Shel Bell's Adventures!: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos!

I just had another wonderful dive trip in Turks and Caicos! The start of the trip had drama – the Caribbean is not easy to get to from AZ, so normally I fly a red eye to the east coast and then down to the islands. This time, US Airways decided to cancel the flight (though we were told it was to the technical issues, we are all convinced it was due to the flight now being full!) After a couple hours that night at the airport, they were able to get the group out on an American Flight the next day so at least we still got there the same day as expected, although much later! The purpose of the trip was a group dive. I did 5 days in a row of diving twice a day. I expected the water to be warmed as it was in the Cayman’s last year, but apparently it is warming up later this year so I still wore my 5 mil most days (78-80 degrees, seems warm but when you are down there for a couple hours of day the body cools down). I saw the usual – reef sharks, lots of fish, but also saw a spotted ray and a nurse shark for the first time! This trip I really felt like I have my buoyancy mastered. I can tell because I do not swim as hard and have more air left than lots of others on the boat! It makes it much easier to go into deeper water having that down so I do not burn through air at depths below 60.

As for the island – fantastic! It is not a place where the cruise ships stop though, so the shopping and night life is not like other islands I have been to. This is not a place to go to and party – unless you bring a bunch of your friends! Also - it was cloudy many of the days, but not raining. So it was nice to have some shade! The cruise ships do stop at Grand Turk 150 miles away, but do to diving rules of flying (no flying within 12-18 hours of diving) the group decided to pass on that. There seemed to be few people on the island – fantastic beaches, and we never had an issue finding a place to sit in a lounge chair. It was actually quiet on the beach! Dining was interesting – easily sometimes there was 1 -2 groups only at any restaurant. The down side is the prices here – there is a 10% service change, and 10% tax so any meal cost more, plus tip on top! I went to the store to grab muchies for bfast and lunch. A memorable part of the trip is the Conch – every restaurant has it on the menu , and therefore it became the running joke of the trip! The resort we all stayed in was a timeshare like place, so the rooms were more like condos than hotels.

Here are a few pics – the underwater ones still need to be uploaded so I will add those later!

Scuba Heads! The group about to go down.