© Richard Randall

PROVIDENCIALES

The Turks and Caicos Islands consist of two island groups between Haiti and the Bahamas, the capital is Cockburn Town (on the island of Grand Turk). The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Dependent Territory, which comprises of eight islands in total with some forty cays. The islands lay at the south eastern end of the Bahamas chain, about 575 miles southest of Miami, and 90 miles north of the island of Hispaniola. The story is that the islands were named after the barrel shaped Turks Head cactus, which resembles a Turkish fez and the Spanish word Cayos which means small islands. The islands are the landfall of Christopher Columbus' first voyage in search of the far east. Columbus first set foot on the island of Grand Turk in 1492, where he was welcomed by the friendly inhabitants, the Lucayan Indians. From there he set sail for the Caicos Islands, before stopping at Pine Cay for fresh water, and then continuing on to Providenciales, before he departed to Cuba. The islands have had an interesting past with both the Spanish and the French, and for nearly a hundred years during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Caicos Islands provided a hideout for many pirates; Blondel, Captain Dulaien, Calico - Jack Rackham, Francois L'Olonnais, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny. The American Declaration of Independence left British loyalists without a country, therefore many took advantage of British crown land grants in the Turks and Caicos. Cotton plantations prospered for nearly twenty five years until a cotton bug, and a severe hurricane brought this all to an end in 1813. An act of parliament in 1799 saw the islands formally federated with the Bahamas. In 1848 they separated from the Bahamas leaving way for a local government or Presidency for the Turks and Caicos Islands. Then in 1873 the Islands were obliged to abandon their adminisration and become annexed to Jamaica, remaining so for the next 90 years. Then in 1976 the Islands were granted a new constitution and an elective form of government. A governor was appointed by the Queen to represent British interests in the Islands. Well that's the rough history over with, and as we only went to stay on Providenciales (Provo as the locals call it) for a week I thought I needed to pad it out! We had flown over to Provo from Heathrow for some business. When we boarded the plane in London we were stuck onboard for over an hour before take off whilst some final air conditioning checks were made. The plane was not full of passengers but busy enough. We were all asking for something to drink as the cabin was extrememly hot without any air conditioning on, and we were told that we couldn't have anything to drink until after take off. Thankfully there were no diabetics onboard, although many of the elderly passengers were becoming very unhappy. Eventually, after some of us informed the cabin crew that we would be disembarking with or without their approval, we were told that some refreshments would be served straight away. So once everyone was calmly seated the not so bright cabin crew brought some ..... tiny packets of biscuits, salty snacks, great just what you need when you are feeling very thirsty. Thankfully before there was a full scale riot we were informed that the plane was air worthy and we would be taking off immeadiately, Hooray! The flight stopped off at Nasau breifly before continuing on to our destination, Providenciales. The airport is small so it didn't take more than about ten minutes before we were out, and into our hire car. I can't rememeber what make the car was, it was a small 4 x 4 of some type, a very basic model. We drove to our hotel, which was actually so close to the airport that we could easily have walked! Most of the holiday accommodation on Provo is found all along the coast at inclusive resorts like Grace Bay and Beaches. As we prefer to do our own thing, and this was not a holiday, we had booked into an independent family run hotel. The family who owned the hotel were incredibly friendly as was everybody we met on the Island. The owners of our hotel explained to us that the vast majority of the holiday makers on the Islands were couples on their honeymoons. The Islands are also very popular with diving fanatics, and as we were neither on our honeymoon, or fans of diving, we knew we had made the right decision to stay away from the resorts. That said we did spend a fair amount of time drinking in the bars of these hotels as our place didn't have a bar as such. The Island of Providenciales is a long thin strip, with the main road Leeward Highway running along the centre, and practucally everything runs off of this main road. The beaches are as you would imagine, beautiful white sand flowing into gorgeous turquoise water. Many of the beaches were deserted whilst we were there, and although we are not sun bathers we did take a pleasant stroll along one of them, well you can't go all the way to the Caribbean and not get a little sand between your toes. The weather was perfect for us, we hate being cold, and with temeratures averaging 70f in the winter, and 90f in the summer, we were definitely not going to be feeling cold. The humidity is usually around 60% which is low for the caribbean, which means that you can enjoy the warmth without being uncomfortable. The currency on Provo is the American dollar, and we found everything to be reasonably priced, especially eating out at the restaurants away from the resorts. We enjoyed some absolutely delicious meals on the Island, including conch which is a molluscs and an Island staple. One day whilst driving along out of the main town area, we found a little beach shack which served lovely cold beer and conch. We were not hungry at that time but did get to watch a fisherman behind the shack as he liberated the conch from its large heavy spiral shell. There was a makeshift table behind this beach bar, on which were several conch, and every now and then one would make a brave bid for freedom scraping its way along the edge of the table, it looked just like a forearm coming out of the shell dragging itself along. Whilst we were there drinking, not one conch made it to freedom. There are some very good restaurants on Provo which seemed to be very popular with visiting American holiday makers. We found a great place near to one of the supermarkets on the main road, I think it was called Danny's Express, it was mainly a take away joint, but did have some seating iside too. The food there was good, old fashioned, plain, cooking, no frills, dishes like chicken and mashed potato etc. There were not set meals as such, you just ordered what you wanted form the counter, delicous I could eat something from there right now, but it's a bit far from here in France just for some chicken and mash! On our first evening we ventured out looking for a restaurant, and ended up at the Gecko Grill at Ocean Plaza which was packed with Americans, and had a very pretty garden. We were seated outside in the garden, which was full of trees and lit by lots of candles and lamps. We were both so tired though that I cannot remember what we ate, I do remember that we both ordered just a main course. We wanted to get to bed, so made our way back to our hotel straight after dinner. There was lots of construction taking place during our stay in Provo, and many of the roads were not finished with tarmac, this explained why the majority of vehicles on the roads were huge four wheel drives. Even this far away there was an Irish pub, that's what this Island is all about I think, relaxing and eating! There were a few shops on Provo that sold goods of interest, mainly jewellery for us. The main duty free shop is on Leeward Highway, and we went there to have a browse. I quite fancied a particular watch, but unfortunately they didn't stock the make I liked, but the assistant who was serving us arranged for us to visit the duty free shop within the Beaches resort. She phoned ahead to let the security know that we would be arriving, and we were swiftly shown through the gates to the hotel. The shop there held a large amount of jewellery of most makes, including lots of watches. In fact there were so many I had trouble deciding, but finally settled on my original choice and struck a great deal with the manager. Our week passed by very quickly as we spent most of our time dealing with various bits of business, and all too soon we were on the plane homeward bound. We both loved the Island of Providenciales, and it is our dream to retire there one day, well there are no taxes on income, capital gains, property, or inheritance, what's not to love! But most importantly, to be able to wake up everyday to bright blue skies, and endless sunshine, would be fantastic, no more heating bills, no woolly jumpers, bliss!

PROVIDENCIALES

Caribbean

Sundries

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