Resort Report

TCI’s real estate market is on fire. By Kathy Borsuk There’s no doubt summer has arrived in the Turks & Caicos Islands. The somewhat-cooler days, low humidity and slanted sunshine of winter and spring have given way to bright, hot days bookended by lusciously pastel early mornings and long, tawny evenings. It’s prime time for watersports in ...

TCI’s reopening an unqualified success. By Jayne Baker ~ Photos By Paradise Photography It’s the morning of July 22, 2020. Just after noon, American Airlines is due to fly in the first visitors to our shores since the borders closed four months prior.The mood on Providenciales is a muddled brew of optimism, relief and caution. Aware of ...

The Bahama woodstar is TCI’s only regular resident hummingbird. By B Naqqi Manco, TCI Naturalist ~ Photos by Marta Morton Some years ago, while drilling drift seeds for a craft project, a bay bean Cannavalia rosea seed escaped and rolled across the floor, at some point getting swept out the front door. Seed coat compromised and sitting ...

The hidden beauty of sponges. Story & Photos By Melissa Heres, Waterfront Assistant, The School for Field Studies Sponges, in my humble opinion, are likely the most underrated of all marine organisms. Often underappreciated and tossed aside as a bathing accessory or the feature of children’s TV shows, sponges don’t necessarily come to mind when one thinks ...

TCRF tests alternate, non-antibiotic treatment against SCTLD. Story & Photos By Alizee Zimmermann, Turks & Caicos Reef Fund From wreaking havoc on the Florida Reef Tract to now threatening the stony coral population of reefs in 17 countries and territories, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is proving itself to be the most aggressive, virulent and indiscriminate ...

Hauling bonefish with Willis Taylor “back in the day.” By Diane Taylor ~ Photos By Marta Morton It was Easter Monday of 1982. On a whim, a small group of us (six, to be exact) sailed from Pine Cay to Sandy Point on North Caicos with Richard Kriss on his 22′ sailboat Little Wing. It was beautiful ...

What was the life of Taíno children like? By Bill Keegan, Betsy Carlson and Michael Pateman The huge interest in the Paleo Diet got us wondering. If eating like a “Caveman” was a great idea, then why not other ancient practices, like childrearing? However, developing Paleo-Parenting guidelines proved challenging because children are largely invisible in research on ...

2021 hurricane season poised to be active. By Paul Wilkerson The Tropical Atlantic region is fresh off the most active hurricane season in history, with 30 named storms and 14 hurricanes, with 6 major hurricanes. While no two seasons are alike, can we expect similar results for the 2021 season? Hurricane season runs annually in the Atlantic from ...

TCI’s first airline comes to life. Story & Photos By Bengt Soderqvist After Fritz Ludington’s Provident Limited kick-started the development of Providenciales in the fall of 1966, a lot of changes occurred. Nothing changed more dramatically than the way people were traveling. Up until that point, the main modes of transportation had been walking and boating. The sailing ...

Bottle Creek Lodge opens again. By Jody Rathgeb~ Images Courtesy Bottle Creek Lodge Here’s a new adage for the Islands: You can’t keep a good tourist site down. Proof? Bottle Creek Lodge on North Caicos, which has opened to guests for the third time in nearly 30 years. The new Bottle Creek Lodge, under the ownership of Jim ...

The nitty-gritty of filming the East Caicos Expedition documentary. By Matthew Matlack ~ Photos by Matthew Matlack and John Galleymore Filming the East Caicos Expedition documentary was a thrilling endeavor. I had not been camping in years, I had just one experience under my belt filming in caves (which had a gift shop with snacks at the ...

Telling “A Caicos Sloop Story.” Story and Photos By Michael P. Pateman, Ph.D. and Vanessa A. Forbes-Pateman In the Summer 2019 Astrolabe, we introduced “People of the Islands.” This project seeks to tell the story of “Islanders” through a first-person narrative. The various interview topics include boat building, food/cooking, bush medicine, island migration, cultural traditions, music, dance, ...

Treasures on the beach. By Melissa Heres, Waterfront Assistant, The School for Field Studies The beach has always been a special place for me, linking the land we traverse every day and the incredible ocean environment that looms below. This link, if it could talk, could share so many stories. The stories of how rocks have eroded ...

Ready for the unexpected. Story & Photos By Lorna Rae Daniel-Dupree, Lorna Rae Photography Broken away from the mainland at West Harbour Bluff tands a sheer, sharp faced coral rock—a 30-foot high tower protruding out of the ocean. Nestled on top, safe from human intervention, perches an osprey nest complete with  a pair of chicks. It is January ...

A perfect pairing. Story & Photos By Ben Farmer, Waterfront Assistant, The School for Field Studies “Is it pretty tonight—the sunset?” “I’ve never seen a bad one.” This is a dialogue between two characters in Carl Hiaasen’s novel Skinny Dip. One character, Joey, is temporarily blind after a harrowing experience at sea, and Stranahan is describing the evening Florida ...