Turquoise Turks and Caicos

Kyr in his beach reading position

The historic natural flora on Iguana island

Handsome iguana on the island

Dear Jojo

Kyr on Fort George beach

Club med Turquoise

Happily going on a Big Blue excursion.

I live to snorkel. At least part of me does. I have entertained the idea of diving, but faced with the hardships that I have encountered simply trying to snorkel, I’m not sure that diving is for me. 

We booked this club med partially because it offered exceptional snorkeling. It does, but not with the easy access I was used to. On our first day we dutifully lined up to hopefully be one of the chosen 40 taken on a large pontoon boat out to one of the snorkeling areas close to the edges of the reef. I was particularly anxious to be picked because I was finding access to the water particularly difficult at the wave pounded beach. Getting on the huge pontoon boat was very difficult for me as it was low tide and involved a large step at least 2 feet down with no railings and the boat moving violently against the dock with each wave. I almost didn’t do it because my anxiety was so profound as I can’t even step down 6 inches without handrails. Eventually I sat down on the dock, grabbed a far off pole that suspended the boat roof and jumped. The people on the boat cheered as I think they were starting to think I might never be able to do it. The snorkeling was worth it – very clear and lots of fish and coral so I was able to shelve my anxiety until the arrival back at the dock. Getting in and out of the boat on the water was easy because of the ladder. Back at the dock things were dicey again – now a huge step up with a wildly bucking boat  against the dock. I begged them to let me jump into the water and finally they did and I swam to shore. The whole production was quite deflating to me because I hadn’t considered access to the water to be a huge problem before this trip.

After this I spent a few days of feeling defeated and forlorn about the physical difficulties accessing things I love. The conditions for the next few days were not conducive to snorkeling anyway, so I tried to mentally figure out how I would face the next time. Then low and behold I noticed a few days later that the pontoon boat stayed quite a ways from shore and the snorkelers were forced to swim both out to the boat and back again. I felt somewhat vindicated that I wasn’t the only one thwarted by what I perceived to be a dangerous situation even for the able bodied. I had noticed a few patrons hobbling around on crutches and wondered if it took someone getting hurt to change the policy. I’d like to take credit for alerting them to the simple solution of people jumping off and swimming to shore because when I suggested it they acted  like I was suggesting going to the moon and were very reluctant to indulge me.

After this, and our successful excursion with Big Blue to the islands, I decided we would splurge and go on a snorkel excursion with Big Blue. I am so glad we did. The boat Octopussy was familiar to me and reminded me of the Barbie boat. The guides were very interesting and warm. The snorkeling was dream like. I saw 2 large sharks and normally I would have been terrified but I had finally internalized the message that the sharks around here are harmless. 

After an hour of exceptional snorkeling at the reef edge we were taken to protected island for a local rare species of iguana. The island sanctuary boasts the original fauna of Turks and Caicos. The dear little iguanas were facing extinction prior to their island sanctuary from the introduction of dogs and cats to the islands. Now their great foe is rats. Apparently they have recently made it to the protected sanctuary and are eating the eggs. I hope conservation efforts to eradicate the rats are successful.

On our way to another protected island to frolic on a beach – Fort George - the most lovely beach on all the islands according to the guides – we were approached by the dearest dolphin Jojo.  He stayed with the boat and obliged us with rolls and dips up. You could just feel the emanation of his warm personality. I said to Kyr – his interest and playfulness with people seemed very dog-like to me. Jojo has quite an interesting history. He was part of an initial project over 17 years ago to  try and release dolphins in captivity into the wild. Jojo was somewhere in the states and several of them were released here at the same time. Only Jojo hung around. Apparently dolphins don’t like shallow water so you never find wild dolphins within the reef. Not Jojo – he only likes inside the reef. According to Kyr the shallow waters must remind him of the tanks of his youth. Kyr thinks he probably has anxiety about deep water. Jojo is about 35 years old and even from within the reef he has managed to attract wild females and is the proud father of several young dolphins from different mothers. I was besotted with his attempts to engage us.

Now we are faced with our last night in this idyllic place. I have really liked the club med turquoise. The food as usual is wonderful. The staff friendly. The rooms clean and comfortable. Some of the entertainment has been spectacular. Last night we were treated to an aerial extravaganza above the pool with many trapeze artists. They had collected everyone in the resort in round tables surrounding the pool and we all had wonderful supper and watched the entertainment.

I have managed to wear all of my outfits and Kyr and I have almost satisfied our insatiable people watching habit.

Turks and Caicos

Our guide Elvardo

The island landscape of dense bush.

Kyr checking out old plantation buildings

Limestone bat caves

the north coast of Middle Caicos island

The beautiful turquoise waters

Loving the sea and sand

Young handsome beach bum

Our guide Elvardo piloted the rented Jeep along the narrow, tarred limestone roads of North Caicos island like a benevolent, drunk captain of a yacht. Gently correcting the steering only if the Jeep veered fully to the wrong side of the road. As we swayed back and forth along the centre line, Elvardo happily turned to the backseat to expound on all the island lore. The poor passenger in the front stared straight ahead as if to inspire Elvardo to keep his eyes on the road.

Turks and Caicos is very unusual mostly for its small population – just over 30,000.  It consists of series of islands that are limestone accretions of a coral reef. Historically it is the result of a land mass breaking off Central America and plopping here on the edge of the Caribbean. The locals are quite adamant that they are on the Atlantic, not the Caribbean. Having so few people means that things that I ordinarily worry about like environmental destruction – don’t seem to loom large here. The reef is a protected environment and despite the plethora of resorts along the coast of the most populated island Providenciales (pop 30,000) the reef according to Elvardo who grew up here, born in the 80’s, is not much different from when he was young. I hope he is right.

Elvardo took us on a 30 minute boat ride from Providenciales to North island. We passed many mangroves and little islands, some that are the  private vacation hiding-grounds of celebrities. He gave us the most edifying tour of the North island (population 1000) because it is his home island.  His parents emigrated from Haiti before his birth. The entire landmass is quite flat and covered in dense bush with a few roads. There is not much livestock to be found and very few cleared areas. The bush is so dense that I can’t see being able to navigate through it. When I asked Elvardo what do work do people do – he said that they don’t need to work. There are no taxes on property except purchase tax. They can fish and grow things in amongst the bushes and that would be enough. The things he listed were weird things to solely subsist on in the modern world – corn, potatoes, taro, some type of pea, coconuts etc. but he seemed quite satisfied with the list. Practically the only cleared patches aside from people’s yards were some areas that were cleared by a cow that one of the islanders owns – the sole cow. He just ties it to spots in the bush and the cow gradually decimates the foliage – only eating the bushes. I was intrigued by this cow and got to glimpse her chowing her way through the trees. She looked pretty normal, but very tiny.

Turks and Caicos original native inhabitants were wiped out by disease in the 1500’s. After that it was colonized by disgruntled British loyalists who left the US after the war of independence. They attempted to grow cotton on plantations and ship it to England but after only 30 years, the enterprises failed because of cotton pests and the abolition of slavery in Britain. The Brits left and the slaves stayed on and grew things in the old plantation areas until a huricaine in the 1960’s destroyed most things. The original slave families still populate the island and Elvardo said it was hard for anyone but him to find a girlfriend because they were all somehow related.

We toured the old plantation – the ghost buildings of stones and cement made from conch shells and limestone still stand. Walking around the curly tailed ghekos jumped off the path like popcorn. We then tried to see flocks of pink flamingos in a pond area that they love – I just saw blurs of pink through the binoculars.

After driving along a recently constructed causeway that links the North island to the Middle island , Kyr became exhausted by his role as front seat vigilant passenger and promptly fell asleep(much to Elvardo’s amazement). Luckily he woke up in time to tour a limestone cave filled with 4 species of bats – 2 insect and 2 fruit. No rabies apparently. The caves used to be a lucrative supply of guano for fertilizer and explosives. The journey through the caves was about a half hour. I felt triumphant being able to navigate with only flashlights because there were sometimes narrow bridges between the columns and pools of sea water beneath.

We stopped at a beautiful isolated beach after lunch (I bravely ate fried conch –one of the islands historic main exports – quite tastey)  and revelled in the surreal colours that the ocean has to offer. It truly is a turquoise mecca – subtly shifting on the horizon from turquoise to a beautiful mauve. The oceans have been quite blustery – wave action intensely digging out deep troughs in the fine sand so that it is quite perilous to navigate both in and out. The water temp is nice. More chilly than Mexico. Everyday it has sprinkled a bit of rain but it doesn’t last long. The temp is in the mid to low 30’s.

We finished the day back at club med, having heard the local gossip that this club med location is closing soon. Kyr and I were shocked because you haven’t seen anything like the manic energy of the GM. I can’t imagine anything closing with that dynamo at the helm. Kyr thinks it may be like a captain going down with the ship. I hope not.