Our whirlwind of travel continues down to Turks & Caicos’s Providenciales. We had been planning to visit this island for months and as a bonus our friends would be there with their lovely selves AND about 2 months worth of our mail.

Unfortunately we had camera malfunction and didn’t get a ton of footage of the journey or much of the trip, but here is a short montage of some of the fun we had:

Our awesome friends Ed and Carolyn rented a villa and invited us to stay with them (they are freaking awesome!!). We actually got a much-needed a break from boat-life. The villas are located next to South Side Marina. We didn’t know this or anything when we arrived, and didn’t have the smarts to check our phones before we departed the country. When we arrived, our Bahamas phone didn’t work at all. Thankfully I tracked down a very old text message with the name of the villas and an address. So at least we had SOMETHING!

Once we found the right place, the main office building was completely dark and deserted. Looks like we will have to find our friends the old-fashioned way – peeking through windows. We were in luck because Jake found them at his first window. No need to voyeur at random strangers afterall. 😉

We were completely exhausted and starving after traveling, but SO EXCITED to see our friends. They made us cold, delicious beverages and even whipped up a late night snack for us to enjoy. We spent the next several hours playing catchup and going through all of our fun new goodies and mail! It was a very late night before any of us got to bed.

The next morning, both Jake and I were in a bit of confusion waking up in a bed that isn’t in our moving boat. What a weird feeling! It was a serene morning with the gorgeous palms swaying in the breeze through our windows.

The villas were adorable, complete with a very large living area, dining and kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. There was no A/C in the main living area, but plenty of screened-shutters that open up to the outside. There was so much breeze blowing through we were completely comfortable. Plus we haven’t had A/C for months so we weren’t missing anything there.

After a scrumptious breakfast (eggs, sausage, toast), we met with the owners of the villas, a very sweet, older couple from Canada. They have been working and living here for several decades and simply love it. They also own part of the marina nearby so it seems like they have their hands full most of the time. But they had a wealth of information to share with us about places to visit.

The weather didn’t look promising, but we didn’t care. We were motivated to see and do all that we could. Ed and Carolyn rented a car so we could easily get around. Much of the island is spread out and a car is almost required. The roads are pretty terrible too, so driving often takes 3x’s longer than you would think by just looking at a map. The rental car was a small nissan, with about 200,000 miles on it and no shocks. The light console in the front fell out of the roof of the car – so I guess you could say it was a junker.HAHA. 🙂 We thought it was quite adventurous.

Our first stop was to attempt some snorkeling and maybe even SUP at the northern part of the island. This is where most of the tourist areas are, including the grand beaches and resorts. Unfortunately its also where the big wind was blowing from, so our attempts to lounge were ill-met with some storms. Jake and Carolyn still went for it. Ed and I sat out. After a short time, we all were hankering for some grub, indulging in a couple of cocktails and some fish tacos!

The beaches, like the Bahamas, were beautiful. I wish it was calm because I can imagine the snorkeling would have been outstanding. SUP was pretty much out of the question on this part of the island, with conditions as they were. So we opted to drive up further north to another resort-beach-area and sat out under some cabanas. The sun came out for awhile and it was so nice to just sit around, go for some beach-walking and lounge. It actually feels like a vacation!

On our way back down south, we got lost and drove through some very seedy neighborhoods. Tons of people were loitering around, looking disgruntled. One guy tried to get us to pull over so he could sell us something out of a baggy – didn’t look like anything legal. Eventually we found the right path back, hit up the grocery store for some grubbage (which is very expensive in TCI) and then back home.

We planned to hit up happy hour at South Side Marina, specifically, Bob’s Bar, which is known for its rum punch drinks. So naturally, we all indulged and HOLY CRAP these things were freaking strong. Jake and I could only handle one each, but our buddy Ed managed TWO!

After a few “happy” hours, we meandered back to the villas where we spent the next few hours drinking under the gazebo, grilling ribs and hot dogs (For yours truly because I don’t care for ribs much). Even the owners of the villas came out with some wine (which they force-fed us) to share in the fun. It was so sweet of them and we were all having a blast – didn’t even realize that time was flying by and it was another VERY late night. But none of us were feeling any pain.

The next day, well, that was a different story. I think all of us were a little hungover, some more than others (ie yours truly). I felt terrible – so completely tired with a huge headache. I haven’t had so much to drink in one 24-hour period in YEARS. At that both Jake and I made a pact to not drink anymore rum punches (or bottles of wine).

We were all moving slow. It took us half the morning to get in gear. We decided to visit the Caicos Conch Farm today, on the very east end of the island. Even though I felt pretty sick, I definitely did not want to miss out.

The farm was quite large – about 10-acres on land and several over water. We spent a good hour, walking around and going on the little guided tour (wish it was longer). We learned that this farm is the source of ALL conch throughout the entire Turks & Caicos islands. Its quite impressive. No poaching of wild conch, allowing mother nature’s resources to flourish.

After the farm, we went up to the “richy-rich” area to walk around and see what there is to see. Ed and Carolyn did some shopping, but Jake and I didn’t feel so great. We enjoyed sitting on the bench people-watching. There are a lot of tourists that come through here – that’s plain to see. It also seems as though the locals are a lot less friendly and outgoing than those of the Bahamas. Maybe its just because of all the tourists? Who knows.

By lunch I was still feeling kind of miserable but did my best to suck it up. I didn’t eat much as we sat outside the bar-restaurant. The food prices were kind of outrageous so I am glad I didn’t eat. It seemed we were all feeling sluggish and in need of naps, so we made way back.

By evening I felt like a new person, much better and most of all not hungover anymore. I even got my appetite back, and just in time, because Ed fixed us some delicious grilled steak and sweet potato fries (and other fun indulgences like chocolate donuts and snickers ice cream). Since the weather was kind of stormy, we stayed in and played banagrams and hearts (a card game). Jake and I knew neither of these games, but quickly learned and found a really fun time.

Each day in TCI was much in this fashion. Lots of R&R. Little plans. The weather was always pretty crummy but that didn’t get us down. We loved lounging by the pool, reading in the hammock lounge or even just hanging out inside chatting it up with our buds. We didn’t even need the television – we watched a movie one night but that was it.

One day we decided to drive all the way down to the south-west point of the island to a cave called Pirate’s Cove. It was a hilarious journey because the girls were in the front of the car, navigating/driving and the boys were in the back holding on for their lives. The drive was basically on a 4×4 road and with the car in its tip-top shape, well you can imagine. It was scary for sure. We kept getting lost too, making matters worse. It was hilarious though.

After an hour we almost gave up, but persevered and found our way. Once the road ended, we had to continue our journey on foot. We were hoping that it would be easy to find the cave, but we arrived at high-tide so we had to hike over the iron shore. At low tide, you can walk right up the beach and around the bend. Can we say bad timing?

The hike was quite pretty. Jake and I are so used to this type of terrain we didn’t have a lot of difficulty, but Ed and Carolyn are not used to it, being that they live in Minnesota and aren’t hiking islands every day like us. We took our time, taking pictures and soaking in the amazing summit-view (we could see water on 3 sides of us – and the sun came out for a bit making it sparkle magnificently.

After another 20 minutes or so we found the entrance to the cave – a rickety old ladder down into the dark depths – well not that deep – but still. This place was freaking gorgeous! We all tried to get in the water but it was mighty chilly. We didn’t stay too long before making the trek back. Even though it took us about half the day, I’m really glad we ventured out here.

On our last day, we enjoyed hanging around the villas and making our way back to the north-side to walk around, eat and be silly. The last night we spent mostly at the villa playing cards, lounging by the pool and of course back to Bob’s for happy hour.

Overall I would say that we prefer the Bahamas to TCI. Its nice here, but its about 4x’s more expensive and many of the locals are a lot less friendly than in the Bahamas. Of course there are some exceptions to that rule (the owners of So. Side and the villas are simply amazing people).