Day 1 – Getting to Turks and Caicos

It Wasn’t the Bermuda Triangle Was It?

So excited that I was up at 3 AM and promptly left the house by 4:30 AM, reaching the airport before 5 AM. With plenty of time, grabbed a quick brekkie at Bob Evans before our flight departed at 5:45 AM.

Our layover at Philly wasn’t as rushed as we thought. Fortunately, the boarding gate was right next to the Centurion business lounge. Snuck in breakfast part two of fruits with a more decent cup of coffee.

Despite being boarded on different rows and each on centre seats, my travel luck got me an empty window seat next to me. So, I had a magnificent view approaching Turks and Caicos! I have never seen that kind of emerald green color and aqua blue surrounding the land miles and miles away from the coast. It was stunning!

That made me forget how rough the flight was for the most part. The Cowboy said we were in the Bermuda triangle. He must have been scared. The only thing that bothered me was holding on to my bursting bladder until it’s safe to go to the loo.

I did not expect a busy queue at the customs this time of the year, although the line moved quick. The immigration officer was relaxed – I did not have the exact address of the AirBnB we’re staying nor the contact number. My phone service wasn’t working and there’s no wifi to check my app and message my host.

Left Side Left

The Cowboy’s service was working so we all got everything sorted once we were out and had our rental car ready to hit the road.

The Cowboy laughed when he asked the rental staff, “We drive on the left side of the road here right?” And the lady said yes. Well, that won’t have been anomalous were it not for the steering wheel being on the left side of the car as well! (We almost got swiped on the road as The Cowboy was turning left, looking left, not right and wasn’t paying attention to a car fast approaching from the right, until I said uh-oh…)

Turks and Caicos ain’t Cheap

Along the way, we dropped by the supermarket first. While the flights and car rental were relatively cheap, everything else was more expensive than the Midwest. Bottled water cost twice as much.

Took away local food from the hot bar, all chicken served in eight different ways! I had the traditional Caribbean options: rice with beans, jerk chicken, and plantains. For grocery take-away, they’re good!

Aside from the supermarket, prices eating out were the same, if not, more expensive than the USA.

Everything was in USD.

Grace Bay Beach

Our AirBnB was only minutes away from beach.

I was relieved to see our host, Keith, waiting at the gate for us as I had been unable to reach him with my provider not working on the island.

The house was much nicer and bigger than I thought. The family lives there, but they’re mostly upstairs, while the two guest bedrooms were downstairs.

Keith was friendly and cool. We later met the wife, bubbly with a bright smile and eyes. It was easy to feel comfortable and feel at home.

We settled right in and devoured our take-away late lunch of Caribbean jerk chicken, peas and rice with plantains to finish off the meal.

After a nap, we checked the beach. The sand was soft, the grains powdery fine. Overcast and windy, I didn’t feel like swimming even though the warm aqua ocean water was inviting.

So happy just to feel and inhale the ocean breeze!

Days are short in the island. The sun had set by 6PM.

Downtown Grace Bay

Surprisingly, many of the shops were still open. We walked around, checking for souvenirs. As we looked for places to eat, it started to drizzle. We docked for cover right on time, before it poured.

For Christmas eve, we found ourselves at a Mexican restaurant, having ceviches, rice and beans. They were the best ceviches we’ve had in a long time!

While waiting for the rain to calm down, we played with free old-time video games at the restaurant. The Cowboy and I played Pacman, Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Galactica, Frogger – the games I played as a kid! That was so much fun!

Ended the night with cup of tea at our AirBnB while indulging ourselves with the rum cake from the shops. “I should buy more of these for pasalubong,” I told The Cowboy. “They won’t last till the Philippines.” He replied.

Well, it’s a low key Christmas Eve, but I’m happy!

Day 2 – Christmas in the Caribbean

It’s Christmas Day!

Started the day dancing to Nia routine, Beautiful. I was not gonna slack on getting my daily dose of dance especially with the way we’ve been eating! After an hour of Beautiful, my body certainly felt energized – and just good. The Cowboy joined me and felt the same way.

It was already almost 10;30AM by the time we’re up and ready to go out.

Caribbean Family Christmas

We were planning to have a simple avocado toast (from our groceries yesterday) but Stacey already prepared breakfast for the family – and expected us to join.

So, we ended up having a lovely Christmas breakfast with – as what Keith said – our Caribbean family. We finally go to meet the rest of the family, their three kids. Stacey shared with us a generous spread of fluffy pancakes, fruit salad of honey-dew, rockmelon, watermelon, baked eggs wrapped in bacon, our avocado, bacon…

Nude Beach

“Why are we going there? You’ve heard of it before or the family recommended it?”

“No and no. I just saw it on GoogleMaps and thought it’s an interesting spot to see. It’s got cliffs, and I like cliffy coasts.”

I think The Cowboy was nervous as we found ourselves turning on a dirt road that got rougher by the mile.

“Now I know why GoogleMaps said it’s 50 minutes to the place.” It only took us 15 minutes to reach halfway, but that was breezing through the highway. As we veered off, it was obvious it’s gonna take two to three times slower to finish the rest of the way to Split-rock.

The emerald water revealed itself on the horizon as we reached the end of the dirt road. There were paths diverging to the left and right. But first, we checked the beach.

Conches

Last night at the souvenir shops, I noticed there were conches and postcards of conches. So I asked the counter lady, where we could find them. She said everywhere.

I told The Cowboy, “If I find one of those beaches with conches lying around, I’d be really happy!” It seemed to me that conches were quintessential to Turks and Caicos. I have not encountered that in any coastal towns I’ve been to. Couldn’t wait to see them wild.

“Rona, look!”

And there they were, the conches! Exactly what I wanted to see!!

So I was ecstatic! They were huge! The smaller ones were bigger than my palms… I have never seen anything like it before. Sure I have seen conches, but not lying around like that at the beach.

There was nobody around. The place looked desolate. I guess that’s probably why they were just there, nobody taking them.

Pirate’s Cave

From the beach, we could see what was obviously split-rock point. At the end of the cliff jutting out to the ocean, was a massive rock that looked like it split from the cliff. We could see a couple of people at the top, and a couple of others swimming at the bottom of the rock.

It was overcast and windy again which was good for hiking our way through the rough granite rocks to the top of split rock point. Otherwise, it would have been unbearably hot as I forgot to bring my hat and put sunscreen on. It was challenging going at it with slippers. We did not expect a rough trail hike.

Along the way, we came upon a hole in the ground with a ladder through it. It led to a cave and a beach cove. A couple of girls surface from the water, having swum around the rock after jumping off the ledge at the top of the split rock.

“You should do it!” One of the girls said.

“How high is it?”

“Around 85 feet.”

No way we’re jumping that high. Plus the water was starting to get rougher by the minute with the winds blowing unabated.

Split-Rock Point

When we reached the ledge, it was breathtaking! On top of the other rock that ‘split off’ was a nest, with an eagle guarding her offsprings.

The Cowboy and I sat to enjoy the view after calming down from excitement taking photos. Just when we put away all our gadgets, from the horizon something jumped. It jumped again! I shrieked with excitement! It was a stingray.

A few moments later, just when we were ready to leave, another stingray jumped high in the air, not just once, twice, but three times! I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. First of all, I didn’t know stingrays jump up in the air. Second of all, I’ve only ever seen them underwater.

On the way back to the car, we bumped into a local family. We asked for their recommendations where we could go, for any interesting places to see and explore in the island.

“You’re right on it! We’ve lived here for 14 years and this is the first time we’re seeing this place.”

We made our way, looked at the map, and randomly picked our next destination for the day.

Turtle Cove

The cove was easy to get to. Access was through a residential resort area. The sand wasn’t as fine as Grace Bay’s or the nude beach. Maybe on a less windy and cloudy day, the place would have been more stunning. You could see through the bottom of the crystal clear water. It was a nice spot for lounging and swimming. Despite the weather, there were a number of people doing just that.

Bight Park

We didn’t plan on seeing the place, we simply needed a toilet break. This was a convenient public access stop along the way. It turned out, this seemed to be the place to be for families or groups of friends with more activity going on such as parasailing, kayaking, and so on. There were few groups having a picnic around as well.

It was 3 PM and we haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast. We made our way back to the AirBnB and snacked on chips, plantains and mandarins.

Harry Potter was on TV, so we watched as we rested our tired feet. We met the other couple staying in the other room, and they said they were going to have dinner at the Flamingo. We followed suit only to find out the place was closed when we got there.  It’s Christmas so I’m not surprised.

Grouper

On a mission to have seafood – we’re in the islands after all – we decided to go to Grouper, which we passed by earlier in the day.

The place was casual alfresco dining serving award-winning seafood. The Cowboy and I shared a whole snapper pan-fried, and each had a shrimp jerk kebab with a side of rice and potato salad. Gotta have them tasty jerks when you’re in the Caribbean!

It was perfect. A great Christmas Day!