Tuesday, feb 17, 2009
I am still alive, although still suffering from this stupid cough and fatigue. I get too many colds!
Today was the Turks and Caicos. We landed at Grand Turk one of the 30 islands that make up the two chains of islands.
Carnival, the parent company of Holland America, has built a large dock area for their cruise ships here complete with a Margarittaville and assorted tourist shops - clothing, jewellery, art and food.
I actually felt a bit human today so after breakfast we left the ship and wandered around this little area. But then we ventured further afield walking down the beach for 30 or 40 minutes. For those of yo0u that know my dislike of sand, sun and water you will be amazed to know that I actually walked in the surf!!! Threre is a picture to prove it.
Back to the ship for lunch and then onto a bus/van for a to0ur aro0und the island. Not much to see - Hurricane Ike blew by here on Sept 6, 2008 and rtore the place up. They still don't have electricity on the whole island. Manyof the buildings survived b8ut few of the roofs.
There was an active salt industry here a few hundred years ago but that has disappeared. Then the ame4ricans established naval bases there during the wars and then used them for sattelite tracking stations. Evidently John Glenn's capsule landed about 10 miles offshore here.
So now the industry is tourism and government. Grand Turk is the capital and 90 per cent of the jobs are government.
The young fellow that was our driver and to0ur guide went to sxchool in Canada and c]hurried back to the warmth (and the hurricanes) He kis a trained computer programmer but cqn make more money in the tourist induistry.
As a friend says this island is entrprenurial heaven. We were taken to the old light house - no admission charge, nothing to buy - not even water. There is a lot of opportunity here.
We were back in time to have a glass of wine on our verandah and then get ready fror dinner.
I not only managed to stay all through dinner (key lime pie for dessert) I also made it through the entertainment.
They had an elton john tribute guy - he wasn't bad - his back up band sucked big time - except for the female keyboard player. In particular the drummer was really bad.
It was quite windy i9n the loate afternoon and as we pushed off from Grand Turk - Gravol seems to be the ordwer of the night
Today was the Turks and Caicos. We landed at Grand Turk one of the 30 islands that make up the two chains of islands.
Carnival, the parent company of Holland America, has built a large dock area for their cruise ships here complete with a Margarittaville and assorted tourist shops - clothing, jewellery, art and food.
I actually felt a bit human today so after breakfast we left the ship and wandered around this little area. But then we ventured further afield walking down the beach for 30 or 40 minutes. For those of yo0u that know my dislike of sand, sun and water you will be amazed to know that I actually walked in the surf!!! Threre is a picture to prove it.
Back to the ship for lunch and then onto a bus/van for a to0ur aro0und the island. Not much to see - Hurricane Ike blew by here on Sept 6, 2008 and rtore the place up. They still don't have electricity on the whole island. Manyof the buildings survived b8ut few of the roofs.
There was an active salt industry here a few hundred years ago but that has disappeared. Then the ame4ricans established naval bases there during the wars and then used them for sattelite tracking stations. Evidently John Glenn's capsule landed about 10 miles offshore here.
So now the industry is tourism and government. Grand Turk is the capital and 90 per cent of the jobs are government.
The young fellow that was our driver and to0ur guide went to sxchool in Canada and c]hurried back to the warmth (and the hurricanes) He kis a trained computer programmer but cqn make more money in the tourist induistry.
As a friend says this island is entrprenurial heaven. We were taken to the old light house - no admission charge, nothing to buy - not even water. There is a lot of opportunity here.
We were back in time to have a glass of wine on our verandah and then get ready fror dinner.
I not only managed to stay all through dinner (key lime pie for dessert) I also made it through the entertainment.
They had an elton john tribute guy - he wasn't bad - his back up band sucked big time - except for the female keyboard player. In particular the drummer was really bad.
It was quite windy i9n the loate afternoon and as we pushed off from Grand Turk - Gravol seems to be the ordwer of the night
posted by Cyril Kesten at 7:45 AM
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