The last few hours before our flight home. B-Rod had no problems getting back, and there is no anticipated problems for us either. In fact, I already have assigned seats for both flights (Turks & Caicos – TO, then TO – Calgary). It’s almost a bit of a let down … no anticipation, nerves, excitement, stress of wondering if we will get on the plane, and no questions in the back of our mind of where we will end up. Good ol’ standby travel. If it’s not excitig and at times nerve wracking and annoying, it’s just boring and getting to your destination when you want to 😄
All of us have agreed that one of our favorite parts of this trip has been our nightly swim routine. We go out to the ocean to float for a bit, then head in to alternate between dips in the pool and soaking in the hot tub. The first night that B-Rod was gone, we had a bit of excitement. During our ocean float, Nate-dog calmly turns to us and tells us we need to head in because he sees something. Nobody had to be asked twice! We stand on the beach and stare out into the black ocean. All three of us see something … I don’t see anything specific, in fact it could have just looked like a white cap in the waves, but we can all tell that it was heading toward us and it followed us in close to the shore. That changed the nightly float a bit. What was once relaxing, now became a closer shore float while vigilantly looking out towards the water.
This is what I saw, but …
… this is what I saw in my mind!
The pool became a bit more relaxing after that experience!
The Turks & Caicos is made up of 40 islands. The island we were on was Providenciales. We decided to spend a day exploring one of the other islands. So, we hopped a ferry from “Provo” to North Caicos.
Nate-dog ended up sitting next to a local guy named Mark. Mark is a lawyer who lives on North Caicos, but works in Providenciales. He told Nate-dog that he was in the running for the position of MP for an upcoming election. Here’s one of the first signs we saw when we arrived on the island. Yep … same Mark!
When we travel, B-Rod and I love getting around by chicken bus or local public transportation. There doesn’t seem to be any of that here, and car rentals are pretty reasonable, so we picked up a car at the ferry terminal and hit the road.
We drove across the island and headed over to a different island (Middle Caicos) which is accessible via a land bridge.
Here we stopped to explore the Conch Bar Caves. We had to go with a guide, and we weren’t permitted to go very far, but it was pretty cool.
We were hoping to hit another cave before lunch, but we just couldn’t find it, so headed to lunch at Daniel’s Cafe. It was a place recommended to us, it was close to the ocean, we were the only ones there, and Daniel was a super nice guy.
There were only 2 items on the menu – conch and fish. SAS and I went for the conch and Nate-dog went for the fish.
I think Nate-dog’s expression says it all! For me it brought back memories of when I was a kid and telling my mom I didn’t like her “fish with a face.” Growing up, I thought I didn’t like fish because of this! Nate-dog was a good sport (and we all tried it … so good), but he admitted to Daniel this was the first time he had ever had fish like this.
We asked Daniel for directions to Indian Caves and started to make our way there. We were told that there would be a sign. We drove up and down the road about three times trying to find it and just as we were about to give up, a van pulled up. We asked for directions, and it turned out to be a tour guide with a couple of tourists who were heading there right then (we were right in front of it).
Here’s the sign and path to the caves.
We would never have found it on our own. Glad for the guide’s help as it was pretty amazing.
Looking up
The guide was taking his tourists to Mudjin, so we decided to check it out too. Had one look and knew we had to go swimming. So a nice swim, a bit more exploring as we headed back to the ferry and we arrived just as the ferry was heading back. Luckily, we showed up half an hour early as we had been given the wrong time for the ferry departure.
Couldn’t leave the island without some handies!
In the evening we went to the fish fry. It’s a weekly event with food vendors and live music. We parked on the sidewalk with everyone else and headed to the event. It was a good experience despite being very crowded with some awkward dancing (you’ll have to ask Nate-dog about that!)
check out the guy playing the handsaw with the butter knife. He was also a fun dancer … not awkward at all!
From there, it was the string of lasts.
Last sunset
Last meal with conch
Ended with last swim and now we’re heading back. It’s been a great adventure and a great vacation. Back to “reality” … for now 😆