn't been damaged beyond repair, during transit, in case I had to make do with something from the "cafe" instead.

Just as dusk approached, we went outside to board the plane. The flight home was even more empty than our arrival. I forgot to ask how many passengers there were, but I'd guess maybe 40.

By the time we landed, waited for our gate to be available, cleared immigration/customs (not terrible, for once), dropped Lauren off, and got to Jeanne and Rudy's house, it was 11 PM.

It had just started raining, and we drove through some very heavy storms on the drive back to PA, getting home around midnight.

Time to start planning for next year, now. It's going to be hard to top Turks and Caicos for Christmas, though.

Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 7: COVID tests, Grace Bay beach

As promised, we were up before dawn this morning, to go watch the sunrise at Long Bay Beach. (I had scouted out another potential location, last night, but it turned out to be unsuitable.)

We left the house at 5:45 AM, drove about 10 minutes southeast, and walked a short trail to the beach. Lauren declined to join us. It was already twilight when we got there. 

There were some lounge chairs, reserved for guests of the resort near where we parked, but we figured nobody would mind at 6 AM.

The water was strangely calm, at that hour. Last time we were here, the wind was ridiculous, and the beach was full of kiteboarders.

As the sun rose, around 6:25 AM, a lone pelican flew by. Also, a few people were out jogging on the beach already.

After about 40 minutes at the beach, we followed the path back to the small parking lot (which is paved, unlike last time we were here), and drove home via the scenic route, along the coast for a bit.

Back at the house, we cooked up a large breakfast and ate on the veranda, as was now a habit.

I think we were done eating by 9 AM, which meant we had ample time for a nap before we had to go out again, to get COVID tests.

Our testing appointments were at 10:30, and we didn't have to wait very long, despite the clinic being rather busy. They were on a modified (shortened) schedule for the holiday weekend, which certainly didn't help.

While we waited for our rapid test results, we wandered up the street and browsed around a souvenir shop. I briefly considered getting a new, wide-brimmed hat, but I couldn't find one that was anywhere near the quality of my lost Tilley.

After getting all of our (negative) test results back, we celebrated by going to the beach.

Similar to yesterday, we found a public parking area near a beach bar/restaurant, by the Flamingo Cafe AKA Ricky's On The Beach.

It was just after 11:30 AM when we arrived, and the beach in this area was mostly empty.

Happily, there was a woman offering chairs and umbrellas for rent, so I negotiated a sweet deal (by which I mean I pointed at two chairs next to an umbrella, inquired about the price, and paid what she was asking).

We spent a solid 4.5 hours there today, watching tour boats come and go (some discharging/loading passengers directly on the beach), swimming, sunning, reading, napping, etc.

Ricky's/Flamingo was out of piña colada mix, but they had guava daiquiris and coladas, which I hadn't seen elsewhere. 

By far, the most appealing tour boat was the floating tiki bar. Its seaworthiness, however, was an open question. If you zoom in, you might be able to see the nylon ratchet straps holding the extra pontoons onto the sides.

Some time after 4, as the sun began to set once again, we packed up and returned to the house for more wildberry/pomegranate daiquiris.

We hadn't really eaten lunch, which was fine because we had a 6:30 dinner reservation at Baci. (After dinner on Christmas Eve, when we were walking along the boardwalk around Turtle Cove marina, we sort of stumbled upon this restaurant. A drunk man from New Jersey assured us it was excellent, and persuaded us to make the reservation for tonight. It's sort of a long story.)

The food was excellent. There were a few cats wandering around the restaurant, which was essentially outside, but under a roof.

Tomorrow, we'll pack up and check out of the Airbnb, then wander around the island for most of the day before heading to the airport in the afternoon.

Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 6: Spa, dining on the beach

Sunday commenced with an 8 AM(ish) trip to the grocery store, because we forgot that it closed early last night. 

After a light breakfast (on the veranda), we loaded up the car and drove over to the Grace Bay resort area. The ladies had booked some massage time at the spa at Seven Stars resort.

Rudy and I had kicked around the idea of dropping them off and heading to Turks Head Brewery, but it's closed on Sundays (possibly related to "no alcohol sales on Sunday" law).

Instead, we threaded our way through the resort area, out to the beach, and claimed a pair of lounge chairs under a straw hut thing.

We did our best to blend in, but eventually got harassed by their security, who suggested that we should buy "day passes" (at $100/person, plus tax). After the guy didn't like my mostly-true explanation about waiting for a spa appointment, I just said "okay" and went back to reading my book, and eventually he gave up and left. (It helped that the towels we had brought looked suspiciously like their resort towels, almost as if they might've come from there...)

After about two hours of relaxing in the shade with a book, mixed with a few dips in the water, we wound our way back through the maze of manicured gardens to the spa, regrouped, and decided where to go for the afternoon.

Just a few minutes down the road, we arrived at the public beach parking near Hemingway's.

There was a man offering various chairs, umbrellas, tents, etc., for rent, conveniently by the beach entrance.

Seeing very little competition for space, we set up for the afternoon adjacent to Hemingway's.

It turned out to be a quiet stretch of sand, between the busy resort area of the main Grace Bay Beach crescent, and the all-inclusive resort area where we had walked a few days ago (before giving up our quest for food and turning around).

I was able to find a spot in the shade, and splurged on a $5 chair rental.

Eventually, we saw a waitress from Hemingway's offering menus, which was all it took to convince us to have a late lunch on the beach. It helped that there were drinks available, too.

I think we're all in agreement that this was the perfect spot to spend an afternoon, as we stayed almost until sunset.

There was even a random encounter with some friendly strangers that Jeanne and Rudy had met yesterday, while Sabrina and I were beach-walking.

Around 4:15 or 4:30, we finally packed up and headed home, just in time for 5 o'clock daiquiri hour.

We ran out of mango purée, so some people got wild berry pomegranate.

Tomorrow, we might go watch the sunrise at a beach, and then we need to get COVID tests. Unclear what else is on the agenda.