Exploring Provo
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Exploring
Providenciales
 Yesterday Bear had a sudden fancy to
hire a car to fully explore Provo. He got on the phone to Avis and the lady
organised for us to be picked up here and taken to the airport to sort the
paperwork. Up and off Beez by half eight, we thought we would wander down to the
main road and wait, as we left the dinghy dock, there was Juilbert, a Haitian
who has been here for fourteen years, married with two children. Shortly
after nine we left the airport heading for the top end of the island. Providenciales has an area of thirty eight square miles and an approximate population
of 15,542, making it the largest island in population and the third largest in
area. It is served by the Providenciales
International Airport. It is home to the only conch
farm in the world. As recently as 1964, Providenciales (usually called Provo) did not have
a single wheeled vehicle. Following in the footsteps of Club
Med, the island's first large hotel and casino complex opened in 1984
and started a development boom. Provo is now the most tourist-oriented and
developed of the Turks and Caicos Islands, boasting many resort hotels and an
18-hole golf course. The island has recently become popular with retirees from
around the world, kindling a boom of residential development. Given its recent
evolution, the atmosphere is more reminiscent of the Florida
Keys than Nassau,
with little of the character of other Caribbean
isles.
   Leeward. I was looking at the map and
knew at the end of the road was the ferry, I looked up expecting
to see a terminal building or at least a shed, anything. What I saw was
literally the end of the road, the tarmac ended and there was Lew Too. Well. After tooting and blowing, I said
we had just passed the Conch Farm turning, off we went (own blog). Next we went
to find Nikki Marina
 This could be / would be really
lovely marina has never been used. A local on the
beach said "money dried, now it's a white elephant". What a shame. There are no
plans for it to ever open. Well while we are standing on the beach a chap flew
over my head, only clearing me by a couple of feet, I thought he was swooping on
me at first but he had other ideas.
  Bear caught the
action, I was still getting my lens cap off, we saw
him lift and turn
 I got my act together and saw the
'one foot clasp'
 He sorted himself out and got a grasp with two feet
    All too exciting. Off we went to find
the famous bakery owned and run by best friends of twenty years. Anca Vasile and
Mihaela Zine, they opened Fresh Bakery in September
2008. Their previous lives are fascinating, they are both Romanian. Mihaela is a
former model and Miss Romania, living here for the last fourteen years. Anca
- a former professional handball player, award winning fitness competitor
and trainer, came to visit her friend and stayed. Their concept was to create a
European atmosphere in the Caribbean. The pastries, Danishes, bread are all
homemade. So successful is this little treasure the ladies have been asked to
consider opening in Toronto and Florida. Bear had a ham and cheese tasty and a
baby cheesecake, I had a sausage roll (a sausage literally rolled in a strip of
puff pastry) a piece of carrot cake and we both had a cappuccino. Cost $20.20,
whilst not cheap was divine. If you want to run a business here the cost
for a manager work permit is $7000 per year. If you want to retire here you have
to apply for a Permanent Residence Certificate, the minimum
investment in property is $500,000 for Provo, $125,000 for the other islands.
Temporary Residence Certificates are $1000 per year, plus $150 for a spouse and
$50 per child.
  The resorts on Providenciales are primarily
centered on five mile-long Grace Bay, with its brilliant white sand and
shimmering turquoise waters. Apart from the beaches, Provo's charm lies in its
rugged hills and ridges, which are carpeted with prickly pear cactus and scrub.
The trump card, however, remains the world class diving: miles and miles of
coral reefs are temptingly close to shore and the Island is close to a common
migration route for the Humpback whale, some three thousand pass by between
January and March, sadly we've seen not a single one. Provo is also surrounded
by uninhabited cays that are easily reached by chartered boat or
excursion.       Fed and watered we went in search of Turtle Beach, passing beautiful hotels, grand houses and a
real bin man. We had been told that the best snorkeling was in front of the
Coral Garden Hotel. Bear parked the cute hire car and
we wandered onto a stunning beach with only a handful of people. The wind here
seems to blow constantly, so after a little while being sand blasted it was time
for me to get big and get wet. The water after the southern islands is cold, too
much further north and I'll have to get the wet suit out.
    Nothing special as the best reef was behind a cordon, but that
was to keep people safe from fire coral. I remember only too well my experience
of backing onto the stuff on The Indians
  Later on the road again, Bear was very emphatic, stopped the
car - A REAL BLOG OPPORTUNITY, Ian the Pratt Primary
School. Will that be a lady called I-anth-ee Pratt then ???
       We found the marina at
Turtle Bay and saw an example of 'arm candy'. The
marina office had a courtesy flag, so finally Beez can fly the T+C visitors
flag. We chatted to a lady in the dive shop about JoJo, had a drink in the Tiki
Bar. In the ladies, behind each stall door was painted like a blackboard,
each with a saying. A car in the car park was 'silent but deadly' and I had a
slight jealous streak at a perch specially built on the pulpit of one of the yachts, a beady eyed heron was watching it all and then went to fish.
     Before Provo became a popular tourist destination, there were three
small centers of population - Blue Hills, The Bight
(on Grace Bay) and Five Cays. Now many houses have been built throughout the
island (predominantly to the east and south) with larger communities at Leeward,
Long Bay, Chalk Sound as well as expansion of the original three settlements.
There are also pockets of makeshift shacks interspersed among the more upscale
residences. Grace Bay has grown to be a major tourist destination with many hotels
and condominiums built on the beach front. The communities of Downtown and Kew Town are located near the
International Airport. The major road, The Highway, runs east west from Downtown
to Leeward. Most of the island's services are near the Highway, including
upscale shopping malls. Also found in the commercial developments of Grace Bay,
in support of the tourism market.     We then went all the way along the
bottom. Found a huge supermarket, some of the prices made our eyes
water. Total mileage sixty three, but we had been everywhere
The western half of Provo is mostly barren wilderness, home to the
island's best natural attraction, Chalk Sound National Park. The park is a three
mile long bay a few miles southwest of Downtown Providenciales. The colour
of the water is a uniform turquoise and studded with countless mushroom-like
tiny islets. Also on the western part of the island is Northwest Point Marine
National Park, which extends to nearby reefs and several saline lakes that
attract breeding and migrant waterfowl. ALL IN ALL A FUN
DAY
A REAL FEEL FOR THE
ISLAND
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