Salt Cay in the Turks and Caicos (Feb 12 to Feb 19, 2005)
As we watched all the hurricanes pound the Caribbean and eastern US seaboard last year, we wondered what we should do for a winter holiday in 2005. We thought about Hawaii and then about the South Pacific but the first one was too busy and the second choice was too far for a week. And truly, we really loved the water and the people of the Caribbean from previous visits. So we started searching for an interesting destination away from our cold February winter.
We considered many unique spots but the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) caught our attention the most. Consisting of about a dozen islands, TCI was located east of Cuba and north of Hispaniola. At first, we were going to book a holiday at one of the all-inclusive resorts in Providenciales but then we discovered the small outer island of Salt Cay. It looked like a fabulous diving centre but the deal sealer was that the humpback whales were migrating through its waters.It turned out to be a fabulous choice for a completely relaxing and quiet get-a-way. Getting there and then having to leave were the hardest parts of our holiday. We had to catch a red-eye (12:30 am) flight from Calgary to Toronto. Then after several hours, we boarded our next plane, this time to Providenciales, the main tourist island. After a lucky break in a long customs line, we boarded a chartered plane to Salt Cay. Brian claims that it was his incredible foresight and penetrating eye contact that made the customs officer open up the local line to the tourists. All I can say is that we skipped at least a hundred people and a long wait. Yahoo for Brian!!!
Also I want to give a big yahoo for Global Airways, our chartered plane company. We were greeted by friendly check-in and baggage staff and then by our pilot, James. He took us out to the tarmac and to a small six-seater plane. As soon as I saw it, I started praying that the Gravol (anti-nausea medicine) Sierra and Brennan took in Calgary, was still working. Thankfully, we had an uneventful 30-minute flight to the island. We found out later that our other choice, Air Turks and Caicos was a more stressful way to fly. They had stringent weight limits and questionable schedules. The airport at Salt Cay was a one-room building, painted a bright sunny yellow with royal blue trim and a green roof. Stretched across its front was a large sign saying, “Welcome to Salt Cay”. It was a positive beginning to our stay on the island. The airport had a couple of benches on its front porch for us to sit in the shade while we waited for our ride into “town”. We were ahead of schedule and surprised Debbie, our “go-to” lady. While we waited, a very nice man who came to the airport to see if a package had arrived for him offered us a ride into town. His wife and family were willing to hang out at the airport while he drove us to our hotel. However Debbie soon pulled up as most people just showed up when they heard the plane fly over the island. Debbie wore about twelve hats on the island. She was owner/operator of our hotel, the Tradewinds, of the Coral Reef Bar and Grill and of Salt Cay Divers, as well as having other job descriptions. While the kids and Brian bounced around in the back of the pickup truck, Debbie gave me a tour of the main spots in town. It took about three minutes. This was a small place! Salt Cay was about 2.5 square miles in size with about 63 permanent TCI residents and another 60 Haitians, American and British expatriates. I think that there were almost as many wild donkeys, cows and chickens roaming about as TCI residents! The island could only handle a maximum of sixty tourists at any one time. We were there during the busy season and we never encountered more than a couple of dozen visitors in one day. Are you getting the picture that this was a peaceful place? The only noisy things were the animals crowing, braying or mooing at weird times of the night.
For the first half of our stay, we had one room in the Tradewinds, a bungalow style hotel with about six rooms. The advantage of this place was the location. It was close to the dive shop, harbour, cafes and restaurants. It also allowed us to be around the locals and our fellow tourists. So we got to know a lot of wonderful people. (If any of you are reading this on our website, hello to you.) Every one was so friendly; it was startling at first. Strangers came up to us with huge smiles and introduced themselves, asking where we were from and how did we choose to come to Salt Cay. Brian didn’t like losing his anonymity at first but he eventually got used to it. The island was extremely safe. We didn’t have keys for any of our accommodations. In fact, there weren’t any locks on the doors. We left a laptop, an MP3 player, digital cameras and gameboys in the room or in backpacks on the beach without any problems. (We travel with a lot of technology these days.) It felt like we had entered a time warp. I felt comfortable wandering anywhere on the island, even after dark. Most of the time we didn’t carry money because we put purchases on a tab. It was a good thing too because there definitely weren’t any ATM machines and only American cash was accepted. Credit cards weren’t taken at the small places either.
Our first night on the island, we watched an incredible sunset over the ocean while we lay on hammocks and drank some beer and wine. What a great way to start a vacation. It became a ritual that we did every night. We also met Porter that first night, who I wanted to call Foster for the rest of the trip. He was the owner of Island Thyme Bistro and was a very interesting character. He was one of the American ex-pats living on the island. We discovered that evening that dining in Salt Cay was unlike any of our previous experiences. It was necessary to place our food orders early in the afternoon and all choices were subject to availability. Most supplies were brought to the island by boat twice a week from Grand Turk. Whether the boat ran depended on the weather and waves, the running condition of the vessel and often the desire of the operator. It was really supposed to run three times a week. Of course, this made most items very expensive and often unavailable. However there was always fresh seafood. Yum, Yum Yum!!!!!