It’s Just So Blue!!

I was up slightly before my alarm this morning and got going right away. When Amanda got up we learned she had been sick during the night and still wasn’t feeling the greatest. She was unsure if she would be able to dive. Erica and I suggested she try to move the dive to another day, but she said they had a strict cancellation policy and that there would be no refund. She decided she would give it a go. The harbor was only 5 minutes from our AirBnB so we got her there in plenty of time. She checked in and we waited for 5-10 minutes before we left to make sure she was good.

Erica and I headed into Grace Bay and found a little coffee shop where Erica had a coffee and blueberry muffin and I had a smoothie. Before we had left the house I had eaten one of the danishs I bought at the grocery store. The danish was pretty good, but the smoothie was just ok.

We continued with our plan to walk the beach and headed to the tip of the island to Leeward Beach. We didn’t find the public access on the first pass (it was nestled between some houses in a subdivision), but some nice construction workers pointed us in the right direction.

Erica and I were in awe at how blue, clear, and calm the ocean was. The pictures don’t even do it justice. It is just breathtakingly beautiful. We walked until we got to an area where we had to wade through water to continue our walk on the beach. We started the wade, but the water was deeper than it looked and with not knowing which way the tide was going, I thought it was a good idea to turn around and head back and move the car. As we headed back in the direction we came, we stopped at a section that contained a bunch of conch shells and waded in the shallow water to look for them. The water felt great and we picked up a few that were deemed worthy. They are quite heavy and large, so I’m not sure if any will make their way home with me.

We moved the car further West and parked a the Sunset Beach access. We walked a little to the East to cover the ground we would have covered if we had continued through the water from the other direction and then turned around and started walking back West. We wanted to be able to say we walked every inch of the beach. We walked quite a ways when Erica said we should probably turn around so we wouldn’t be late to pick up Amanda. I told her that I thought we had enough time to go just a little further to see what was around the bend. We picked up our pace and made it to Point Grace Resort and then turned around and headed back the other way. We got back to the car at 1:50 and made it back to the marina by 2:05.

Amanda wasn’t back yet so we relaxed and ordered a lemonade. The lemonade was freshly squeezed and took awhile to be made. Amanda returned as we were still waiting for our drinks, so she was able to join in on our order. The lemonade was perfectly refreshing as we sat at a table in the shade and heard about Amanda’s dive trip. Although she still wasn’t feeling good she was able to do both dives. She said they saw some barracuda, reef sharks, assortment of fish.

We headed back to the AirBnB to relax and refresh. Amanda and Erica took naps on the couch while I relaxed on the hammock chair by the pool. After an hour or so Erica got up and we went for a walk along the canal by our AirBnB. The angle of the sun made it difficult to spot any turtles in the canal, but we did spot an osprey up on it’s perch.

When we got back Amanda was up and we started discussing dinner. Her stomach was still feeling queasy so she opted to stay back and eat toast while Erica and I headed into Grace Bay to the pizzeria at Bella Luna Ristorante (https://www.bellaluna.tc/pizzeria). Erica and I shared a caesar salad and a pizza with mozzarella, Parma ham, arugula, tomatoes, flakes of parmesan. Both were excellent!

We decided to walk off dinner and walk around the shops in the area and look for an ATM as we needed cash to pay Desmond the balance of the tour tomorrow. We browsed a couple of souvenir shops but didn’t buy anything. I was so disappointed to see the same beaded hummingbird ornaments that I had bought in Panama in the store. Here I though the craftsmanship was unique to Panama . . . not so much. Funnier yet, we were telling Amanda the story when we got back to the house. I hadn’t described the ornament but she asked if it was beaded and when I said yes she said she had experienced the same thing. She has bought one in Belize thinking it was unique to Belize, but the very next stop on their cruise to Honduras they found them there too! I bet those things are made in China!! We continued roaming and stopped for another expensive ice cream cone. The mint chip did hit the spot albeit expensive. We then walked up to the grocery store to visit the ATM. There were two ATMs but both had signs that said they were out of service. We asked the nearby security guard where another ATM was and he told us the Ritz Carlton hotel had one. We walked back over to the hotel (which was across the street where we had parked) and saw the sign for the casino. Surely this was where the ATM was! The security guard asked for our ID to enter and I mentioned I was just going for the ATM. He mentioned that their ATM was also out of service. I asked him where another ATM was and he said another hotel down the road that had a casino had an ATM. We headed back to the car and went to the next casino. Our ATM scavenger hunt came to an end as we finally had found a working ATM!! Just like everything in Turks, even the ATM fee was expensive at 5% of the amount withdrawn. Thankfully my bank reimburses up to $10/month on ATM fees.

Back at the BnB we picked up our game of Swoop. It took 4 more rounds before the game ended with the final scores Jess 142, Amanda 288, and Erica 313. We played one more game which went much faster and lasted only 4 rounds. Final scores Jess 63, Erica 136, and Amanda 274.

Tomorrow is our tour to North and Middle Islands with Desmond. I’m really looking forward to it!

Stats of the Day

Steps: 26,624
Cost of Single Scoop Sugar Cone: $9.95
Cost of Hummingbird Ornament in Turks & Caicos: $15
Cost of Hummingbird Ornament in Panama: I think it was $7 or $8
Swoop Wins: 2 of 2