Friday 2/15 – Day Five of our Cruise, Grand Turk Island
We slept in this morning as there was no urgency to get up.
We wouldn't be reaching port until 1pm, so after getting dressed and bringing
coffee back to Tina we all made it to the dining room for breakfast around
9:00am Following a leisurely repast the girls headed for a shopping opportunity
then they were going to see a movie in the outdoor theater. Meanwhile, I
grabbed the laptop and brought the blog up to date.
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| On the Pier at Grand Turk |
Grand Turk is part of the British Virgin Islands. The
administrative and political capital of the Turks & Caicos Islands, Cockburn
Town has been the seat of government since 1766. Formed over centuries from uplift of coral reefs,
Grand Turk is six miles long and just over a mile wide. Like the other islands,
Grand Turk is blessed with miles of quiet sugary beaches and is close to
several uninhabited cays just waiting to be explored. At the north point of the
island, a channel to the sea gives access to North Creek, the only hurricane
shelter for yachts traveling between Nassau and Puerto Rico.
Around 12:30pm our ship was docked at the pier and by 1pm we
were going ashore. The cruise ship port was developed by the Carnival Cruise
Line several years ago. Once on the pier, Tina and Denise led the way to shore.
On both sides of the pier were beautiful sandy beaches with umbrellas and
lounge chairs with people enjoying a dip in the water or just soaking up the
sun. Unfortunately, you couldn't get there from the pier. First we had to pass
through several tourist shops and into a courtyard surrounded by more shops and collection
points for people doing a shore tour.
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| Wild horses roam the island |
From here you could reach the beach.
After walking through several shops, we decided to take a taxi into town, look
around and maybe have a bite to eat. One of the tourist staff directed us to
the taxi stand where we joined several other intrepid souls for the 15 minute
ride into town.
Passing the airport we saw a small herd of 'wild' horses
grazing along the road. Then, as we passed the old salt pans, we began to see
the true nature of the island. Flat and with little vegetation, most of the
homes we passed were of stucco, some nice, most poor.
Arriving in town, we were
surprised to find that we were in a very poor (to us) collection of buildings
of indiscriminate style and color with two small, collections of stalls selling
tourist items and a ramshackle storefront housing a hair salon, bar and linen
shop. We walked along the street (literally) and after half an hour decided to
return to the port.
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| One of the vendor stalls in town |
Arriving back at the port area we found there were no
restaurants, and not being ready for the beach, returned to the ship for lunch.
As with our stop at St Maarten, Grand Turk was a disappointment. But we
discovered one thing, the best way to visit the Caribbean is to pick a
destination island with the resort of your choice and fly there for a week. The
other way is to fly to one of the islands and book a cruise on a large sailboat
that can leisurely cruise from island beach to island beach! The rest of the
afternoon was dedicated to lounging by one of the pools, book in hand and with
a frozen strawberry daiquiri at hand!
Tina wanted to make sure we made it to the theater early so
we dressed for dinner and ate in the DaVinci dining room. Every meal we ate at
the formal dining rooms was absolutely outstanding. From appetizer to dessert,
our choices were varied and exquisitely prepared and presented. Service was
always superb. I'm sure we are all bringing home a few extra pounds of excess
baggage from all the food consumed! After dinner we made it to the theater and
found good seats down front. The performer, Steve White, performed a comedy
routine predominately around the fact that he is a black man, not white as his
name implies. Anyway, he was funny but I'm sure many of the older people in the
audience mayn't have enjoyed his style.
After the show we watched a couple performing Flamenco dance
in the Piazza where the crew had laid down a wooden platform over the marble
tile. They were both quite good though the man was a true professional from
Madrid. From there we returned to our room to change. Tina went up to the
outdoor theater to watch a movie while I stayed in the room and watched “Hugo”,
a story about a small boy living in the clockworks of the Paris Train Station
in the 1920's, his efforts to reanimate an automaton left him by his father and
how he brought love into the lives of those around him. It was quite good.
Finally, around midnight we called it a day and sacked out.
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