Day 4 (November 13, 2021):

Our first full day was as good as a day in the Caribbean could be. And honestly? Today was a repeat of that! 

We started the day with a 7:30AM beach walk in the center of massive Grace Bay and had breakfast at a beach cafe. By 9:30, we were on the beach at our own resort, where we lounged and swam the morning away and chatted with the Ontario couple (she was born in Newfoundland!) in the loungers next to us. 

After lunch on the patio of our hotel room, we headed to Turtle Cove Marina and tried to explore Chalk Sound National Park (see photo caption below for the explanation of why I say “tried”!).  Then it was a snorkeling stop at Coral Gardens, part of the Princess Alexandra Marine Reserve. We ended the afternoon with a sunset swim, before heading to a wonderful last dinner at the Windsong Resort, where we stayed in 2014. 

As I said at the outset of this post, it was another Caribbean vacay-day that was as good as it could have been! 😀

The rich array of colours on the resort property. 

We’ve never seen so many geckos!

This newt visited the cafe where we ate breakfast, overlooking Grace Bay. 

The surfboard-looking device is called a Flyt. It’s basically a short surfboard on a motorized pedastol. If you can keep your balance (and this guy had no problem doing so) you can zip across the water at a pretty impressive clip. 

After lunch, we went back to Turtle Cove Marina (where we had eaten dinner last night) to check out the scene. 

That is a photo of Chalk Sound National Park, taken on our flight into Turks and Caicos on Thursday. It is an enclosed lagoon south of the airport with much biodiversity. We wanted to explore it a little, but the upper-crust housing development all around its perimeter make it almost impossible to get a glimpse! So an inaccessible national park — what a concept.  We did manage to find this clearing between two estates to sneak a little peek. 

Coral Gardens on Grace Bay is one of the best-known and accessible coral reefs in Turks and Caicos. It is directly off the beach from the Windsong Resort, where we stayed in 2014. On that trip, we spent hours snorkeling the reef and were amazed at the variety of coral and fish. So we headed back there today, but we’re very disappointed:  due to the 2016 category 4 hurricane (so were were told, anyway), the coral hasn’t been doing well and this, the fish aren’t as abundant either. 

We did, however, see a few good examples of coral, including this one, which reminded us of a human brain!

And this one, as well. 

And yes, we did see a fish! Actually, we saw several. But Pam was experimenting with a new underwater camera and didn’t quite get all the fish she thought she had photographed. 

A dusk view of the resort from the water. 

There is nothing like watching the sun set from the bathwater-warm Caribbean, with the love of your life. 

Quite the sunset cloud formation!

For dinner, we returned to Windsong Resort, where we stayed on our last trip here, in 2014. We had our own private outdoor “grove” with a view of the ocean, complete with tiki torches. It was an incredibly memorable meal.