Taking off for Turks and Caicos Islands

I'm off for another scuba adventure abroad! This time to sunny, white sand beachy, blisteringly warm Turks and Caicos islands. They're a British Overseas territory consisting of the larger Caicos island and smaller Turks islands. Now, I'm going to assume that this British connection meant old timey British pirates were somehow involved. I will search for buried treasure and look into the syphilis rates to confirm my suspicions. 

We're heading to the largest island, Providenciales, where the majority of the territories residents live and where most of the resorts and dive centres are located. And presumably where I have highest chance of discovering pirate booty. 

The vacation plan largely centres on being 30-80 feet underwater most days. It's time again to terrorize the ocean with my animal-poking and crushing desperation to make friends with sharks. 

Fun fact! In 1974, a Canadian NDP MP tried to pass a bill to annex the islands, but it got shot down in the House of Commons. Apparently, interest in he islands kicked up again in 2014 with an Edmonton MP initiating conversations with a Turks and Caicos Premier. 

Don't worry, Canada I'll scope it out and report back. 

Tropical bags, tropical shoes, tropics ready!

True to form, each of our flights departed strikingly late. Although, there were some legitimate logistical challenges with a swift ice storm hitting Toronto. What was supposed to be a midnight redeem departure from Calgary was delayed 1.5 hours, we had a 5-hour planned layover and our next flight was more than 2 hours delayed. At least we made all the flights and hope our bags did too. 

Napping in the airport after a 4:30 am arrival. One last flight to go and we arrived. Customs was fairly easy and straightforward. Then we committed a rookie mistake and hopped in the vehicle of the first guy to snatch up our bags. He and the driver didn't actually know where they were headed and ended up calling the condo twice for directions. But they were personable, informative and eventually got us where we needed to go. 

We're renting a condo in the Island Club complex in Grace Bay on the northeast portion of the island. We're all beat so it's groceries, a bite to eat and reset the batteries for exploration day tomorrow.