Vacation in Turks & Caicos
- Grace Bay Beach
Well, we’re back from our week-long vacation at Villa del Mar in Grace Bay Beach Providencialis, Turks & Caicos.
It was a very, very hot week with humidex temperatures anywhere from 39 to 41C. But it was also extremely relaxing as several of the beach resorts and some restaurants had closed for several weeks in order to give staff a break and also to complete much needed maintenance – particularly as hurricane Irene had pummelled the vacation spot a week earlier.
We rented a beautiful studio condo at Villa del Mar (by the Kaitlin Group). Our direct Westjet flight from Toronto took a mere 3hrs 20min, and a $26 taxi ride took us from the airport to our condo. We quickly surveyed the pools, and then took a 1min walk to the beach. Grace Bay Beach is the #1 rated beach in the world. We’ve now been on 4 of the top 10 beaches – and we’d have to agree. The stunning white powder sand and turquoise waters were a sight to behold, but we were really impressed with how much beach there is between the water and the dunes. The Villa has a booth on the beach where they supply chaise lounges, towels and cold water (all included in the condo rental), so the fact that the Villa wasn’t on the beach itself was a moot point.
Prices in the Turks, though, are a bit astounding and roughly 2x to 3x retail Canadian prices. 2 litres of orange juice was $5.99, a single orange is $1.49, a small jar of peanut butter is $4.99, a medium frozen pizza is $12.99 and 3 bags of microwave popcorn is $4.99. What’s particularly concerning is that the local minimum wage is $5.50/hr, and they shop at the 2 Graceway IGA supermarkets just as the tourists do. There are no personal or property taxes there – but when purchasing real estate there is a 9% one-time tax. And as the islands (41 in total) generate no commercial products, the government slaps a 30% tarrif on all incoming goods. Thus the sticker shock at both the supermarket and in restaurants.
Providencialis is not as developed as other islands in the Carribean, and the focus seems to be on condo sales and rentals rather than a proliferation of all-inclusive resorts. Real estate prices are also expectedly high; a 21 acre beachfront lot was selling for $53M, but homes (villas) were also very pricey.
Car rental, though, is cheap. We paid $66 for a Suzuki Swift (incl. insurance and liability) for 24 hours from AVIS and drove from one end of the island to the other. Starting at the Conch Farm, and ending in Chalk Sound, the drive takes only 40 minutes – but you must drive through approximately 10 roundabouts – and on the left hand side of the road. On the way back, we went to Sapodilla Bay (a favourite swimming spot for locals), and Turtle Cove where we had a delicious lunch at Bay Bistro – right alongside the marina.
Most of our days, however, were spent the same way: breakfast provided by the Villa, then off to the beach, back to the condo for lunch, shopping in the Salt Mills area and then swimming in the pool, dinner in or out, then a movie or TV. There is no nightlife in Turks though there is a casino. And thanks to 3 American couples we met at the Villa, there was lots of great conversation, laughs and good company. Shout outs to Christina and Haris (Washington), Roger and Beth (Pennsylvania), and Robert and Amanda (New York)!
Great restaurants to try if you go: Fresh, Danny Bouyes, Hey Jose, Bay Bistro, Salt Mills Cafe. Many places – including our Villa – have wi-fi, so cell roaming is generally not required. We even used the GPS maps function on our iPhones for navigation around the island (and through those confusing roundabouts!)
We’ll be going back.
Check out my Turks & Caicos photoset on Flickr.
Tropical Storm Katia
Well it figures – just a week after Hurricane Irene pummeled Turks & Caicos, tropical storm Katia forms in the eastern Atlantic and poses a potential threat to our vacation. There is an 85% chance this will become a hurricane by this Wednesday. According to the prediction models, the path looks like it might just graze the Bahamas. This might make for awesome waves! But if it veers more south-west, it could slam into the islands. Irene caused the loss of 3 trees on the property we’re heading to, and closed the Providencialis airport for 3 days due to flooding. If nothing else, I should come back with some great photos – and maybe a tale or two.
Update: Katia had become a hurricane but is now back to tropical storm status. And the models have predicted a slightly different path that takes it further away from the Bahamas. So we may miss this one yet.
Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton, Jamaica
At the end of April this year, my partner Shawn and I went to the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton spa and resort in the Montego Bay area of Jamaica. We had a wonderful time meeting people from all over North America and the UK – and the Jamaican people themselves were so warm and friendly. The side trip to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (on Negril’s 7 mile beach) and Rick’s Cafe was an awesome diversion from the day-to-day at the resort. The cliff diving, in particular, was spectacular, as was the famous sunset at 6:30. All cameras and camcorders, including mine, were pointed at the enormous firey globe as it descended below the horizon. And we’ve come away with a new favourite drink – Rick’s Chi Chi. Check out my photos of the resort.
2010 Ironman Cozumel
We’re back from a week away in Cozumel, Mexico. My partner, Shawn, had been training for 8 months for the 2010 Ironman Cozumel race. The Ironman consists of a 3.86 km swim, a 180.25 km bike course, followed by a full 42.195 km marathon. Shawn completed the race in 13hrs15min. His training partner, Michelle, was only two minutes ahead! It was brutally hot with a temperature of 95F mid-day. Video and race photos are coming shortly, but in the meantime, I’ve posted photos of the resort we stayed at, the Iberostar Cozumel, and a day trip to the ruins of Tulum. As for me, well I was one of the unfortunate 40% of tourists travelling to Mexico who pick up a digestive track bug. And yeah, I was even vaccinated.
Vacation photos now posted
The photos I took on our December vacation to Mexico are now posted to my Flickr Pro account. You can view the set from Playa del Carmen or Cozumel. The Playa del Carmen photo set contains shots of our resort – Royal Playa del Carmen – and of 5th Avenue (the pedestrian concourse near our resort), and of the ferries which take passengers to and from Cozumel. The Cozumel photos include a bunch of shots from the highway that circumnavigates the island; not much to see but this is the course Shawn will be riding his bike on during the Cozumel Ironman in November 2010. We also had lunch in the world’s smallest Hard Rock Cafe, and there’s some terrible quality pictures from inside the restaurant.
Holiday Update
The last few months of 2009 have been quite busy for me (as you might gather from the lack of updates here), but I did manage to get out and take some photos which I’ll post in the next few days. Also, Shawn and I just returned from a fantastic week at the Royal in Playa del Carmen in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico. We were spoiled rotten by the staff at our 5-star resort, had the most incredible 7 course meals in formal resort restaurants, drank too much premium liquor, but managed not to ingest too much sea water. As Shawn will be competing in the Cozumel Ironman in November, 2010, we took the ferry over to the island and rented a Jeep so we could scope out the bicycle portion of the course (which entails approximately 1/2 of the island). During this, we visited remote beaches on the east side of the island, and gathered some sea shells from the shore.
I’ve also configured a new 17″ HP DV7-3080ca laptop for mobile songwriting. I also picked up a new Akai LPK25 portable keyboard to use with it (it fits in my new Skooba Design laptop bag). I’ve been trying to learn all of the new features of my sequencer – Sonar 8.5.2, and the rest of the Native Instruments virtual synths included in my upgrade to Komplete 6. As usual, I’ve got lots of music in various stages of completion, and a new album will be released in Q1 2010.
All the best of the holiday season to you – and here’s wishing for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
Holguin, Cuba
My partner Shawn and I were in Holguin, Cuba in this – the end of the rainy season and beginning of hurricane season. Holguin is a city of just over 400,000 people and is about an hour from the resorts in the Guardalavaca region. Like all Cuban cities – Holguin is safe; one is only bothered occasionally by someone begging for a convertible peso (CUC), or asking if they can have your cap or shoes. Many items are dirt-cheap. Example: a beer and a Coke costs 1.38 pesos. One peso = $1.24 CDN. Honey is about half the cost of Canadian honey. Beer is .60 pesos/ea. We were surprised to see the American product Coke on the shelves in Cuba, but it looks like it’s manufactured in Mexico and actually tastes a little different. My favourite Cuban beer is Bucanero, though the national Cristal is passable. See all the photos in my Holguin set on Flickr.
