March 2017 - Turks and Caicos Islands

Spring Break 2017 - 11 - 18 March 2017 

We had a great week in the islands of Turks and Caicos in the middle of March, which is a great time to be in the Caribbean. We splurged a bit and rented this house on the south side of the main island, near "Provo" airport, and in the Chalk Sound area of the island. 

  

Our first sunset and view out the back of the house near the pool. We loved having our own pool and access to the incredible sea out the back of our house. 

The "infinity pool" the next morning, before we all jumped in and dumped water out!

The view down our beach. Each house has a bit of beach for ocean entry. The rockiness is all beautiful coral under the water.

 The Conch Shack was one of our favorite places to eat with awesome seafood and reggae music. The boys liked one of their beach games which was trying to get a metal loop on a peg.

Here is our ocean access for swimming and snorkeling.

 We visited the only commercial conch farm in the world. It takes four years to grow a conch shell. Amazingly, they sell most of their conch to mainland US. Most of the conch on the island is still taken from the sea.

We took a wonderful boat ride to do extra snorkeling, see some pirate markings and have lunch on a remote beach. Outback Adventures out of Sapodilla Bay, which was just down the beach from us did a great job, especially with kids.

Apparently, the Turks and Caicos islands were on the shipping line of the Spanish ships coming between South America and Spain, so pirates routinely hung out on the islands and robbed the ships coming and going. There were some cool carvings in rocks from the mid-1800s.

The remote beaches were beautiful and we were the only people there.

We liked this Baci Ristorante which had good pizza and food. It is situated on a canal, so it was fun to watch some boat traffic in the evening. This is "on the way/road" to Grace Bay which is the more commercial part of the island and where all of the tourist hotels and shops are. We were glad we were staying in a more quiet private part of the island.

We spent most of our time just hanging out at our pool

And snorkeling in the sea off our beach. Beautiful fish. We saw a turtle, lobster, ray and dolphins all swimming free. It was super fun and we felt grateful to be part of the beautiful ocean ecosystem there.