The glory….

Of the sunset. Adrienne took this.

Rowena watches as Adrienne swims…

at sunset.

Heaven one day….

Paradise the next.

Beautiful one day….

Heaven the next …. From Katrina’s garden. The beach is right there behind her wall.

Flamingos…

Are pink!

Lighthouse…

And wild donkeys.

View from the cliffs

Near the lighthouse

Rum…. In a test tube!

Yum yum

Knees

I forgot to mention the kind chiropractor, staying at the end, who came and gifted me treatment on my knee. Well, behind my knee actually. It helped. Aren’t people kind? 

Thoughts on the Carribean…. The country…. Grand Turk and Caicos, a British colony.

Just a series of reflections this time. No day by day details.

1) Interesting Local Food

Conch fritters. Conch is a local shellfish. Yum.

Lobster fritters. Yum.

Salty plantain chips…. A variety of banana.

Toasted lobster sandwiches. Double yum. 

A kind of cocoanut ice. 

Grouper burger… A local fish. Yum.

Much, much, much lovely drinking of rum products!

 

2) Weather…. A bit too hot and humid for my comfort, but ok. Nice when places were air conditioned.

 

3) Culture… Mix of British, American, local…. Colourful clothes of the dark-skinned people… The local markets were amazing.

 

4) Meeting my cousin, Katrina, for the first time. She owns the inn. Wow, she looked like my mum, and our mutual uncle. She knows my sister well.

 

5) Vegetation, tropical. I have missed that, from my old home. The scenery was beautiful… Island and all. Flamingos. Wild donkeys and horses. Some lovely colonial buildings. Katrina renovated the manse to be an inn, and the old doctor’s house as her home. 

Mind you, much poverty…. Shacks everywhere. And shells of buildings. When major cyclones go thru, the uninsured just up and leave their lovely homes to rot. The poor just build new shacks.

 

6) High Anglican liturgy at church. Two hours of sung mass, 13 hymns… Three white faces, and many locals… Full church. Children in very frilly and colourful clothes. Much beading of hair. Lovely priest, dark. He met me on the path a few days later, and told me it was exciting to meet a priest from Oz. Likewise. 

 

7) Katrina’s inn and boutique…. Very classy. She gave us dresses, from old stock. I bought a few other things, at cost price. How kind is that! 

 

8) Grand Turk is a major cruise calling place. When ships are inn.?. Everything opens, folk everywhere…. Tourists and locals touting for business. We spent a day at the cruise centre, shops, restaurants, and beaches. This time, drinks came, with rum in plastic test tubes, to add as one wanted to.

 

9) ShoppInge and eating in the markets was fun! And at the cruse centre.

 

10) Much use of planes. International size through to small passenger propellor size. I swear the last lot, the local ones, used hand signals to land and take off. Basic life in the region. On the way home, they weighed us, to sort out plant balance. 

At one place, I misjudged the step down off a plane, lurched forward and did something very painful to my knee. That was e when we discovered how wheelchair access gives you fast and polite service everywhere in airports. This literally saved our hide several times, when planes were delayed or lines were long. Getting thru customs into GT and C mention we went through on the short “belongers” line, as opposed to the tourist line. I love that word….

So useful was this that we did it on the way home too, tho technically I guess I could have walked, but I didn’t want to re-awake the injury. Highlight… One extremely fast cart, late at night, whizzing us along. Yayha! 

 

11) Entering the USA…. They made us undo everything to check and see what the powdery substances were…. Fancy salt. Took ages. But it was interesting to see the chemical tests done.  Salt is an industry in the region. 

 

12) Home…. Emil picked us up, in Columbus, Ohio. A journey then of about 90 mins, at 9pm. But it turned out to be much longer. Wild snow fell the whole way. Awful to drive in. The smaller country roads were not yet salted.

 

SO, what will I remember of this trip, in years to come? 

Katrina.

The beauty of the place.

Rum-based drinks! Lol.