Day 3 Grand Turks and Caicos

"The Turks and Caicos includes 45 islands and cays. It's believed that Columbus' first landfall in the New World was on Grand Turk island. These islands, once annexed by both the Bahamas and Jamaica, have long been associated with the UK, and today are still a British overseas territory."

~ Info from World Atlas 

Oh my sweet Jesus! Our few hours in Grand Turk were amazing! After going down to the first deck and going through the security point to get onto the pier, B1 & B2 and I headed over to meet our Snorkel/Hiking excursion group. Once the 28 of us and 2 crew: Adrian (from Jamaica) and Michael (from the Dominican Republic) had us all loaded onto our boat, we were roaring off, heading away from Grand Turk towards some of the smaller Cays (Cay is actually pronounced "key"). I can't remember which one now, but it was a TINY little island, made up of limestone (like most of the Cays,) and covered with shrubs and growth that can sustain itself on mostly salt water, since the area only gets about 2 inches of rain a year.

When we finally were suited up and ready to snorkel and all things important were explained, we, masked and finned, jumped in the perfect Atlantic Ocean, where we snorkeled in depths ranging from about 6-16/20 feet, we guessed. The last time I snorkeled was in ’97 in Australia, but this was new to both B1 & B2, who both did swimmingly well (pun intended).It felt so good and smooth to me, except the one time I got excited to show B1 something and I got a huge mouthful of salt water.

We snorkeled around and over a reef, seeing nothing too spectacular, no nurse sharks or turtles, both which I was hoping to see; only seeing zebra fish and a variety of colored fish who’s names I can’t imagine: different shades of yellows, silvers, blues and some fast orange fish; sea anemone, coral. After about a half an hour we swam to shore for a 20 minute hike around the cay to see ruins from a plantation of sorts, days long gone where men who came tried desperately to grow anything. I fired question after question and learned interesting facts about the island. The hike was a nice retreat from the water, but really ensured my back and shoulder sunburns.

We snorkeled our way back to our ship, and in no time we were thumping our way over huge waves, feeling the salt water splash, and enjoying really strong rum punch.

Later that night after dinner, nursing my sunburns, I lay on a deck chair and watched Julie & Julia on alone, then found TSO and we watched half of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before we went to bed.