By Sara J. Kaufman

The Turks & Caicos Islands today are a well known Caribbean vacation destination noted for glorious beaches, a peaceful atmosphere and friendly people. Providenciales — the most developed island with a profusion of upmarket resorts and condominiums, gourmet restaurants and an array of activities both in-the-water and out — claims much fame. But for those seeking serious hideaway, TCI’s trove of private communities offers an intriguing alternative.

Pine Cay boasts one of TCI's finest soft white sand beaches.

Tranquility, privacy, exclusivity and security are hallmarks at each private community, with a variety of locations and amenities to suit every taste. For many families, these qualities are exactly what they need to provide a much-needed refuge from the hectic urban world. Providenciales boasts a superb private jet terminal and daily commercial flights from major hubs including New York, Miami, Toronto, Atlanta, Newark and Charlotte, along with VIP Flight Club service for arrivals and departures, so it is convenient to reach the Islands from almost anywhere. (The recent runway extension at Providenciales International Airport and planned terminal renovation not only opens the destination to more overseas flights, but makes arriving and leaving a more stream-lined process.) With a variety of properties to suit your style, budget and lifestyle, owning a home in a TCI private community to enjoy with your family and friends is an achievable dream. Consider any of the five communities described in this article — four of which are private islands — to find the right vacation home for you.

Pine Cay

Pine Cay is the longest established private community in TCI. An 800 acre island, with 600 acres of common green space and one of the finest soft white sand beaches in the country, Pine Cay was first developed in the 1970s. It has evolved into an exclusive, privately owned island with very limited membership and only 36 homes. This special island differs from other private communities in that members jointly own the entire island, while individuals own their own properties. The overall management of the island, homeowners’ services and the hotel is an integrated operation, directly supervised by the homeowners. Shared ownership of the capital assets sets the structure of Pine Cay quite apart from all the other private communities, and offers a real chance to engage directly in preserving your asset for future generations.

Pine Cay is home to The Meridian Club (a 12 room hotel with gourmet dining). This year, a tremendous upgrade and renovation has been completed on site, refreshing the amenities while preserving the rustic elegance for which the hotel is famous. The hotel functions much as a club house and a social meeting place for the members, with tennis courts, spa, pool, patio bar and lounge. Staff housing, laundry, mechanic shop, boathouse, a 2,800 ft. airstrip and a well protected marina complete the shared island assets.

This island glories in the pristine indigenous vegetation, long, sparkling stretches of beach, a massive freshwater lens, inland ponds and quiet trailways — no cars are allowed. With a short 20 minute boat ride from the Leeward dock or 10 minute flight from Provo, you can be in a different world.

Another notable difference on Pine Cay is the commitment of the homeowners to the local people and culture. Staff on Pine Cay are most often from neighboring North Caicos, and several generations of families have been employed over the years. Training opportunities for local staff and their families has been very important. The Pine Cay Project is a philanthropic arm that supports literacy, computers and education projects across the TCI.

Homes on Pine Cay are modest, reflecting an early environmental pledge to preserve the natural beauty of the island — an ethic upheld to this day. On each of its four shores, members’ homes nestle into Pine Cay and views are protected for all.

Currently, a variety of homes are for sale including beachfront cottages, newly renovated homes on the water and vacant lots for building your own dream home. Senior members are retiring from the homeowners’ association and memberships are now available. Sara Kaufman, manager of Forbes, Forbes & Forbes Ltd., has worked with PIne Cay homeowners since 2004 and states, “There has never been a better time to join the Pine Cay community — the investment value is outstanding and the lifestyle is superb. As club membership evolves, new families bring energy and vision to the island, with clear shared goals to protect this haven for the future.”

Pine Cay reflects the local splendor of TCI with simplicity and privacy. This is an island for those who wish to relax in the comfort and familiarity of their own unique home, sharing with family and friends the gentle, natural island lifestyle. Visit the dedicated Pine Cay Realty Services website at www.pinecayrealty.com for more information.

Parrot Cay

Tamarind Villa is part of Parrot Cay Estates.

The amazing island of Parrot Cay, its name a twist on its former use as a pirate’s hideaway, came to life in 1998. The existing buildings were renovated, followed by additional construction to bring the beach and spa buildings to full fruition. With its luxurious hotel, world-renowned spa and famous clientele, the resort brought instant fame to TCI as its flagship five-star retreat. The aura can best be described as “an exalted state of being, where natural beauty and elegant simplicity create a rarified atmosphere of peace and tranquility.” A boat service runs from Provo to Parrot Cay for the convenience of hotel guests and homeowners, with a luxurious 48 foot jet drive boat crossing to the island in about 35 minutes.

Parrot Cay is a 1,000 acre island and the famous Parrot Cay Como Resort clusters on the eastern end; it includes a 45-room hotel, 12 beach suites, the COMO Shambhala Retreat, an infinity edge pool, a poolside restaurant and a terrace dining room. Early guests wanted to become part of the island, so land was made available for private ownership in the early 2000s on the island’s serene western end. The private homes on Parrot Cay are all relatively new, built since 2001, and are as lavish as their celebrity owners.

Parrot Cay Estates is a turnkey project of private residences built by the resort, available for private purchase. The three- and four-bedroom villas are each set on an acre and a half of private land, protected by lush, native vegetation and the rise of the dunes. All the homes are managed separately from the resort, by a special team, to ensure superb service is always at hand. Legendary hotelier Christina Ong is the driving force of Parrot Cay and she continues to own the majority of the island and the Como resort management company.

The homeowners have no affiliation with the resort and pay annual dues only for road access and security. Individuals own their own lots and homes built, and there is no membership structure. Owners may or may not choose to rent their homes. With all the amenities of the resort moments away and dedicated concierge, villa management and butler services, this island community offers a combination of privacy and service unrivaled elsewhere.

Parrot Cay is for the very wealthy, as land prices and ongoing services are dear, but the lifestyle is a dream come true. Where your every whim is catered to effectively and your total enjoyment is paramount, Parrot Cay attracts those who want to walk the beach, melt into the ocean and totally relax. Contact crawford.sherman@parrotcay.como.bz for more information.
Amanyara Resort

On the northwest point of Providenciales, Amanyara is not a private island but its serious isolation from any other development warrants its inclusion in this article! Opened in 2007 by the renowned Aman Resorts group, their vision for the resort was radical, chic and impressive in its realization. With a major design influence from southeast Asia, extensive use of hardwoods throughout and tranquility pools a major part of the landscape, the tone of Amanyara is quite cosmopolitan. Yet at the same time, its secluded location (much of the winding, 25 minute drive from the airport is through pristine tropical “bush”) and careful use of native trees and shrubs in landscaping, lends a natural Caribbean appeal.

The 100-acre site is deceiving; it is larger than the size implies, but laid out in a manner befitting a luxury experience. There are 40 pavilion rooms and 20 villas clustered along the rocky shoreline. The sun, sea breeze, sights and sounds of the ocean are Amanyara’s key to tranquility. Pavilions interlink gracefully, quiet pathways wind to the homes hidden in dense landscaping, the beach and rocky coves beckon. With two dining areas, a glorious bar and a beach club on the dunes, you are never far from service. Tennis, spa, pool, film lounge, library and fitness center are all on hand.

By integrating the private residences and the hotel suites into an overall design, the intimate community element is greatly enhanced. All villas were built by the resort and sold to their owners on a turnkey basis. Each villa centers on a tranquility pool, with separate pavilions  for bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and dining. A personal cook and housekeeper are permanently assigned to your villa. Ingo Reckhorn, Amanyara Villa Sales Manager, describes the sheer delight of homeowners on arrival to find their personal mementos in place, most comfortable clothes laid out and their favorite island dinner ready at the poolside dining pavilion.

Homeowners are not members of the resort, but belong to a type of strata association, with individual block and parcel ownership on title. The very strong rental program is integral to the Aman approach to selling the private residences, with resort management obligatory. It has been quite successful with no annual dues, as rental income covers most costs. Overall management for the whole community is key to that success, keeping both guests and homeowners happy, and only four villas are currently for sale.

Here another type of resident finds their dream —a haven where one walks to the bar at sunset, then ambles home to a poolside dinner created by your own cook. Your preferences become known, wishes anticipated, comfort a priority. Amanyara offers a sophisticated yet cozy atmosphere — a place for you to relax in the splendor of your own home! For more information, contact ingo@amanyaravillas.com.

Ambergris Cay

Perhaps the most ambitious private island development in the Caribbean in the past decade, Ambergris Cay is intriguing in many ways. A stunning 1,100 acre island, perched at the edge of the Columbus Passage, it has hills and flatlands, sandy beaches and rocky cliffs and a profusion of TCI’s namesake Turks Head cacti. Development here has been difficult and today has reached a challenging impasse.

Ambergris Cay boasts the Caribbean's longest jet runway.

Unoccupied since the late 1700s, the cay was purchased in 1995 by a TCI resident and group of fellow adventurers. Several years later, developers Dolan, Pollak & Schram (DPS) joined up and plans to create and market the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club took off. The vision for the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club was vast, glamorous and comprehensive. It was a huge vision, anticipating a private retreat for no more than 450 members with a 5,700 ft. paved jet runway with customs and immigration services, medical facilities and staff on island, cluster villages, elegant club facilities and fabulous private homes. Indeed, at its height, a deposit of $10,000 was required simply to view the sale prospectus package.

This was a vision for private members, no public rentals and an emphasis on ecotourism activities for the members to maximize usage of the glorious natural environment. The renowned Greenbrier Resort and Club Management Company was to operate the facility. Plans were for experienced guides and naturalists to help residents get the most out of every experience. Extensive training was offered to all staff. Comprehensive planning preceded initial marketing and construction of the project. Homesites were released in stages, by area, with the initial offering in January 2004. As an equity membership club, homeowners purchase the land plus pay a one-time equity fee, with annual dues. Ownership in the T & C Sporting Club was to be a family legacy.

Island development is never easy. Getting workers and equipment to the cay, building the critical infrastructure and promoting the development took longer than planned — and cost more than budgeted. Uptake/sales were slower than anticipated and only 200 of the 600 homesites had been sold by early 2010. However, by 2009, all permanent infrastructure was completed: water, power, wastewater treatment, communications, airstrip, welcome center, the Calico Jack restaurant/clubhouse, environmental learning centre and tennis courts, with construction of the spa, yoga pavilion and pool complex underway. At the same time, construction of villas began in several communities.

When the on-island managment companies were declared bankrupt in late 2010, it was a stunning surprise and devastating blow to members, staff, and TCI. Fortunately, those owners who completed their homes have sorted out access and services, such that they can enjoy their homes on Ambergris Cay.

Going forward, the overall management and ownership issues have yet to be finally and legally clarified, but Ambergris Cay is a truly wonderful project which will come back to life. Katherine Baryluk, broker/owner of Regency International Estates/Turks & Caicos Real Estate Services, the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, has several properties on Ambergris Cay for sale and she comments, “The trick of the savvy real estate investor is knowing when to buy. Ambergris Cay is a long term investment and with current prices, the investment time is now.” For more information, contact  Katherine@tcibrokers.com.

West Caicos

Located six miles to the southwest of Providenciales, West Caicos is one of the most captivating islands in TCI, and offers 5,500 acres of a true ecotourist’s paradise. Long stretches of pearly sand dunes, craggy limestone coves, prime scuba diving on the wall, whales migrating past in season, an inland lake full of flamingos, a pristine island never developed . . . all are found on West Caicos. At the dawn of the new millennium, a proud TCI government announced its vision for the “Isle of West Caicos” — a joint venture with local developers that included reserved lots for Belongers, a yacht harbor and a Ritz-Carlton resort community.

The current status of proposed Ritz Carlton Resort on West Caicos.

The ambitious announcement brought much needed interest and investment into TCI, culminating in the West Caicos Reserve/Molasses Reef project. The well thought out design encompassed the island with three coastal communities of private homes, a 10 acre harbor with full service marina and “Old World” village and a branded five-star Ritz Carlton hotel compound with 125 rooms, three restaurants, a spa and a range of guest facilities. The tone was set for a low density, low impact and environmentally friendly development with access by small plane or helicopter and regular boat ferry service from Provo. West Caicos was to be a point of entry into the country with immigrations and customs clearance on site.

With a great start in late 2001, the natural salina was dredged and lined to create the harbor, with construction on selected buildings commencing in 2003. Sales were good and through to 2008, positive press coverage continued, as the project was nearly 3/4 complete. But the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the major financier, in September 2008 was catastrophic. And so the island has languished, the partially built hotel and villas standing abandoned, legalities dangling, fate currently unknown.

After local rumors circulated that a team of European investors were inspecting the property, with an eye to bringing it back to life, the TCI Government released a press statment in late October 2011 from Governor D.R.  Todd, “There is a proposal by serious investors to take over and complete the West Caicos development.” Hopefully, this will move forward soon as the grand vision for West Caicos still holds tremendous appeal.

Beachfront parcels are currently available for sale there, with prices reflecting the current slow realty market. Katherine Baryluk of RIE/Turks & Caicos Real Estate Services, the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, notes, “If you are ever going to invest in a downturn market, this is the time, and it will not last much longer. With private islands, you are placing yourself among ultra high net worth individuals and that holds value.” For more information on West Caicos, contact Katherine Baryluk at katherine@tcibrokers.com.

Suffice to say, for those seeking privacy and tranquility in TCI fabulous choices abound — each with their own costs and benefits. The lifestyle of a private community is not for everyone. These five developments stand apart from gated communities on Providenciales through geographic and self imposed isolation. One cannot drive down the highway to a different restaurant, go shopping at another plaza or visit the grocery store. Instead, residents of these exclusive private communities merge into the atmosphere of their retreat by design, relishing the peacefulness of going nowhere . . . except the beach, or course.

Sara J. Kaufman has lived in TCI for 17 years, partnered in the development of the Blue Horizon Resort in Middle Caicos, co-founded the Middle Caicos Co-op to promote traditional TCI culture and handcrafts, travels extensively throughout TCI, writes widely on realty topics and manages Forbes, Forbes & Forbes Ltd. real estate brokerage. Sara developed a dedicated realty service for Pine Cay in 2005 and has sold many properties there over the years. Keeping abreast of the private island and private communities of TCI, each with their own lifestyle and advantages, is her special area of expertise. By choice she relishes privacy and tranquillity, living on Middle Caicos with 50 square miles of pristine island and only 300 residents. For further information on private communities, or realty in TCI, please contact sara@forbesrealtytci.com or call 1-649-231-4884 anytime.

“Because it is there” is allegedly the reason British mountaineer George Mallory provided for climbing to Mt. Everest’s summit. Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzig Norgay were the first to accomplish this feat, noshing on Kendal Mint Cake while enjoying the view from the peak. Some mountaineers attempt every peak on a continent, others go for the top ten highest in the world, and still others go for the most challenging faces. A friend of mine has the dream of climbing to Everest’s base camp, and acknowledges that she will have to cross a dizzying rope bridge to do so. “But look at the brochure photo,” she reassures me with brazen confidence, “the rope bridge can hold seven yaks.”

I never had any such delusions regarding the outdoors. I don’t do avalanches and glaciers and the final resting places of intrepid climbers marked only by their own frozen corpses studding the snow. I trek for the journey, not for the destination. I’m a sensible, stop-and-smell-the-orchids type of hiker. I watch birds and stoop to examine mushrooms. I pat clumps of moss, provide hand-over-hand treadmills for stick insects, and occasionally sprawl out in the crackly leaf litter under a bush to rest.

Flamingo Hill is the highest summit in the Turks & Caicos.

But now I have gotten myself into a bit of an unexpected situation. Through botanical fieldwork, I had conquered the highest peaks on the islands of Grand Turk, South Caicos and Middle Caicos. Then in November 2010, a precedent was set when, along with a team of colleagues, I ascended to the highest summit in the Turks & Caicos Islands — Flamingo Hill in East Caicos. The journey to the top was difficult, but I caught the mountaineering bug. Views from these peaks are astounding, and they can be climbed without much in the way of gear.

A peek at the peaks
These peaks are the tops of ridges that arose from the gradual accumulation — estimated at 5 centimetres per 1000 years — of calcium compounds precipitating out of sea water to form oolitic limestone. They all formed under the waters of oceans that were, at some time in history, much higher. The Turks & Caicos Islands, along with the Bahamas, began forming as far back as before the Jurassic Period, 145 – 200 million years ago. Exposure to air and occasional washings of acidic rainwater make many of the ridges barren of soil and covered in a hard patina of smooth, bare, weathered bedrock. Acidic rainwater has also worn holes into the limestone in some places, creating everything from small pockets where dusty soil may accumulate, to significant caves. Plants cling into these pockets and into cracks and fissures in the rocks.
It was some of these plants that brought me to some of the highest ridges in Middle Caicos. Wild populations of Christmas palm Pseudophoenix sargentii grow on a few of the highest hills in Middle Caicos, rooted into tiny pockets of soil on the sparsely-vegetated peaks. One of the highest ridges in Middle Caicos, Freetown Hill overlooking Lorimers, also plays host to a number of red orchids Encyclia rufa (which disobediently bloom cream or yellow in the Turks & Caicos Islands), gripping onto the trunks of shrubs with no need for soil, a scarce commodity at the tops of hills.

Dwarfed trees like this joe-wood are common on the eastern ridge of South Caicos.

Treks to the highest points of South Caicos were carried out in search of tiny Bahamas buttonbush Borreria bahamensis which prefers sandy stacks on the tops of windward ridges as its habitat. Many of these ventures resulted in surprises, like the golden-leaved true lignum vitae Guaiacum officinale (far rarer here than the sacred lignum vitae Guaiacum sanctum) squatting on the top of the windward ridge over South Caicos’ eastern shore, with the rare Turks & Caicos endemic plant silvery silverbush Argythemnia argentea huddled beneath them. Forming meadows between these one-tree forests in miniature grow swaths of wind-stunted rong bush Wedelia bahamensis, a Bahamas and TCI endemic answer to the sunflower, humbly holding its yellow blossoms stiffly in the incessant windward ridge-top breeze. Far below to the west, feral donkeys lumbered along their ancient trails between ponds along Back Road and farther west the weathered town of Cockburn Harbour looked quaint and hazy, stabbed by an anachronistic cell phone tower.

Farther north, a clamber up the surprisingly high hills on the northern peninsula of South Caicos yielded a panorama out over Columbus Passage past a hillside thickly clothed in Inagua silver top palms Coccothrinax inaguensis, their shiny green and silvery-bottomed leaves forming a tumultuous windblown ocean of sea-foam and green. I strained my eyes downward to follow my botanical students on their search for more silvery silverbush as they sunk below the waves of jade and silver, the steady wind speedily flipping through my notebook and several times relieving me of my hat.

Taking a beating?

Wind-swept habitats are perfect for woolly nipple cactus.

This hike above the mountainside forest of silver top palms was perhaps good practice for what would come in the following year. In May 2010 I hiked with a team in East Caicos inland from the east coast and north toward Drum Hill, on that island’s northeast corner. Chopping our way through the dense tangle of twisted trees growing in the alluvium at the base of the hill, we eventually made it above the “tree line” — here not controlled by climate, but rather the lack of soil to support large trees. At the summit, plates of broken cap rock teeter-tottered as we padded over them carefully, mindful of the possibility of caves below the rock. Turning around to view south-eastward yielded a vista of brilliant coast south to McCartney Cay, and the dramatic hues of deep water close to the land. Beyond the shore, humpback whales breeched, while at our feet Turk’s head cacti spit their pink berries onto the ground. An occasional white-tailed tropicbird cruised by, possibly seeking a place to nest in the high seaward ridges, and blue-grey century plants held up ranks of lemon-yellow blossoms like tiered candy dishes.

Reaching new heights
Drum Hill may have been one of the most dramatic peaks I have ever visited, but it is not the highest. In November 2010 my team hiked along the East Caicos donkey railway embankment and walked wide to the south of Cape Comete Hill out onto the rocky inland tidal flats that make up the majority of East Caicos. Heading east through this crumbly, salty pavement of lithified algae and softened but craggy limestone with the occasional puddle of stagnant hypersaline water, eventually in front of us, rising up from just about sea level like an overturned, dented bowl, was Flamingo Hill, the highest peak in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

At 48 metres (157 feet) in height, the effect of this hill is significant because it arises not from a headland, but from the tidal marsh at its feet. Along its base there are patches of rare plants, including Turk’s head cacti and the endemic capillary buttonbush Borreria capillaris. Around the hill’s foot is a wash of crumbly alluvial soil, weathered from its sides by ten thousand years of sparse seasonal rains. In this soil grow contorted trees, twisting their limbs around one another as if circling the mountain’s base in some sort of obstinate protective chain.
Much like Drum Hill, once this “tree line” is passed, the hillside is barren, but shingled in enormous brittle scales of loose cap rock. These scales of rock, held in place only by thin trunks of stunted shrubs suctioning onto the rock, are micro-habitats themselves, festooned with clumps and piles of yellow-flowered woolly nipple cactus Mammillaria nivosa. One wrong step on a scale of this rock, and it will shift and clang loudly against the bare rock of the mountain, and perhaps slide out of position and down the steep slope to the next tiny plant that catches its multi-century descent to the foot of the face. Learning to avoid these sledges of sharp limestone was the key to scaling the hill to its summit.

At the peak, an ancient horse pear cactus Opuntia nashii, found only in the Bahamas and TCI, raised its prickly, red-flower-studded pads above a surprising thicket of giant tongue bromeliad Aechmea lingulata, opening their vase-like leaf centres hopeful to receive cups full of water in the next rains. Outside this thicket, the rock-loving slender orchid Encyclia gracilis, its stout leaves hard and sharp as plastic knives, waved its delicate yellowy blossoms in the breeze. A quick hike along the top of the hill revealed a brilliant green pitch apple tree, which with its broad, thick leaves and pink-porcelain-saucer flowers is always a sign of a cave below. In fact, the tree’s banyan-like roots descended into a vertical shaft eight feet wide and twenty feet deep, like the crater of a volcano. As a colleague and I sat in the shade of this magnificent tree and had lunch on the highest point of the Turks & Caicos Islands (which, regrettably, did not include Kendal’s Mint Cake), we marvelled at the views around the island — Flamingo Pond and the ocean to the north, the next peak to the east, the wide open flooding flats being trotted over by an obviously distraught brown donkey to the south, and Cape Comete Hill framing Jacksonville Creek and the hills of Middle Caicos on the horizon to the west.

On the horizon
These vistas were a benefit of a job we had to do (documenting rare plants on East Caicos), so I didn’t just climb Flamingo Hill “because it is there.” But now that I have ascended to the country’s highest peak (all in all, the climb took about 30 minutes) I want to see what other islands’ peaks are hiding.

I’ve conquered the peaks of Middle Caicos, the Ambergris Cays, South Caicos, Six Hills Cays, and I’ve been to Pine Cay’s “Scenic Overlook,” three metres above sea level. I know what is on the highest point of Grand Turk, because my mom lives there. I’ve even sipped on a Shirley Temple with a past Governor on Parrot Cay’s peak, where the main resort sits. But the majestic heights of other islands call to me now. Richmond Hill in Providenciales (which is sometimes listed as TCI’s highest point, in competition with Flamingo Hill) is on the list. St. James Hill in North Caicos is another I have yet to scale, and the sweeping heights of Taylor Hill on Salt Cay and West Caicos’ complex of low ridges overlooking Lake Catherine are yet unconquered. All of these summits are on the list to punch, and while I doubt I’ll need an intrepid Sherpa or supplementary oxygen to facilitate the excursions, I will at least try to have a Kendal Mint Cake to nibble on when at my next summit.

Why continue climbing to the next summit? Not because it is there . . . but because it is patently not Everest.

There was a buzzing of emails back and forth between Caicos Pine Recovery Project partners in October as Nursery Caretaker Junel “Flash” Blaise and I cleaned and counted seeds from this year’s pine cone collections. The number of seeds was unexpectedly high this year — a grand total of 8,676 seeds were found, smashing ten times over last year’s collection of only 772 seeds.

Harvest of cones from Caicos Pines in Pine Cay and Middle Caicos

The overwhelming majority of the seeds, 8,488 of them, were from the Pine Cay population, which is still relatively healthy and productive. Only 188 seeds came from the few productive trees in Middle Caicos, and no mature cones were found in North Caicos. Each cone has the capacity to produce over 100 seeds, but low pollen load in the air due to so few healthy trees producing it means that fewer cone scales are pollinated. Pines are ancient trees that existed before insects, so they depend exclusively on wind for pollination. Interestingly, though the cones usually ripen and open in mid-October, this year the cones began opening in mid-August. The cause of this shift is unknown.

Cones were gathered by Flash and me on Pine Cay and Middle Caicos with specially-made cone collectors, constructed by hand from Casuarina poles, 2-quart juice cans, cloth collection bags, and Velcro strips. Flash impressed with his tree-climbing prowess, gathering cones even during high winds and rain related to far-away disturbance from Hurricane Maria. While working in rain during the collection days was annoying, it proved fortuitous — humidity and moisture causes pine cones to close their scales, locking the seed inside and making it easier to collect.

Junel "Flash" Blaise harvest pine cones on Pine Cay.

The cones, which filled three large garbage cans, were brought to DECR’s North Caicos office where the Pine Project staff members knocked, pulled, and picked seeds out of the cones using fine tweezers, needle tools, and headlamps to see inside the cones. The cones were allowed to dry further (the dryer cones get, the more their scales open) and then a second beating of the cones yielded even more seed. When I described the increasing numbers of seed appearing as the laborious picking-out went on, Millennium Seed Bank contact Tom Heller asked if we were yet having any disturbing dreams related to picking seeds out of pine cones — and the question startled. Indeed, the days on end of picking out seeds must have gotten into our heads, because we had begun experiencing disturbed sleep related to dreams about digging pine seeds out of cones — and sometimes even crawling into the cones to get the seeds out! Apparently, this syndrome is a fairly commonplace occupational hazard related to cleaning pine cones of their seeds, well known to the employees of the Millennium Seed Bank. Some stress from work, I suppose, remains unanticipated and surprising.

Junel Blaise and the author display the "dream" seed collection.

The majority of this year’s “dream” seed collection will be sent to the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank in the United Kingdom, where it will be safely stored long-term in a state-of-the-art underground deep-freeze facility. This collection will provide a safety net of living tissue that can be grown if the wild trees are lost —like a Noah’s Ark for our National Tree. Some of the seed will also be grown by RBG Kew’s UK Overseas Territories Programme team, using experimental methods on how best to propagate the plant in sterile laboratory and temperate greenhouse conditions. Plants resulting from this effort will be repatriated back to TCI when ready.

A portion of the seed will also be planted in the Caicos Pine Recovery Project nursery in North Caicos, where they will join last year’s seedlings and provide a new generation of pines to be replanted into the wild. Together, these efforts will support the dream of having a once-again stable and safe population of our National Tree growing in the wild — and that’s about as much as we want to dream about pine trees anymore! a

The DECR and the Caicos Pine Recovery Project wish to express sincerest gratitude to Pine Cay and The Meridian Club in facilitating and supporting this extremely important conservation measure to save our National Tree!

If you ask someone to name important events during a particular time frame, not only might they note national milestones (constitution signed, airport opened, hurricane hit), but also events crucial to their community (church broke ground, local roads paved) and, most importantly, to their family (father left to find work in the Bahamas, sister got married, cousin won a track medal). When you look back at the history of a nation, it is made up of just such a compilation of the corporate and the personal.

In the British Commonwealth, 2012 marks Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, commemorating her 60 year reign as queen from February 6, 1952 to the present. Among many celebrations, the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is coordinating the Commonwealth Jubilee Time Capsule. It will include 21,915 days worth of history written by the people of the Commonwealth, one for each day Her Majesty has been head of the association. The plan is for people to enter stories, photos, videos, music, drawings, poems and other creative forms of memory about a day in the last 60 years that is important to them, their family or their country. (See www.jubileetimecapsule.org.)

Queen Elizabeth visited Grand Turk and South Caicos in 1966.

These memories — the untold stories of millions of ordinary and extraordinary lives — will be compiled in a unique, online Time Capsule, with the best entries presented as a gift to Her Majesty on Commonwealth Day, March 12, 2012, and also awarded prizes.

Local private school British West Indies Collegiate (BWIC), the top college preparatory high school in the country, has been chosen as one of 150 Super Schools across the Commonwealth to help RCS commit to reaching the 21,915 days of content as a team. This means that BWIC’s students, parents and friends must make at least 150 contributions, covering any 150 days during Her Majesty’s reign. With this latitude, the school is sure that every person and institution — be it a business, church, youth group, sports team or government agency — should be able to find a significant day that will reflect their contribution to island life.

BWIC Principal Sylvie Wigglesworth is excited over the amazing possibilities this project opens up, “At a time in our history when we need to pull together and help one another through a tough period, this will cause us to remember who we are, where we came from, what we have achieved, and guide us to where we are heading next.” She adds that this will provide a unique opportunity for the people of the TCI — be they Belongers or expatriates — to tell THEIR story, in THEIR own way.

The entries can take the form of a piece of writing (1,000 words maximum), a set of photos with captions, film or audio material (four minutes maximum), newspaper clipping, poster, artwork, poem, musical composition, you name it! It must be dedicated to any aspect of life in the Turks & Caicos Islands between the years of 1952 and 2012. Entries will be submitted to the project electronically, so it will have to be possible to scan or photograph them.

BWIC students will be participating in the Jubilee Time Capsule project.

BWIC students and staff will be working with the community to collect memories until the deadline of January 27, 2012. Besides submitting the entries for the Commonwealth Jubilee Time Capsule, BWIC plans to put all contributions on exhibit in Brayton Hall, turn them over to the Turks & Caicos National Museum for a potential exhibit in the soon-to-be Providenciales branch and, we will regularly feature them in a new Times of the Islands column, “A Day in the Life.” (See examples in this issue.) The Royal Commonwealth Society has also promised prizes for the best entries submitted by the schools.

So, search your memory, talk to your relatives, dig into that drawer or scrapbook. Take out your tape recorder or camera, pull out the paints or crayons. Be creative and let your voice form part of the people’s history of the TCI!

To submit an entry or work with a BWIC student on compiling your entry, contact Sylvie Wigglesworth at 649 941 3333 or email bwicprincipal@tciway.tc.

BWIC would like to acknowledge Mr. Bill Clare for lending precious personal documents to the school, in support of this project.

Formed and operated by the TCI Education Foundation, a charitable organization incorporated in 1993, the British West Indies Collegiate is a private international secondary school whose founding ethos is the provision of education of the highest possible quality for the children of the Turks & Caicos as well as those who reside in the Islands. The school provides an environment that encourages students to achieve to their full potential, both inside and outside the classroom.
In 1998, the Collegiate was accredited as an International Examination Centre by the University of Cambridge in the UK and as a SAT Examination Centre by the American College Board. To date, the Collegiate has a 100% success rate for securing university places for students completing the Advanced Level programme.
Of the students currently registered at the school, approximately 65% are TCI Nationals (Belongers), with the rest comprising a variety of nationalities. The TCI Education Foundation in conjunction with other donors operates a scholarship programme primarily for Belonger students, based on academic merit.
The Collegiate employs teachers with university degrees and postgraduate teaching qualifications, competent in teaching to Advanced Level in their respective subjects.

Let’s take a look at what the Museum’s Finders, Binders, and Minders have been up to for the last 20 years and what they have accomplished. Here is a sampling of a few of their more noteworthy achievements.

1980–1989 Molasses Reef Wreck archaeological project produces thousands of artifacts. Return of the collection to the TCI following conservation and analysis provides the impetus for creation of the TCNM.

Grethe Seim is the Turks & Caicos National Museum's founder.

1990 Grethe Seim creates the TCNM with the help of Governor and Mrs. Bradley. Its mission statement: “The Turks & Caicos National Museum is a not for profit organization aimed at recording, interpreting, preserving and celebrating the history of the Turks & Caicos Islands and its people.” Guinep House Lodge is purchased and remodeled to become TCNM.
1991 A Ships of Discovery team creates and installs the exhibits.
1991 Museum opens to the public on November 23.

1992 Sherlin Williams leads a Museum team in conducting a survey of all windmills on Grand Turk. Ships of Discovery technician Juan Rodriguez builds a fully- functional scale model of the last standing windmill.
1992 Museum Manager Brian Riggs oversees conversion of the lot north of the Museum into the “National Arboretum” after the historic Bascombe House burns to the ground.

1993 Prince Philip tours the Museum during a visit to the Turks & Caicos Islands.

1996 Capt. Bob Gascoine finds a Lucayan Paddle underwater on Grand Turk. Following conservation treatment is becomes the centerpiece of the new Lucayan Gallery.

Turks & Caicos National Museum team members document Grand Turk's windmills.

1997 Barry Dressel, the Museum’s first Director, presides over the opening of the Science Building, providing the Museum with badly needed work and storage space.

1997 Editor Kathy Borsuk accepts the Museum’s invitation to publish its newsletter, the Astrolabe in each quarterly issue of Times of the Islands.

1998 Ted Philippona donates his collection of photographs of the TCI taken in the early 1960s. Other photo collections are also donated.

1999 A Ships of Discovery team moulds many of the inscriptions on Sapodilla Hill. Sherlin Williams assists in making casts of the moulds now on display in the Providenciales International Airport.

2000 Founder Grethe Seim establishes a small endowment for the Museum before her untimely passing.

2000 A Ships of Discovery team surveys and maps the Cheshire Hall ruins.

2001 Nigel Sadler, the Museum’s second Director, presides over the creation of the Lucayan Gallery and publishes three booklets on sale in the Museum.

2003 Smithsonian Institution lends artifacts in their collection originally found in the TCI to the Museum for exhibit. A Lucayan duho stolen from the Victoria Library decades ago is returned.

This Ted Philippona photo shows the last of TCI's salt rakers at work.

2003 Tanya Streeter, world renowned international free diver, visits TCNM after breaking two world records on Providenciales and donates a range of items from these dives.

2004–8 A Ships of Discovery team locates and test- excavates remains of the Spanish slave ship Trouvadore.

2005 The TCNM Children’s Club is created.

2006 Grand Turk Cruise Ship Center opens. Visitation to the Museum increases exponentially.

2008 Trustee Donna Seim publishes Where Is Simon, Sandy? All proceeds go to the Children’s Club.

2008 A Ships of Discovery team identifies remains of the US Navy warship Chippewa on Provo’s Northwest Reef.

2008 Neal Hitch, the Museum’s third Director, is thankful that damage to the Museum is minor with no loss of collections following the devastation of Grand Turk by Hurricane Ike.

TCI museum team members excavate a small building on Ft. George Cay.

2009 A Ships of Discovery team surveys Ft. George Cay, revealing that the site is much larger than previously thought.

2010–11 Contract archivist Melanie Clifton-Harvey identifies, catalogs, and evaluates archival assets in the TCI under a grant from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Program.
2010–11 Pat Saxton, the Museum’s fourth Director, secures funding to transform the National Arboretum into a Botanical and Cultural Garden that is now a tour destination.
2011 Funding is also secured to create a walking and driving bird trail on Grand Turk, in cooperation with the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum.

2011 Museum Manager Jackie Garbarino revitalizes the shop and oversees the knowledgeable staff and volunteers as record numbers of cruise ship tourists visit the Museum.

3D view of the planned new National Museum on Provo.

2011 Museum purchases property in the Village at Grace Bay on Provo and begins capital program to build a second museum.

For the greater good
Collecting, preserving, and disseminating: everything the Museum does is for the Greater Good. In other countries the National Museum is normally supported by the government. But this is not the case in the Turks & Caicos. The National Museum is supported primarily by donations and grants from foundations and individuals.

Our Museum’s greatest benefactor is the Founder, Mrs. Grethe Seim, who created the Museum’s Deed of Trust, purchased the Guinep House, renovated it, and filled it with exhibits. Realizing that any competent museum needs laboratory, office, shop, storage and meeting room space, she also constructed the Science Building just behind the Guinep House exhibits facility. The National Museum is her gift to the people of the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Until this year, the National Museum has existed only on Grand Turk. But thanks to a grant from the Krieble Foundation it now has property in the Village at Grace Bay on Providenciales where it plans to establish a second venue.

Looking ahead
So much for the past, what about the future? Where is the Museum headed? The Museum’s greatest challenges for the next few years will be to keep up with the dramatic increase in visitation from the Cruise Ship Center on Grand Turk and to create a new campus on Provo. This provides us not only with an opportunity to unveil new exhibits specific to the history of the Caicos Islands, but also to update old exhibits and create new ones on Grand Turk.

Because the Molasses Reef ship, the earliest shipwreck found in the Americas, wrecked on the Caicos Bank, we want to move its exhibit to Provo and replace it on Grand Turk with an equally exciting one about HMS Endymion, a 44-gun warship that wrecked on the Turks Islands Bank south of Salt Cay in 1790. Grand Turk will also get a brand new exhibit on the History of Diving in the TCI, starting with the exploits of early helmet diver Jeremiah Daniel Murphy, who lived and worked there for almost 50 years. To fill out the story, we can add Tanya Streeter, who set a free-diving world record off Provo, and another extraordinary marine philosopher and record-holder, Jacques Mayol, who had a home on South Caicos for many years.

Being one of the oldest buildings on Grand Turk, the Guinep House is the perfect place for exhibits depicting life in the 19th century, during which the salt industry peaked and then slowly but steadily declined, the victim of changing times and technology. In addition to converting one of the rooms into “Jeremiah Murphy’s Dive Locker” and another into a re-creation of the Colonial Administrator’s office, complete with furniture, clothing, documents, maps, letters, tea set and Sword of Service, we plan to showcase the original kitchen and install plaques in each room explaining their original use.

The Museum on Provo will feature a major exhibit about the Islands’ original inhabitants, the Lucayan Indians, who settled in the Caicos at least 700 years ago. The Museum has been accumulating Lucayan artifacts excavated in the Caicos Islands for many years. Now, at last, they can be viewed.

Other brand new exhibits planned for the National Museum on Provo includes the brief but hugely important period from about 1790 until 1840, during which the most fertile land in the Caicos Islands was cleared for cultivation by Loyalist refugees displaced after the American War of Independence. They and their slaves planted cotton and sugar cane, built docks, roads, homes and settlements, bringing civilization to the Islands for the first time.

One of the boldest ideas for the Provo Museum will be the “Caicos Heritage House” exhibit. This will be a masonry home typical of the type built in the Caicos Islands throughout the 19th and 20th centuries disassembled, moved to the Museum’s grounds, reassembled, and fitted out with all the normal household appurtenances such as cookware, tableware, gardening tools, etc.

Perhaps the most historically significant exhibit in the Provo Museum will be about the two slave ships, Esperança and Trouvadore, that wrecked on Middle and East Caicos. When Museum researchers stumbled across the story of the slave ships we immediately recognized how important these forgotten events were to the history of the nation and its people. After years of research, the story turned out to be even more enthralling than we imagined. Museum-sponsored expeditions in 2004, 2006, and 2008 combed the area where Trouvadore sank; resulting in the discovery of hull remains and artifacts that we believe are all that is left of the ship.

Of course all of this is just the Museum’s potential. It will take a lot of effort by a lot of people — finders, binders, minders and funders — to make it a reality.

Doesn’t living 24/7 in the ocean keep fish clean, you ask? Not exactly. While they don’t need to hit the showers like we do after two sets of tennis, they still need to have their dead skin and scales removed, as well as tiny parasites that live on their bodies and inside their mouths. Left unattended, the parasites will multiply and eventually kill the fish.

Without the benefit of hands (or Waterpiks), getting rid of parasites can be a bit challenging, to say the least. But fish have worked out an effective system that’s mutually beneficial to themselves and their designated hygienists: cleaning stations! These distinct areas can be located right on a coral reef head, under it (especially with shrimps), between outcroppings, underneath clumps of floating seaweed or right out in public, in the water column. The “client” fish receives a first-rate spit-and-polish job, while the cleaner gets a free meal. It’s a beautiful thing — and it’s a classic example of symbiosis, or mutualism, an ecological interaction that benefits both the party of the first part and the party of the second part.

Tiger Grouper at a cleaning station.

Snorkelers and new divers are always amazed when they realize they’ve stumbled upon such a set-up. (And trust us, it’s a sight to behold: large groupers saying “ahh!” as tiny dentists dart in and out of their gaping gobs; parrotfish hovering statue-still on a 45º angle while slender yellow fish work their magic like Tinkerbell.) Fish great and small, turtles and even sharks come in for regular cleanings, and the specific attractive behaviors will vary depending on the species. The most common cleaning fish in these parts are wrasses and gobies, but shrimps are also experts at removing parasites, bacteria and dead skin, and occasionally catfish have been known to perform ablutions. (But beware the saber-toothed blenny, who mimics cleaner fish but in fact feeds on healthy scales and mucus.)

You may wonder how the groomers find their clients without the benefit of social networking. Actually, there are a few different ways, and they involve some complex behaviors that we usually associate with humans and primates (kind of like the fish equivalent of a secret handshake). Sometimes the cleaner advertises his services, typically by sporting a “uniform” that serves as a signal to potential customers (which is doubly clever, says a new study, as it also helps the fish avoid being eaten by their clients, which is never a good business model).

When a potential “host” approaches a cleaning station, he will open its mouth wide or position himself in a way that indicated he needs cleaning. Sometimes hosts congregate and perform specific movements together to attract the attention of the cleaner fish. Apparently those moves save their lives, as somehow this further signals to the potential predator that these small fry are off the menu.

Scientists have long wondered about this interaction, so an Australian researcher, Karen Cheney, and her colleagues recently decided to test the “uniform” theory, which holds that colors and body patterns are what set cleaners apart. And with some creative testing methods, including painting fake fish and attempting to lure clients, they discovered that the color theory holds water, so to speak, and that cleaner fish are more likely to sport a dark side stripe accentuated by patches of blue and yellow.

Giant anemones are a favorite home to several kinds of cleaners.

Shrimp are a whole other matter. Take the Banded Coral Shrimp, for instance. None of this “flashing some tacky blue and yellow costume and waiting around in the open water for just anyone to come in and ask for a clean-up job” for him. This highly specialized cleaner of larger fishes sleeps by day, and then as the sun goes down, begins his patient wait until his discerning clientele come swimming by under the cover of night. And his way of attracting business is stage-worthy: this crafty cleaner performs a discreet dance in which he shakes his white antennae and banded body — while hanging upside-down under a small coral head.

Divers love to get in on the cleaning action. You’ve heard of a French manicure. Well, Barbara and I have both gotten what’s known in the biz as a Pederson Manicure. And you, too, can get a professional nail job while snorkeling or whiling away the last three minutes of your dive doing your shallow-water safety stop. Search out an anemone (Barbara looks for corkscrew anemones like the ones in these photos) then gently place your hand in front of it and wait. (You’ve got at least three minutes of bubble time before you come up, so why not?) In pretty short order, one or possibly several Pederson cleaner shrimp will show up, climb onto your fingers and get busy clearing out the dead skin around the fingernails — and whatever else may be on your fingers. Sometimes cleaner gobies will join in and clean up and down your entire hand. And while we have never done this, we’ve seen other, more adventurous (or dirtier) divers who’ve found a cleaning station remove the regulator from their mouth, open wide and invite cleaner shrimp to come in and clean their teeth!

Close-up of Pederson cleaner shrimp

Once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll not only never miss a cleaning station again, but you’ll no doubt seek them out. And yet, as common as they are, trying to find and photograph the creatures for this article presented Barbara with a couple of serious challenges. First, she said, coming upon fish being cleaned without disturbing them is a lot tricky than you’d think. And then she confronted the added difficulty of finding those teeny, tiny cleaner shrimps as they hid in various anemones. We’re talking about creatures ranging in length from an inch or two down to less than a quarter-inch! Barbara claims she needs bifocals in her dive mask, but I think she did a pretty amazing job with these photos. And you should see her nails: divine!

New-York based Suzanne Gerber writes about scuba, travel and health for a variety of publications.

Avid underwater photographer Barbara Shively discovered Grand Turk diving in 1997 and has returned every year. It is her passion to share the coral reefs’ beauty through her photographs, many of which can be viewed and purchased at http://shivelygallery.com. A variety of her prints are on sale at Art Provo, located in The Regent Village, Providenciales.

Hammocks on private terraces at Neptune Villas overlook Chalk Sound.

Chalk Sound is one of God’s most beautiful creations. The water in this shallow inland sea always seems to beam with a heavenly glow, in a blue that can only be described as otherworldly. Adding to the scene are hundreds of tiny cays, outlined in rugged limestone, topped with bright green bush. Sometimes the Sound is so calm you can see bonefish weaving over the powdery bottom. But usually, the steady eastern tradewinds make their presence known with ripples and curls cutting the surface.

Neptune Villas, with Las Brisas Restaurant and Bar, reign over the southeastern corner of Chalk Sound National Park as if representing the Roman god of the sea. Its 10 villas hold court above the voluptuous landscape, with views a 360º panorama of water and sky, while the restaurant’s famous gazebo seems to float over the shoreline, enveloped by the sea.

I’ve lived next door to Neptune Villas for nearly 20 years, and I can recall when the Chalk Sound area was considered “no-man’s-land.” It was far from the bright lights of Grace Bay, out in the bush, too quiet for most tastes. Now, residents and visitors appreciate its peaceful atmosphere and beautiful vistas, and the shoreline tracing the Sound is dotted with upscale homes for several miles.

This natural beauty is what attracted Neptune Villas’ owners not only to visit the Turks & Caicos, but to move their family business a bit further south. Daughter Jovanna recalls, “As soon as they visited Providenciales and found Neptune Villas on the market, they were hooked.”

The pool/patio at Neptune's Villa is open to all patrons of the bar.

Originally built in 1986, the Neptune Villas had for years been rented long-term to residents, and the property, although occupying a stunning location, could best be described as “well-worn.” After the owners purchased the seven acre site in 2005, they spent three years thoroughly renovating each villa and the pool/patio area, expanding an existing structure into the restaurant and bar, and building the trademark gazebo and an entertainment deck. (Hurricane Ike in 2008 struck just as the work was nearly done, adding dozens of items to the “to do” list before opening.)

The hard-working family and their team have mined a diamond out of the rough. Today, the property is a well-run, high-quality resort, with villas luxuriously outfitted, roads paved, the grounds well-kept and every public area gleaming. Each villa sports four private terraces, ideal places to relax and soak in the views and refreshing breezes. With two bedrooms, two baths, a large, open living/dining area, a full kitchen outfitted with state of the art appliances and air conditioning and ceiling fans to complement the vaulted ceilings, the value-priced villas are the ideal vacation choice for visitors who appreciate the glory of nature and its tranquil beauty. Here, guests can relax on a private beach, cross the street to Sapodilla Bay, a popular shallow-water cove that’s ideal for young children, explore the mangrove-lined shores of Chalk Sound by kayak, canoe or pontoon boat, or simply relax with a cool drink under an umbrella on the comfortable patio.

A pontoon boat cruise is a great way to explore Chalk Sound.

The on-site Las Brisas Restaurant has become one of the most popular “off Grace Bay” dining venues for Provo residents and visitors. Not only do the gazebo, enclosed dining room and outdoor patio offer truly spectacular locations to enjoy a meal, but the food and service live up to the superb view. The Mediterranean/Caribbean menu is a melange of the owners’ varied ethnic tastes.

A large selection of tapas is a good way to start your meal at Las Brisas. Most folks choose several to share over a glass or bottle of wine from the inviting and reasonably priced wine list. Tapas range from the authentic (Spanish omelet, Portuguese chorizo, or prosciutto from Spain with manchego cheese) to the traditional (bruchetta or baked brie) to the Caribbean influenced (coconut shrimp and conch fritters) and even include wontons and nachos.

Las Brisas’s signature dish is paella, here a traditional Spanish seafood version, done to perfection with mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops and fish, and portioned for at least two large appetites. Most seafood offerings are freshly caught by South Caicos fishermen and can be prepared to your preference, with a choice of sauces. Also cooked to your preference is an enticing selection of meat and chicken entrees, large portions served with a choice of side dishes. Smaller appetites and lunchtime diners will appreciate the pasta dishes and sandwiches, along with a interesting array of salads.

After dinner, besides the flickering tiki torches and sparkle of the stars, cheesecake, tiramisu, flan and key lime pie also beckon! I’ve found service to be careful and polite, a hallmark of the entire property, throughout which the friendly, welcome presence of at least one of the on-site owners is a given.

On any afternoon, Las Brisas’s lounger-lined patio feels ever-so-Mediterranean. It must be the combination of golden sunlight, fresh breezes, Greek statues and inviting pool. Luckily, residents are welcome to partake in this mini-escape from Provo. Rolly at the bar serves a huge selection of cocktails, smoothies and snacks, including his famous Mojitos and Sangria, all said to be the best value on the island. Patrons are welcome to enjoy the pool and patio, and kayaks and canoes are available for rental. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can explore Chalk Sound’s three-mile stretch via a two hour guided tour on the pontoon boat. It includes beer, water and refreshments for 4 to 12 persons, with sunset and specially catered cruises an option.

Aerial view of Neptune Villas property.

I often hear a soulful voice wafting along the shoreline; Jovanna tells me this is local singer Justice, who performs on Friday and Saturday nights. The lovely dining area and bar are also popular for wedding receptions, parties and celebrations of all sorts, especially during the holiday season.

Las Brisas serves lunch and dinner from 11 AM to 10 PM daily except Tuesday. For information, phone 946 5306 or 331 4328.

To reach Neptune Villas/Las Brisas, follow South Dock Road south until just before it ends, turning right on Chalk Sound Drive. Las Brisas is marked to the right less than 1/4 mile down the road.

For more information, visit www.neptunevillastci.com.

I love plants. I can go out into my garden anytime and see my plants. Plants don’t have an optimum time to view them, unless it is a midnight blooming cactus, which only happens once in a blue moon. Plants stand still, and actually pose for photos. I love plants, but I do like birds.
Like most folks here, I see the brown pelican flying outside my window over the sea, and watch the flamingos in Town Salina and believe I am an established “birder.” Reality is that I can identify less than 5 birds of the 200+ in TCI. Then I met Dr. Mike and Ann Pienkowski. Boy, was I in for a crash course in birding!

Dr. Mike Pienkowski is a leading ornithologist in the United Kingdom. He is also the Honorary Executive Director of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF). I first met Ann and Mike when Mike was my son’s boss. To my son’s horror, as we entertained Mike and Ann in our garden, I would point out “Big Bird” (yellow-crowned night heron) and “Tweety Bird” (yellow warbler). Yes, I was a birder extraordinaire!
Both Ann and Mike made many trips to TCI over the last 15 years to count and identify the bird population. They were instrumental in bringing the plight of the salinas (and the effect on the bird populations) to the TCI Government, which in turn bolstered the case for protecting Town and Red Salinas. To say birding is their passion would be an understatement.
Fast forward to 2010, when Mike and Ann heard about the Carnival/TCInvest/TCIG/Infrastructure Fund. They approached the Turks & Caicos National Museum to partner with them and present a proposal for funding a bird trail. The concept of a Bird Trail is not new, in fact it has been on the back burner for almost nine years. Lack of funding — not enthusiasm — was the culprit. We pitched the idea, and were awarded a grant from the Infrastructure Fund.
Now my world was really “going to the birds.” Mike and Ann already had a Bird Walk and Bird Drive Trail in mind, so a lot of the technical work was already done. This included the bird trail cards which had been designed and redesigned with the help of the Pienkowskis, Dace and Richard Ground, and my son. We went out and walked the trails, and drove the trails over and over so that we could get the “best birding for our buck.”
Finally the trail cards were sent to the printer. Now all we needed to do was set the trail markers — easier said, than done. Trying to keep the trails as “green” as possible we decided that downed telephone poles from Hurricane Ike would be the best solution for mounting the trail markers. So on weekends, my husband Neil and I would do a “downed telephone pole raid.” The only problem was we could not move them, and our chain saw was not up to doing the job of cutting these massive poles. Out of frustration and defeat we approached Turks & Caicos Utilities. Not only did TCU agree to help us find poles, they cut them to size (five feet), and dug the holes with their big auger. After seeing how those guys could dig a hole to sink the pole in minutes, Neil and I both realized we had found our new best friends!
After all the poles were in place, the TCU guys went back to cut the poles at angles to accommodate the walking and driving trail markers. While all this was going on, the trail markers came in and looked great — orange squares for driving and blue ovals for walking. Yet another obstacle, the markers were smooth on the backside and the poles were rough cut. If we screwed them directly to the poles they would surely crack or worse, be lifted off. Solution: mount the new trail markers on painted wooden plaques.
Since I was busy doing day to day Museum work (hey, it’s my story and I’m sticking to it), I enlisted the help of my husband once again. For a week he cut, painted and glued the signs to the wooden plaques. We were only one week away from the bird trail grand opening, and three days away from Mike and Ann’s inspection. Neil and I worked all weekend driving around Grand Turk and placing the signs on the poles, 40 in all.
A funny thing happened while out in the field. Although it was hard work, we took time to check out the birds we could see from each particular bird stop. We used the clear and concise Bird Drive Trail Cards to identify the birds by the North and South Wells, Hawke’s Nest Salina, and Bayle’s Pond Salina.
Before we knew it, we were finished with the driving tour. Now on to the walking tour. Again, with the help of the Bird Walk Trail Card, we watched as flamingos fed in Town Salina, one of the two salinas which have been granted protection. Brown pelicans, ruddy turnstones (named because they actually turn stones over to look for food), and many varieties of terns came to feed in the salinas right before our eyes. Not daunted at all from the sound of power tools we used, the flamingos lifted their heads to investigate, but went back to feeding as though they knew we were friend, not foe.
We finished the bird trails with a day to spare! I picked up Ann and Mike from the airport, and on the way to the Museum they saw the first Bird Trail Sign. Hearing the excitement in their voices, I knew we had accomplished the task at hand.
The next day we started with our “Bird Week Extravaganza.” Tuesday we had movie night at the Museum, and before the “feature film” watched a great DVD that Ann had made, showing the importance of the salinas and beautiful birds of TCI entitled, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”
Wednesday morning, as part of our dedication to educate students, we had an early morning bird walk. Armed with binoculars loaned from DECR, Mike and Ann led the students and teachers on a bird hunting expedition. At first the students were a bit uninterested, but it was 7 AM and they are teenagers! But, true to form Ann and Mike started engaging the group and the birders were beginning to take interest. Halfway through the trail, the students were identifying birds and asking questions. Success!
Thursday was the day set aside for the Bird Drive Trail evening. With 22 adults and two children we met up at Jack’s Shack. After a few refreshments, we boarded a bus loaned to us from Caribbean Tours International. Everyone received a Bird Trail Card and the use of binoculars from Caribbean Tours International. Bill, our bus driver, took directions from Mike Pienkowski until a cattle egret decided to land in front of the bus by North Wells. The egret obviously knew the trail better than Mike (after all, he has been doing this for generations). For about 200 yards this egret walked in front of the bus, only diverting to catch a gecko from the bush alongside the road. I guess he needed a snack. Finally he flew away, and we continued our tour.
As we approached Town Salina we saw an osprey sitting atop an old windmill, used during the salt industry. While driving down Pond Street, seven flamingos took off from the pond and flew directly over our bus. We stopped the bus and watched as they gracefully landed on the salina. Most folks on the bus had never seen a flamingo in flight, and were amazed at the black colouring of their flight feathers. (I wanted to charge extra for that view!)
With all of these wonderful sightings under our belts we headed back to Jack’s Shack so we could loosen our belts with delightful food. Jack’s Shack stayed open for this party, and also donated money back to the Museum from the sale of drinks and food. Another corporate partner we can always count on!
Friday was the official grand opening of the Bird Trails, and the ribbon cutting was led by Mrs. Lillian Swann-Misick. Following the ribbon cutting, a presentation was given by Dr. Mike Pienkowski at the Osprey Beach Hotel on the trail cards and trail itself, and all attendees received an official bird trail osprey pin and were given the opportunity to purchase the trail cards to re-sell at their retail establishments.
The Bird Trails will be the first of their kind in the Caribbean, and were presented by Dr. Mike Pienkowski at the July 2011 conference of the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB) in Freeport, Bahamas. SCSCB plans to encourage and market such trails throughout the region in a network of Caribbean birding trail experiences.
When I took the position of director of business development for the Turks & Caicos National Museum, little did I know I would have the opportunity to learn so much about birds, and how they depend on our salinas. I also never knew that TCI is one of the best birding places on earth, where one can see many different species of birds even without the use of binoculars.
As I sit in my backyard, I watch the pelicans over the ocean, an osprey sit atop a telephone pole and eat a fish, and cattle egrets tease my dogs by landing on trees just out of their reach. But as I write this I am reminded not to take too much of my work home with me, so Tweety Bird and Big Bird will always have a special place in my heart.

Twenty years ago I flew into the Turks & Caicos Islands, arriving in a small, wind-blown airport. A newly certified scuba diver, I went to Providenciales’ Northwest Point and dove amongst the brilliantly colored reefs that fringe the ocean wall which plunges 7,000 feet to the sea floor. Weightless, in the violet-blue and turquoise green waters which teemed with life, I felt something deep inside me change.
When I got home I hovered like a bumble bee over a watercolor set under a glass counter at an art store. The clerk finally looked at me and said, “Do you want buy this or what?” I did, and at home dabbed colors for the sparkling turquoise seas I’d seen, the deep violet-indigo of the sea wall. Little did I know that I would look back 20 years later and realize that the Islands were the place that inspired me to paint.

As if my heart were attached by a bungee cord, I returned to the country again and again. On each departure, I’d gaze out the airplane window and wonder what each wave of development would do to these beautiful islands. Finally, on one return trip, I vowed to become more involved in marine conservation efforts. So in June 2011, I returned for four weeks toting the tools of my trade — watercolors, cameras, digital recorders, scuba gear — to document conservation work and explore what truths these Islands had to offer to marine conservation efforts around the world.
At a time when it is easy to despair about the future for our marine environment, I was heartened by the pragmatic dedication of the conservationists I met. It is easy to be fatalistic, to think that no matter how much is done to protect the environment, our natural resources will inevitably be destroyed by the twin forces of overdevelopment and overpopulation. It is much harder to faithfully carve paths of action which really can preserve our natural resources. And that is so much of what I saw when observing the work of activists, marine biologists and the staff of the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources (DECR).
Of particular interest to me were mangroves because of the enormously important role they play in marine ecosystems. There are certain truths we all know and one of them is that life needs a place to take hold. Along with coral reefs and sea grass meadows, mangroves are a key place where the life of the sea “takes hold.” Their labyrinthine, maze-like roots provide that essential shelter for newly hatched fish. None of this really hit home for me until I snorkeled a few feet below the surface in a mangrove in South Caicos with marine biologists from The School for Field Studies and saw thousands of brilliantly colored yellow and blue fish — juvenile damselfish and blue wrasses. The profusion of life was stunning.
DECR Scientific Officer Bryan “Naqqi” Manco described to me how mangroves, in addition to providing nurseries for juvenile fish, literally “stitch the islands to seafloor” protecting them from erosion, especially damage from hurricanes. In addition, mangroves can be a key component of fighting global warming, since they store 50 times more carbon in their soil per hectare than tropical forests. In the lush shade of the arc-shaped portico of the Environmental Centre, DECR Scientific Officer Eric Salamanca showed me rows and rows of red mangrove seedlings planted in individual pots. Salamanca described the painstaking process through which each seedling is sprouted from a seed in water, then grown in a pot with soil and finally planted in a cylindrical hole drilled into the limestone. Salamanca described how he was able to raise the seedlings using fresh water, simplifying the process greatly. Later that day we drove to a site where over 1,000 mangrove seedlings had been planted in Frenchman’s Creek Nature Reserve.
Marsha Pardee, marine biologist and founder of Adopt-A-Mangrove, showed me a site where mangroves were planted where they have never been grown before. On a brisk windy morning we paddled out to Star Island, an abandoned man-made island project in the Princess Alexandra National Park where she spearheaded the effort to grow and plant nearly 500 seedlings. Marsha and I split up on the island, each with a slate in hand, to count and assess the health of the seedlings.
Curator of the Environmental Centre Lormeka Williams described how the smallest fish in a catch used to be a foot long, and now as fish populations shrink, the smallest are bait-sized “sprat.” And she described how the plummeting fish populations are incrementally proportional to the destruction of coral reefs, sea grass meadows, and, yes, mangroves. “I believe we were put here as stewards of this land, we were put here to take care of it,” Lormeka told me. “And as we have grown as a civilization we have lost that purpose. I grew up with fishermen. And I’ve seen the changes. I remember when my father would come home from lobster season the first night and we’d have a basket of lobster. When they fished they never took small ones. They preferred to leave them, so they could grow into big ones.”
As I journeyed through the Islands and spoke with people, I was struck by how many times certain realities that have global scope were “writ big” in TCI, as if because of the small size of this island nation the volume on certain issues was exponentially turned up. For instance, because the Islands lie so low above sea level, global warming would have an alarmingly dramatic effect. DECR Scientific Officer Marlon Hibbert reported that the highest sea surface temperatures ever recorded in TCI were from 1998 through 2005 and that the worst cases of coral bleaching occurred during two of these years. And he added that “the incidence and intensity of tropical cyclones (hurricanes) are being fueled by higher temperatures.”
On a global scale, climate change is making it slowly to the front burner of policy making. Former President Bill Clinton recently remarked that the impact of climate change “was enough to choke a horse, one of the two or three biggest challenges in the world.” And yet in TCI, as in every nation around the globe, the gap between science and public opinion is huge. “The only time we think about global warming is during hurricane season or some kind of extreme event,” Lormeka Williams told me. “Otherwise, no one really thinks about it. That’s why we’re trying to develop a climate-change policy. Right now to most everyone it’s still just a fantasy, a myth, something that scientists made up.”
On the flip side, the impact of positive change is highly apparent. For instance the “eat local” movement has the potential to reduce the now huge percentage of food flown or shipped in. While in North Caicos I met Courtney Missick, who is successfully farming several acres of land and selling produce locally. And it’s not just our position in the food web that’s so key, but the waste disposal web, as well. Because the Islands are so small, this issue is all the more evident. DECR Director Wesley Clerveaux described why the coastal waters “feel” so wonderful, and that equation is plain and simple scientific fact: the water quality is excellent. Development came late to the Turks & Caicos Islands.
“Thank God, we’re late bloomers,” Clerveaux said, “From the water quality standpoint, compared to Jamaica or Miami Beach, you can’t find anything better. In Jamaica for example, the Montego Bay Beach has coliform bacteria, which are from the sewage treatment plant. In Miami Beach, likewise, you have a lot of sewage being discharged. The problem is central sewage systems. When they break down, they have no choice but to discharge raw sewage into the central harbor. But TCI has a decentralized system in which sewage is not dumped into the ocean. Every major hotel has its own sewage treatment facility; we do regular monitoring and we advocate that they use the gray water for irrigation. The risk of direct discharge is not there.”
What Clerveaux tells me hits especially close to home. I grew up along the Hudson River in New York. Forty years ago it was so rife with untreated sewage and cancer-causing PCBs, that you wouldn’t have dared take a swim in it. Today, the water quality is much improved. But just this morning as I write this, The New York Times reports that because of a fire at a sewage treatment plant, millions of gallons of raw sewage are being released into the Hudson River.
But much work still lies ahead. A broad-based sustainable waste management plan for TCI has yet to be executed. The head of the Environmental Club, Stacie Steensland, took me to visit the dump on Provo, where garbage — plastic, metal, paper and rubber — is still burned. Haitian refugees live at the dump, meeting the trucks when they arrive. Amidst air thick with stench and smoke and dust, they pick through the new refuse, searching for food. I reminded myself that places like this are a hard-bitten truth that plague almost every nation in the world. But it made it no less disturbing. And its close proximity to sleekly serene five-star resorts made it even more gut-wrenching.
While Stacie turned her car around on the narrow dirt road, I took photographs. It was a 360º panorama of debris, punctuated by hills of burning garbage and patches of charred and blackened metal. But Stacie is hardly the grim reaper: she’s all about solutions. Along with getting the Environmental Club off the ground she helps out with local garbage clean-ups such as those sponsored by the Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association (TCHTA) and captains a local running club, the TCI Rubbish Runners, who pick up garbage six days a week on their morning jogs. She is constantly in touch with new initiatives on the Islands, such as encouraging Islanders to use cloth shopping totes instead of plastic bags. We visit a local café called Green Bean that uses TCI Waste Disposal for their residential and commercial trash pick-up, including recycling services. They recycle glass into a paving aggregate and sort aluminum, cardboard and plastic to be shipped to the United States for recycling. The big hitch is that individuals and businesses must pay for the service, it’s not provided by the government.
But perhaps the greatest truth I experienced was one of the simplest: the truth that if we honor each other’s experience, we will be the better for it, and that this is key to our collective future. On my last full day in TCI I rose before sunrise. David Stone, co-founder of the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, and I met Amdeep Sanghera, project officer for the Turks & Caicos Islands Turtle Project, to go turtle tagging. When we arrived at the shore a snorkel guide confidently pronounced, as if issuing a post-mortem, “You won’t find any turtles, they’ve all split.” Adjusting his mask Amdeep dryly said with a wry-eyed wink, “Well, shall we have a go at it?”
He quickly impressed us by chasing down a juvenile Hawksbill which swam so fast, I couldn’t imagine catching it. “When a turtle kicks into gear,” Amdeep later recounted, “it really takes off like Star Wars.” The turtle had already been tagged. Amdeep quickly took biometric measurements and then let a young boy who had been watching us release the turtle it into the ocean. Tag number WS-2774/WS-2754 was back at sea.
Amdeep told us about his work in South Caicos and the role that turtle hunting has played in the Islands since A.D. 600 when the first human settlers, native West Indians, arrived by northwesterly Antillean current flows from larger islands to the south. What impressed me most was that the key element for developing a plan for the sustainable management of turtle fisheries was to honor the age-old tradition of turtle hunting. The project holds the tradition in an equal place in the policy making process as the respect for the turtle’s intrinsic value and the measures needed prevent the possible extinction of the Islands’ nesting population.
But as a self-confessed “turtle hugger,” I initially found it hard to accept the eating of turtle meat and the idea of a “sustainable” harvest. Whenever I have encountered a turtle underwater, I found myself completely enchanted by their grace and gentleness. And two weeks before I had visited with Conch World Engineer Eiglys Trejo, who was raising seven baby Green sea turtles that Amdeep had found as weak and stranded stragglers in two recently hatched empty turtle nests six months before.
“He said, ‘Don’t name them because most of them will probably die in the first three months,’ but I did name them,” said Eiglys with a smile, “and they did survive.” All of them will be released when their shell measures at least 10 inches. Eiglys moved nimbly about the tank with a care that was at once the precision of an engineer and the attentiveness of a mother with two toddlers at home.
As they swam swiftly about in a five-foot deep circular tank, leaving small trails of concentric ripples, Eiglys described their different personalities, how they’ll occasionally scuffle with each other and one will defensively lay its front fins on its back. Their heads and fins were still slightly oversized, giving them a goofy look. But at the same time the interlocking plate-pattern of their shell and fin markings and tiny-beaked heads were already clearly defined as if they were full-grown turtles in miniature. Holding one of these six-inch long turtles in my hands, hearing their wheezy breath and feeling the quiver of their soft pearl-white bellies, I couldn’t imagine eating turtle meat.
But as I learned more from Amdeep about the tradition of turtle hunting, I began to appreciate more deeply the important cultural role turtle meat plays in the Islands, that the meat is gifted to various families when it is hunted and no part of the turtle goes to waste. It is hunted with great respect and skill. On my last day, Alizee Zimmerman, the daughter of an expatriate, told me how when her mother was in labor with her over two decades ago, she was brought turtle soup because it was one of the most nourishing and most culturally valued food that one could give a person.
“If you were to go into these Islands with a purely biological perspective,” Amdeep explained, “just finding out how many turtles are in the waters and how many are harvested and look to base your recommendations just on that data, you would fail because there are people involved here: fisherman, community members, families that have basically eaten turtles for generations. And to not to consult them . . . it’s not right basically, they’ve got a right to harvest and exploit their resources. So they need to be involved in management discussions.” The goal of the TCI Turtle Project is to make recommendations to the DECR for improved and practical management of the turtle fishery so that the turtle populations can benefit islanders and visitors for generations to come.
When I readied myself to leave after four weeks, I left with a full heart from having met so many dedicated and inspiring people and appreciating the simplest of truths all the more deeply: the ever-expanding truths of interconnection and the age-old truth that by honoring each other’s experience, as individuals and community members, we can build a stronger and better future together. And last, but not least, the truth that our actions matter, they make a difference, and we can never fully comprehend the ripple effect they have throughout the world. a

Liz Cunningham is an American writer and illustrator living in the San Francisco Bay area. She is the author of Talking Politics: Choosing the President in the Television Age (Praeger).

“When I started creating Photocraphs, I did not conceive that it was art, but I am now told that it is art.”
That’s what Sherlin Williams says about the unique art form displayed on this issue’s cover, above and on the following pages, which he calls “Photocraphs.” Judge for yourself.

Sherlin Williams is the TCI’s first professional photographer, and over the course of 30+ years, he has compiled tens of thousands of photos — both digital and prints — of the country, including those of many buildings, especially in Grand Turk, that no longer exist. As his craft became digitalized, Sherlin went abroad and took courses to become fluid in Photoshop, InDesign and other image and layout-focused programs. As he started experimenting with the tremendous creative possibilities released, he found he could use his life’s massive collection of photos in a new and different way.

Computer artist Sherlin Williams at work.

A unique photocraph of Grand Turk

Photocraph entitled Running Jacks