Turks and Caicos 2018 - Day 2

Since we were up so early yesterday, we decided to sleep in today... and also declared today to be a day of relaxation.

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.

Indeed, as we rounded the last turn in the path and arrived at the beach, we were treated to a parade of kiteboarders.

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.

Turks and Caicos 2018 - Day 1

Believe it or not, we were out the door by 6 AM today, for a 9 AM flight out of Newark.

Other than the usual shenanigans of air travel, the trip was uneventful. I think it was the first time we've ever been in a plane that did a U-turn, though; there's only one runway, and no adjacent taxiways.

We landed in Providenciales around 1:15 PM (one hour ahead of home). By the time we deplaned, dealt with customs and immigration, and collected our sleek rental car, it was already 3 PM. (Everything here operates on Island Time.)

The vehicles on the road here are a mix of left- and right-hand-drive, depending where they were imported from. Our Nissan March is right-hand-drive, which is probably for the best... I'm not sure if I could handle driving on the left side of the road while sitting on the left.

I'd almost forgotten the joys of navigating roundabouts that go clockwise. Creative driving seems to be the norm here, and there appear to be two different speed limits that cover all situations: "20" and "40". We're fairly confident those represent mph, which is slightly confusing since the speedometer in the Nissan is only in kph.

But the car is perfectly adequate for our needs, especially since gas here goes for $5/gallon. The navigation system appears to be stuck in Japanese, however.

We eventually managed to find our lodging, only a few miles from the airport. Having barely eaten all day, our next course of action was to find a snack, and then explore the island a bit during the few remaining hours of daylight.


Without having much of a plan, we drove out to the east end of the island, sort of aiming towards the Conch Farm on the map that Alamo gave us. It wasn't immediately obvious how to actually get to it, upon in-person inspection, so we tabled that idea and instead headed to the beach.

After picking a random beach access road, I was delighted to find a Mini Moke in the small parking lot. Had I known that was a rental option, I might have insisted on getting one. There is a spot of rain in the forecast, however.

We walked along Leeward Beach, towards Grace Bay Beach, for about half a mile. The ocean here is a perfect temperature, in my humble opinion. The "current surf conditions" website tells me that it's currently around 78F, which, while certainly not "warm" water, will do just fine for January.

I can see why this stretch of beach is rated #1 or #2 in the world on some travel sites.

Around 5:30, the sun was starting to set, so we headed back to the car.

Halfway back to the apartment (condo?) where we're staying, we stopped for a light dinner at Hemmingway's (resort restaurant, right on the beach).

There were no dolphin sightings, sadly.

By the time we left Hemmingway's, it was encroaching on 8 PM. We squeezed in a pit stop at the grocery store on the way back to the apartment.

There's no firm plan for tomorrow (as far as I'm aware). Other than the Conch Farm and more time at the beach, this weekend's itinerary potentially includes kayaking, snorkeling, and many more roundabouts.

Bermuda 2017 - Epilog

On Sunday morning, we packed up, walked down to the bus stop, and took a short bus ride to the airport.

The airport hadn't fared especially well in the deluge a few days earlier; there were wet ceiling tiles crumbled on the floor in some places, trashcans catching dripping water in others, and sandbags in front of one of the entrances.

I suspect that even before getting soaked, the airport's future was uncertain. Plans to rebuild/upgrade it were already in place while we were there (almost a year ago), and there's a detailed timeline online, if anyone is interested.

Our return to home was uneventful, except that we managed to go to JFK in January without a snow scraper in the car, and there were several inches of snow on the car when we found it.

Bermuda was delightful, and has definitely made my list of places to visit again. While we hit some of the best highlights, there's still plenty of island to see. Next time, I'll push harder for the scooter.

I'm not sure where I'd like to stay during this hypothetical return trip. St. George's it a photogenic little town, and it was nice that it's somewhat off the beaten path, so to speak, but it's at the northern tip of the island. It might be more convenient to stay in Hamilton, especially now that we know how to get there via bus from the airport.

I recall one stranger being shocked that we rode the bus from St. George's "all the way" to Hamilton, and planned to go back the same day. To us, the island seems tiny, but just as with the weather, it's all relative to what one is used to dealing with.

I'm not sure which time of year I'd prefer for the next visit, either. Perhaps it's not far enough south to be unbearably hot in the summer, but it would be a very different experience with flocks of tourists. Going in the winter definitely has its pros and cons, though.

It was nice that absolutely nothing was crowded, but occasionally inconvenient that many places were closed. I called around in search of a kayak rental, but was unable to find any options. One place told me they don't do any watersport activities during the winter. I also made several inquiries about going snorkling, but was told that it was "too cold" or that I'd "need a wetsuit". Suddenly, the sight of people wearing winter coats, hats, and gloves on the buses didn't seem so strange.

It turned out to be perfectly okay that it wasn't a beach vacation. I don't think that's what any of us necessarily expected, nor wanted. I thought the weather was perfect, with the exception of our rainy luck on Day 2.

The fact that the ferries and buses are part of the same transit system was helpful. The buses were a convenient way to get around, and everyone was friendly. A few people even helped us with our suitcases when we stepped off at the airport.

One of the things I remember clearly about riding those buses, other than seeing the driver get out, in the dark, to help someone who had fallen over while on a scooter and stopped at an intersection, was that they accelerated (relatively) quickly. It seemed like they went through 4 or 5 gears going from a stop to the island-wide speed limit of 35 kph (just under 22 mph).

Probably the worst part about going to Bermuda in January was that it's not far enough south to have an appreciably longer day. The island isn't much farther south than Charleston, SC, and a quick bit of research suggests that the sunset was about 40 minutes later than in PA. There wasn't much to do in St. George's once the sun had set, but it's possible that that might be different in Hamilton, the resort areas, etc.

Writing this almost a year after the trip has been challenging, but rewarding in its own way. It has been nice to relive the experience in more depth and detail than I would get just from re-reading it later. At times, it has been a bit of a puzzle to put the details together correctly. And sometimes, if I couldn't remember or figure out the details, I wrote the story that the photos were telling me. ;-)