Everything you wanted to know about Turks & Caicos snakes.

By Bryan Naqqi Manco, Senior Conservation Officer, Turks & Caicos National Trust

Although animals have coexisted with humans on the planet since we first met, only certain animals have made such an impact on the minds of humans that they are known around the world as a symbol of mystical or religious power. One such animal is the snake.

Almost every culture of the world whose range overlaps with the range of a species of snake has elevated snakes to special symbolic status. In Native American cultures they are known as symbols of rebirth and resurrection. Chinese culture holds the snake as such an important symbol of compassion, clairvoyance, charm and vanity that it was awarded a position on the 12 year Chinese Zodiac Calendar. Ancient Egypt saw snakes as the symbol of esteemed wisdom. The Greek Empire regarded snakes as the symbol of healing and to this day, the Caduceus, a winged staff bearing two intertwined snakes, remains the symbol of modern medicine.

Biblically, snakes have acquired a dreaded reputation as the form in which the devil manifested himself in Eden. Often, people ignore that the devil chose the form of a snake and was not in truth a snake – hence, this impression of undeserved evil is often projected to all snakes. The snake in Biblical times was also seen as a symbol of wisdom, appeared in the tree representing knowledge rather than evil.

Due to their history of negative press from this allegory, snakes have long suffered from persecution by people all over the world. Much of this ill treatment is due to a lack of knowledge about snakes – they are very different from us and humans often reject and fear what they can not comprehend. Now though, science has produced a number of amazing discoveries about these fascinating animals.

Snakes are reptiles. Their skin is covered in scales and they are ectothermic or “cold blooded” – meaning that they do not produce their own body heat, but rely on the temperature of their environment to control their body temperature. Most reptiles lay eggs (unlike bird eggs, they are leathery and do not require a constant incubation temperature), but some snakes hold their eggs inside their body until they hatch, giving birth to live young. Reptiles are vertebrates, and all snakes have a skeleton complete with a skull, ribs and a backbone with up to 400 vertebrae.

There are approximately 2,500 species of snakes in the world on every continent besides Antarctica and they range in adult size from the four-inch Thread Snake to the Green Anaconda, which can measure 33 feet in length and weigh up to 500 pounds. Only about 200 species of snakes (less than 10%) are venomous – and the Turks & Caicos Islands have no venomous snakes. All snakes are carnivores and actively hunt live prey, except for a handful of species that feed exclusively on the eggs of birds, reptiles or fish.

So far, three species of snakes are known from the Turks & Caicos Islands. The two most commonly encountered by humans are both in the Boa Constrictor family. The third, rarely seen, is in the Worm Snake family and lives exclusively underground and out of sight.

The largest snake in the Turks & Caicos Islands is the Bahama Cat Boa or Bahama Rainbow Boa, (Epicrates chrysogaster). This snake lives only on the Caicos Islands and Inagua and Crooked and Acklins Islands in the Bahamas. They reach an adult length of about five feet, but can get slightly larger. Usually the color is a gray background with irregular brown-gray rings and spots, but sometimes specimens with a few brown stripes from head to tail show up. A brick-red color can appear on the feisty juveniles. The name “Rainbow Boa” comes from the reflective quality of the scales – they produce a sheen similar to the spectrum of colors reflected by a puddle of oil in the sunlight.

Epicrates are non-venomous and subdue prey by constriction. They typically hunt at night and the favored prey of the younger set are lizards. The larger adults prefer small mammals such as mice and rats and will occasionally hunt birds. Their habit of eating rats and mice makes these snakes an excellent form of pest control!

Rainbow Boas, like most snakes, do not see particularly well, especially during the night when they hunt. Their eyes do not blink to wipe away dust (they have no eyelids), which is why they always look as though they are staring. It is not true that snakes can hypnotize prey – the reason animals “freeze” when they see a snake is because they are having a normal reaction to a predator and are trying not to be noticed.

Snakes find their prey in a most fascinating way. Most people are aware that snakes constantly flick their tongues in and out. A common misconception is that the tongue can sting or inject venom – but a snake’s tongue is no more dangerous than a human’s tongue. The fork at the end of a snake’s tongue fits into a special pit on the roof of its mouth called the Jacobson’s Organ. This organ is like a supercomputer. As the tongue flicks in and out, it picks up dust particles from the air and ground. Via the Jacobson’s Organ, the snake’s brain can “read” the smells and tastes from the tongue and learn a great deal about its surroundings. A human could never smell the footprints of a tiny lizard or mouse, but the snake’s sense of smell will pick it up immediately. The snake can then follow the scent trail to the lizard or mouse.

Snakes are often thought to be deaf. While it is true that they have no external ears, they can perceive sounds as vibrations through the ground, water or air. A snake’s jawbone, just like a human’s, comes very close to its inner ear and can transmit sound vibrations into the inner ear where they can be perceived. However, sound is not used in hunting prey – the amazing sense of smell will lead the snake to its food.

A hunting Rainbow Boa will curve its neck into an S shape to provide a sort of “spring” effect and strike at the prey animal, grabbing it with 100 tiny teeth. The snake will then wrap two or three coils of its neck and body around the animal and begin to squeeze. Muscles running the length of the snake’s body act together to hold tightly, and every time the prey animal exhales, the snake can squeeze tighter. (You can get a feeling for how this works by squeezing your abdomen and exhaling, then trying to inhale again.) Eventually, the snake’s action causes the prey to stop breathing. The snake will search out the head and begin to swallow its prey.

The TCI’s second smallest snake species is the Caicos Islands Pygmy Boa (Tropidophis greenwayi), locally called the Chicken Snake. This boa is endemic to the Caicos Islands, which means the entire species occurs only here and nowhere else on Earth. At a typical length of under one foot, they are probably the smallest Boa Constrictor in the world, which may help in making them famous. (A nature documentary film crew came to North Caicos to film these tiny snakes.)

The main food source for the Caicos Islands’ Pygmy Boa is the smallest lizards we have – the tiny reef geckos, small lizards usually seen under piles of wood or leaves. These snakes range in color from deep red brown to gray and black speckled, with a white and black checkerboard pattern on the belly. The head is usually black and the tail tip is often bright orange. Our Pygmy Boas are too small to bite in defense – instead they curl up in a ball and wave the bright orange tail tip in hope of attracting the enemy’s attention away from their vulnerable head.

Although Pygmy Boas eat tiny lizards, the lizards are still bigger than the boas’ heads. Snakes can not bite pieces of food off and they do not chew it. They swallow it whole, accomplishing this by having a jawbone made of two halves able to separate from the skull bone. Their cheek skin is extremely flexible and by stretching their mouth over the prey animal, most snakes can swallow something four times the size of their head. That would be like an adult human swallowing an entire watermelon whole, in one gulp!

All Boa Constrictors are different from most snakes in that they are live-bearing. The Bahama Rainbow Boa will give birth to 10 to 30 young at a time, but all we yet know about the breeding habits of the Pygmy Boa is that its young are very tiny – less than three inches long! After young Boa Constrictors are born, they are on their own and the mother takes no further notice of her offspring.

Baby snakes grow quickly if they have plenty to eat and instead of shedding their skin as humans do (we lose thousands of individual skin cells daily, most of it ending up as household dust!), a snake will shed its skin in one piece. The old skin will die, loosen and be torn open at the nose by the snake, who will then crawl out of the skin, usually turning it inside-out in the process, much like a person taking off a sock. Everything on the skin surface, including the clear eye-cap scales, is shed.

Snakes grow throughout their lives and their growth rate depends on how much they eat. Being cold- blooded, snakes do not need to expend energy on heating their bodies, so do not need to eat often (upwards of 60% of the calories humans eat are burned just to keep our bodies at 98.6¼F). A meal can last a Boa Constrictor up to a month. Some snakes have been known to go well over a year without eating anything!

Our smallest snake, the Richard’s Worm Snake, is one that must eat quite often. Typhlops richardi, locally known as the Thread Snake or Worm Snake, is a burrowing species that grows to just under a foot long and looks like a pink earthworm. Like all snakes, it is not slimy but clean, smooth and dry. They prefer to inhabit areas with deep, moist, loose soil and are sometimes turned up in gardens. Their unusual food preference is the eggs of ants and termites, making them very beneficial to humans, although we rarely see them. Because insect eggs are not especially nutritious, Worm Snakes must feed almost constantly to keep in good condition. Sometimes known as “Flowerpot Snakes,” Worm Snakes occasionally end up living in the moist soil of potted plants without the owner ever knowing they are there, protecting the plant from ants. This habit has led to their accidental introduction to new habitats via the potted plant trade.

The Worm Snake does not give birth to live babies. They lay eggs underground, but due to their secretive habits, the rest of their breeding cycle is a mystery.

Our three snake species are unique, special and, most importantly, harmless. In fact, they benefit us by eating pest species such as mice, rats, ants and termites. It is important to remember that when you encounter a snake in the Turks & Caicos Islands, it is just doing its natural job. It can not hurt you, nor does it want to (unless life-threatened, when it will logically defend itself). Having a snake around does not mean you will see it often, or even ever. They exist in their silent, private lives as part of the natural cycle of life in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The Turks & Caicos National Trust has an Education Animal Collection that includes Bahama Rainbow Boas and Pygmy Boas. We will gladly make an educational visit to your school, organization or social group about snakes if you would like to learn more.

References:

Andrews, Ted. Animal-Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1994. ISBN #0-87542-028-1.

Schwartz, Albert and Henderson, Robert W. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions and Natural History. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1991.

Shine, Richard. Australian Snakes: A Natural History. Sydney: Reed Books Pty Ltd., 1991. ISBN# 0-7301-0349-8.

Shine, Richard. “Snakes” in Reptiles and Amphibians. Eds. Dr. Harold G. Cogger and Dr. Richard G. Zweifel. New York: Smithmark Publishers, 1992. ISBN #0-8317-2786-1.

Story and Photos By Michele Belanger-McNair

Scuba diving enthusiasts are as varied as any group of travelers today. It is a sport for the very young and those battling age. It can be for families, honeymooners, technical divers and photographers, to name but a few niches. Some divers seek the glamour and glitz of a major resort and others a simpler way of life.

Few destinations in the world offer the spectrum of “dive-styles” than the Turks & Caicos Islands, ranging from Providenciales’ Gold Coast sophistication to Grand Turk’s cruise ship and beach party atmosphere to Salt Cay’s laid back, 1960′s approach to island life.

Salt Cay Divers, Tradewinds Guest Suites and the Coral Reef Cafe have teamed up to offer the full resort experience combined with the chance to step backwards into an earlier era of dive travel.

Diving with a difference

Fourteen years ago, Debbie Been arrived on Salt Cay as just another tourist looking for a diving adventure. Having traveled to many of the world’s top diving destinations from her home in Arizona, this was the first island where she actually returned a second time.

Debbie fell in love with the friendly people, the island and the lifestyle and decided to return to live on Salt Cay for good. In the process, she married Turks Islander Oliver Been and in 1996 they bought the former Porpoise Divers, which became Salt Cay Divers.

Given the isolated nature of the island and the lack of available guest rentals, the pair developed Tradewinds Guest Suites on the beach just south of the dive shop. Soon, the Coral Reef CafE blossomed at the water’s edge and the combination of dive operations, accommodations and meals offered divers the option of an individual or all inclusive plan.

Via Salt Cay Divers, Debbie and Oliver have sought to bring individualized attention to divers, be they Discover Scuba Diving students or expert, technical divers who bring their own dive computers. “Dare to dive differently” is their motto and they mean it. Diving differently means no cattle boat diving, no time limits, no regulated schedules, no gear hauling. It means individualized attention to detail and a dive vacation where you have choices.

Salt Cay Divers offers a full service PADI dive shop with instruction from the resort course to divemaster levels, with specialized PADI certifications as well as Nitrox diving. Families are welcome too, and the dive center provides a Junior Open Water certification and Bubble Maker program. If it’s been a while since you’ve been diving, a refresher course with one-on-one attention can help you regain your confidence.

Once guests unpack their gear they can forget about it between the three daily dives. All gear is handled, rinsed and cared for by the dive center’s staff. If you forgot a crucial piece or simply prefer to travel light, a full stock of equipment is available for rental.

Underwater seasons

Much is written about winter, and the arrival off Salt Cay of the humpback whales in their yearly migration. This is a spectacular time to visit, but Salt Cay’s “crowd” is capped at about 60 guests, given limited accommodations. And whales are only part of Salt Cay’s seasons.

The “high season” is traditionally December through April when the humpback whales make their annual trek to the Silver Banks. Few places in the world still allow soft water encounters and, situated directly on the Columbus Passage, Salt Cay is TCI’s headquarters for whale watching. Spring brings dolphins and an increase in tropical fish. The water warms up and the whales head north. Summer in Salt Cay means calm, warm water and diving in just your swimsuit or “skin” type dive suit. Dolphins are even more in evidence and manta rays are common. Fall brings green moray eels and the return of the conch. In fact, the sandy ladder on the northern shore becomes a literal trail of conch as they migrate out of the ocean’s depths towards the shallows. Salt Cay has turtles all year long, a sight that never grows old.

Weather permitting, Salt Cay Divers offers the best of the Turks Islands dive sites. Using their 32 foot Island Hopper V-hull, Oliver Been can take you to South Caicos’ beautiful reefs, the 17th century warship HMS Endymion, and a 19th century wooden steamer wreck as well. Grand Turk’s dive sites are a quick 30 minute ride by skiff or the Hopper. Fourteen of Salt Cay’s sites are within 5 to 10 minutes of the dock in one of the operation’s 24 foot Carolina skiffs.

For experienced divers who want the ultimate guide, Oliver Been is the divemaster to seek out. His love of the water, diving and the health of the reefs and fish of his native island are obvious. Curious about Salt Cay? Ask Oliver. He’ll gladly share his knowledge of the island’s history, buildings and people.

Tradewinds guest suites

Located along the beach in the North District of Salt Cay, Tradewinds is a five unit complex consisting of two suites with full kitchens and three suites with kitchenettes. It is located on a full acre of land just footsteps from the beach and clear, azure blue waters.

Each suite has a private screened porch facing the sea, private bath, air conditioning, separate bedroom and queen sleeper sofa in the living area. The resort, set under tall Casaurina trees, provides gas grills, bicycles, sun deck and hammocks. Tradewinds is perfect for dive clubs and other small groups, as you can literally “own” the resort for a week. An extensive refurbishment of the suites was recently completed, with new colors, artwork and cabinetry bringing a fresh, upgraded look. Whether you dive, snorkel, birdwatch, hike, photograph, write novels or read them, nap, or do nothing at all, the pace of life at Tradewinds will be slow and peaceful.

Coral Reef Cafe and Bar

Set alongside the beach at Deanne’s Dock, the Coral Reef Cafe offers breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a full service bar to hungry and thirsty beachcombers and divers alike. Enjoy a cheeseburger in paradise, healthy salads, Enye’s Secret Sauce SauteEd Fish, and Deb’s Conch Fritters. Put a freezing Margarita next to your eats and watch Deanne’s Dock traffic: dive boats, the Salt Cay ferry arriving and fishermen bringing in their catch. You’ll also have the chance to meet Turks Islanders: folks who have lived their entire lives on Salt Cay. From them, you can learn about a slow, peaceful way of living. Be there for a sunset cocktail and, if you’re lucky, you’ll experience the end-of-day “Green Flash” phenomenon.

If you want to take a step backward, head for Salt Cay to the way the Caribbean used to be.

For more information, call Salt Cay Divers at 649 946 6906 or visit www.tradewinds.tc or www.saltcaydivers.tc.

By Betsy Carlson and Bill Keegan

Life on an island is just not possible without boats. The history of the Turks & Caicos, both prehistorically and historically, is linked to the ability to build boats and navigate the oceans successfully.

Not just anybody can go out and colonize an isolated, oceanic island. The most important factor is the colonizer’s voyaging ability, which is not always linked to how accessible oceanic islands may be to a population. Madagascar lies just off the coast of Africa but was colonized by people from Indonesia. Other prerequisites to successfully colonize islands include horticulture, a marine economy, a material culture that uses shell as a major raw resource, and the ability to change the island’s resource base by introducing plants, animals, and assets through exchange. Since 500 B.C., all West Indian cultures have met each of these requirements.

In the West Indies, the direction of colonization followed the direction of the currents. The south equatorial current flows north from the Venezuelan coast up the Windward Islands. As it reaches the Leeward Islands it is eclipsed by the north equatorial current, which flows westward past the Leewards, paralleling the northern coasts of the Greater Antilles. The distances between the islands are not great, and once the 120 km gap between Trinidad and Grenada was bridged, every other volcanic island was intervisible from the next with distances of less than 50 km. There was no fear of not finding the way home after setting out to investigate a new island.

Once you can navigate well, you possess the maritime skills to sail past one island to reach a better one. Thus, accessibility fails to be a determining factor. In the Pacific, where the distances between islands are much greater, colonization occurred in quite the opposite way Ñ here, navigators sailed against the currents when exploring in order to ensure their ability to return home.

The ability to supplement the natural resources of an island with domesticated foods substantially reduces the risks involved in island settlements. When the Polynesians colonized a new island, they brought taro, sweet potato, fruit trees, and domesticated pigs and chickens. In the West Indies, in addition to root crops and some fruit trees, the colonizers brought with them dogs and small mammals such as guinea pigs for food. They also transported West Indian species, such as hutias (a large rodent) and rails (a ground bird, some species of which are flightless), from one island to another. Sweet potato may have been a key ingredient in island colonization by horticulturists because it produces an edible crop in two months or less, quickly establishing a reliable food base. The Taino were known to plant uninhabited islands with the root crop manioc, but never settle the island, creating food stocks for voyagers or for times of shortage.

The Turks & Caicos Islands were first colonized about A.D. 600 by pre-Taino peoples coming from Hispaniola. So, how did the navigators of Hispaniola stumble upon Grand Turk first? As you head north from the coast of the Dominican Republic, you encounter within 40 miles a series of shallow banks Ñ the Navidad, the Silver and the Mouchoir. They are submerged between 5 and 16 m today.

These shallow banks may have given the appearance of islands on the horizon by virtue of their aquamarine color, and the banks themselves could have attracted fishermen to their abundant marine resources. If voyagers from Hispaniola explored this line of banks looking for dry land, they would have been led straight to the Turks Islands. Grand Turk is the largest island on this bank, and the only that could have supported a population.

The northwesterly Antillean current flows from Puerto Rico toward the Turks & Caicos Islands, eventually joining the Gulf Stream. This, in association with the tradewinds, which blow east to west, would promote drift voyaging in the northwest direction, making voyaging from eastern Hispaniola to the Turks easy, but return voyaging more difficult.

The navigators of the Caribbean were not, however, at the mercy of the winds and currents of the region. The winds blow east to west in the summer and more northeast to southwest in the winter. All maritime cultures have a vast understanding of winds and weather systems. The Spanish recorded just one Taino word for wind, huracan, which described fierce winds, and is the source for our word hurricane. The language of the modern Miskito Indians of coastal Nicaragua has 25 words to describe types of winds. For the Miskito, the dry season, when tradewinds are less intense and no unexpected squalls or storms occur, is the time of the long distance journey. For the Turks & Caicos, February through April, with multiple day-long intervals of still weather, are the driest months and perhaps the best time for long distance travels. At the Governor Beach site on Grand Turk, where people from Haiti came to make shell beads, all of the clam shells were harvested during this season. This suggests that they, too, recognized this time period as the best time to travel over open waters.

Besides the ability to navigate well, the key technology for any complex island society is advanced water transport consisting of sophisticated ocean-going vessels that can carry large cargo loads and travel long distances. Large canoes allow for the distribution of wealth and the amassing of populations for military and ceremonial events.

The Taino possessed canoes of various sizes and proportions for different activities. Small canoes may have been individually owned, but some larger, special-purpose canoes could have been shared by a community and had restricted access. Because of this, the most important factor in choosing a settlement was access to the open ocean. They needed launching and beaching places for their large canoes.

The dugout canoes (canoa) constructed by the Taino were made from the trunk of a single large tree (maca), although the sides may have been built up with planks to allow for construction of very large vessels. The chroniclers of the contact period described immense canoes for the Taino. Las Casas said the canoes in Cuba were 20 m long, and Columbus reported seeing very large canoes under sheds on the coast of Cuba. Oviedo wrote that the boats had cotton sails, but this is generally not believed to be a pre-Columbian trait.

The Island Caribs in the 17th century did have boats with sails (called piraguas), but again this was likely due to European influence. Today, the tradition of hand-crafted boats is best seen in Haiti where types of boats range from rafts to dugouts to sloops. The Taino had a word for a flat boat with no keel that may have resembled a raft (called Cayuco).

Las Casas noted that the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico was the site of daily voyages, and thus culturally more closely linked than eastern and western Hispaniola. So, the primary movement of people and goods in the Greater Antilles was between water passages, not within an island’s landmass. The Taino maintained Ògateway communitiesÓ such as MC-6 on Middle Caicos, which allied far-reaching political territories and greatly increased trade opportunities. This is evidence that the Taino were voyagers and were not isolated on their separate islands. The Taino word for small island was cay. Similarly, the word for the passage between small islands was cayo. The similar word caico means outer island in the Taino language.

We have no preserved Taino canoes from the Turks & Caicos, although the Turks & Caicos National Museum houses a Taino canoe paddle (nahe in Taino) found in the peat sediments of North Creek on Grand Turk. This paddle is nearly identical to one found on Mores Island (Little Bahama Bank) in the Bahamas. Las Casas described Taino paddles Òlike long handled bakers’ shovels, but sharp.Ó The Mores paddle was first described in 1913 by Theodore DeBooy and remains the only other prehistoric paddle known from the Bahamas archipelago.

The Grand Turk paddle was carved from a single piece of bullwood (Pera bumeliifolia), a native to Cuba, Hispaniola, and the northern Bahamas. This species is not known from the Turks & Caicos Islands today. The paddle may have been carved in Hispaniola and lost after working its way to Grand Turk along with the early inhabitants of Grand Turk. The wood was radiocarbon dated and provided a calibrated age range of A.D. 995Ð1125, centuries after Grand Turk was first colonized. This suggests that people sailed between Hispaniola and the Turks & Caicos Islands regularly and for many centuries.

The cultural history of the Turks & Caicos Islands includes occupations by Tainos, Bermudians, Loyalists, and Post-Emancipation period Africans who were formerly enslaved to work in the salt and cotton industries in these islands. What these cultures had in common was the island environment. All these people had to make a living from the sea and their lives were intimately tied to boat technology. There is one indelible reminder of this in the history of the Turks & Caicos Ñ the boat images scratched into the plaster of ruinous plantation houses throughout the Islands.

Etchings of sailing vessels have been found throughout the Bahamas and have been reported on plantation ruins from New Providence, Crooked Island, and San Salvador as well as Middle and North Caicos and Providenciales. Laurie Wilkie and Paul Farnsworth, who have worked on plantations throughout this region, argue that ship imagery is an important symbol in many contexts throughout the African Diaspora and link the drawings to the late enslavement period or post-Emancipation (ca. 1820Ð1900).

In many cases, when the Turks & Caicos Loyalist plantations were abandoned, the former slaves of the plantations were left in the Islands. They took residence in their former slave houses and plantation houses. The ship imagery in the ruins lends itself to a feeling of isolation, which we can imagine reflects what the freed slaves may have felt in these surroundings. Eventually, people congregated in small villages rather than live in isolation on the former plantations and they turned to the sea to form a maritime rather than a primarily agricultural economy.

The etchings contain an amazing amount of detail Ñ so much so that the specific type of boats depicted can be deciphered. The most common wooden boats of the time were a small ketch, single mast sloops, and schooners. A schooner has two or more masts and Òfore and aftÓ rigging, which means the sails run with the long axis of the boat. Bahamian schooners could be up to 50 feet long and carry 20 men. A two-masted schooner is shown in the etching from a Turks & Caicos plantation ruin, along with fragments of two other boats. As can be seen in the photograph and the line drawing, the ship likely had topsails, as is indicated by several horizontal lines near the top of the masts. All three ships have sprits extending off the bow with indications of multiple jib sails. The complete etching appears to have three jibs. Also illustrated are the fore sail (in the center of the ship) and the main sail (at the stern end of the ship).

The people making these drawings had intimate knowledge of the workings of sailing vessels. The commonness with which these images are found throughout these islands and the detail they show reinforces the bond all inhabitants of the Bahamas archipelago had with the sea. It is this tie to the ocean environment that links all the prior residents of these islands as one.

Dr. Betsy Carlson is an archaeologist at Southeastern Archaeological Research, Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Bill Keegan is Curator of Caribbean Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Story & Photos By Martin Pepper

In the old days, Turks & Caicos Islanders regularly walked between islands. This fact inspired Martin Pepper to walk, swim and hitch-hike about 100 miles from the southern tip of South Caicos to the northern edge of Providenciales, carrying all his gear and supplies the entire length. He used an inflatable raft to float the pack as he swam across the water passages.

In Part I of his epic journey (printed in the Summer 2006 issue), this voyager traveled along undeveloped Plandon, Middle Creek and McCartney Cays and East Caicos to reach the hospitality of Middle Caicos. Along the way, he fought strong ocean currents, sand fleas, blisters and a razor-sharp path while discovering a rugged, untouched coastline, messages in bottles, the ruins of the sisal industry, eerie caves and thriving examples of local culture, including ship building and basket weaving. When we left Martin, he had just been spared a long swim between Middle Caicos and North Caicos, hitching a boat ride across the passage.

On North Caicos, Kim gives me a ride to the outskirts of Bottle Creek. I find out he is a chef at the Meridian Club on Pine Cay and enjoys his work. He, like all the locals I’ve talked to, welcomes the tourist industry but is wary of going too fast or too far. For as tourism emerges, TCI is at the risk of slowly losing its culture and heritage.

I remember talking with Alton Higgs, one of the few Islanders who still has much knowledge of bush medicine. He urges others to remember the old ways of the Islands, arguing that TCI culture is rapidly dying off and the homogenization of American culture is replacing the color and grace that has wrought TCI’s strong and independent personality. He says that the island youth aren’t as interested in home dishes, tradition or history as they are with fast food, music television and Hollywood glamorizing the “gangsta.” Many of TCI’s unique qualities could pass in Mr. Higgs’ memory if steps aren’t taken to archive this knowledge and instill pride of heritage in the children.

I set up camp just off the road. The vegetation on North Caicos forms a compact microforest. The wind is high and breathes through the trees in a resonating gasp. All the branches and leaves bring depth to the sound, like pipes in a church organ. The night is peaceful, and under the stars I commune with a dragonfly on a branch above.

The next morning while walking I try to wave at somebody driving by who doesn’t wave back and end up tripping on a rock, spraining my left ankle. A sense of loneliness sets in and I feel alienated. North Caicos is larger than East and I can sense more weariness. I catch a ride in the back of a government truck and then call a friend at the District Commissioner’s office.

Jody Rathgeb shows up and hijacks me for the day. We have tea with friends who are building a house across the road. The conversation steers towards the “joys” of shipping and importing building materials. At another friend’s we bottle some home brew. I am impressed with the sense of community Jody has with everybody on North. Jody is a freelance journalist writing stories for magazines like Times of the Island that exemplify local culture and island living. Much of her work gives voice to the people of TCI supplying local foods, services and artistic beauty. She makes some suggestions that help me decide to finish this trek.

I take a rest day walking around Whitby and make some curious finds. At one site in a pair of buildings in the bush there is an argon gas cylinder, last hydro-tested for use in the 1960s. Flakes of rust at the base fold outward like pages in a book. If it is under pressure, it could become a missile at any moment. It brings to mind my high school metal shop teacher, who told us of an oxygen cylinder that rocketed through eight concrete floors before escaping through the roof. There is no need to find out if he was exaggerating so I duck and scurry.

I also find a derelict resort from a chain that has gone out of business. It looks as though one day they just closed the doors, cut their losses and ran off without paying their debts. Bitter creditors must have retaliated, because sliding doors are smashed, furniture is gone and the buildings are in complete decrepitude. But I find a coconut tree across the street near the tennis courts – lunch! The nut has fermented and I stumble back to Whitby intoxicated.

For dinner, Jody’s homemade chili and bread are my recovery medicine and I binge, washing it down with home brew. I am fat and happy. Bryan Manco, senior conservation officer with the TCI National Trust, stops by to show off the new vegetation maps that they’ve been working on. We talk about the terrestrial ecology of TCI and the many species that both inhabit and visit the Turks & Caicos Islands. What’s fascinating is that his team has documented airborne species that were not known to reside here, including the sandhill crane, American pipet, blue headed quail dove, Cuban emerald hummingbird and one or more species of red bat. What’s troubling, of course, is that these birds and mammals have been sneaking in and out of the country without immigration clearance!

In the morning, I call Parrot Cay Resort, hideaway of the rich and famous, and inform them of my pending arrival. Questions arise about my sanity so I tell the assistant manager that I am writing a piece for a local magazine and set up a tour. We decide that I will show up at Sandy Point at 10:00 the next morning, where they will send over a boat to pick me up. Once I reach the cay an escort will lead me to the other side. My mind begins to race and I become impressed that they will send over a private yacht and personal bodyguard to keep all the movie stars and wealthy at bay. All the rumors that I have heard about the decadence of the place must be true. I would hate to have to deal with people rushing me for autographs and photos!

In truth, as I later learn, the guests at Parrot Cay are an amalgamation from all walks of life, all holding the common need to escape from the stresses of day to day living and demanding jobs. They come to the beautiful island to envelop themselves in quiet and calm and find a chance to restore and rejuvenate.

I am at the dock by 9 AM to catch the boat taxi, which runs back and forth all day and into the night. This is one of the most exclusive resorts in the world; in fact, they do a background check on patrons to ensure that no paparazzi are among guests. The crossing is two lengths of an Olympic pool and in different circumstances I could have easily swum this stretch. But, today I will follow instructions. Teejay welcomes me at the receiving dock and is my guide. I come off the dock a ragamuffin in the same clothes that I have been wearing since leaving South Caicos. The rucksack and my ratty clothes look as though I fell out of a dumpster, but she is able to work around them. I should have thought ahead and packed my penguin suit.

The name of Parrot Cay is thought to be a derivation of “Pirate Cay.” The island is said to have been the hideout of infamous female pirates Anne Bonnie and Mary Read. The location makes sense; a little nugget of tranquility with views from a hilltop. Our golf cart struggles to climb the slope from the water to the lodge.

I am instantly impressed with the seamless design of the resort; there is a sweet, simplistic nature demonstrated in all the accommodations. When approaching any project backed by affluence I am usually ready for the worst, but here I am pleasantly surprised. Parrot Cay’s developers chose a timeless approach for design, incorporating an Asian feel with functional, clean and spacious rooms.

The floor of the main lobby is checkered with satillo tile while the walls are framed with gabro squares up to eggshell white walls and a front desk cloaked in slabs of coral -all peaceful, cooling and welcoming. The view from the veranda is magical with the aquamarine bay merging into white sands demarcated by a patch of palms. As we travel down the path towards the spa and pool, I notice that the grounds around us are blanketed with immaculately kept grass.

Great herons and other wildlife roam comfortably amongst the guests and at times come flitting out of the sky. On the beach, guests can take a walk, learn how to sail, head out fishing, windsurf, kayak or just cozy up in private little cabanas pampered in cotton cushions.

On my way to the other end of the island we stop by a wing of the COMO Shambala Retreat. Teejay informs me that the resort’s spa specializes in treatments from around the world.

I ask, “Can I get a hot river stone rub?”

“Sure”

“A Javanese royal lular bath?”

“Why not?”

“Marine mud therapy?”

“Not a problem.”

“Does the shrink jump in with me?”

“I think you’re misunderstanding the therapy part.”

“How about this rash growing up my leg?”

“Hmmm . . . I don’t think so.”

She takes me to the end of the island where the sweet amenities taper off to just a spit of sand covered in mats of dead eel grass. I snap out of the luxurious dreaminess, fill my raft, and swim away. Dellis Cay welcomes me with dense vegetation and piles of flat, weathered limestone boulders. Neither livestock nor human lives here; there are no trails. It is up to me to trace the ledges and not get blown back into the water. Gusts of wind steer my pack around corners. It feels like someone is pushing me sideways.

The southwest tip of Dellis has a camp with corroding awnings and splintered picnic tables accompanied by rusted signs stating ownership by J & B Tours. I figure it hasn’t been used in a while so I unpack, spread everything out and fall asleep in the setting sun. Less than an hour later a powered catamaran shows up with a heap of tourists showing more pink skin than cloth. I give a cursory glance and then run up to pack my things. The visitors hop out and jostle down the beach, avoiding the camp. I sit and hide behind my pack under an awning in a grove of Caribbean pines for an hour until they are gone. Rain thunders the entire night through the awning and soaks me.

The next morning is the biggest swim crossing yet and I am a bit nervous. Fervent wind has already tossed the surface water into a slurry and is moving north out to sea with some velocity. Flashbacks of the Coast Guard crossing echo in my mind. I decide to slowly start crossing and keep an eye on the speed of the shore from behind; any question and I return to shore. It works out perfectly. The wind blows me north and the undercurrent pulls me south. I am able to swim straight across to Fort George Cay, a glorified sand bar that had cannons installed shortly after the war of 1812 to fight American and pirate ships. The canons elude me and the hike over to Pine Cay is just a quarter mile, but with an inflated raft on my back I am spun to face the wind like a weather vane. I walk sideways like a crab stepping foot over foot with the wind in my face.

The energy in Pine Cay is like old welcoming neighborhood friends. Residents see my huge pack and they come up with smiles and ask, “Where ya going with such a big pack?” When I explain the trip they are all impressed and more friends come out and want to hear my story. At the Meridian Club grocery store I am given bottled water and purchase a few supplies.

News travels swiftly through the place and Kim comes out of the kitchen with surprise, “Wow! I can’t believe you’ve made it this far, I’ll have to tell Dennis that I saw you alive.”

Nigel, a chef from the Gold Coast in Australia, offers to show me the place with his personal golf cart. We weave through a narrow little trail with such thick vegetation that it feels we are punching through a hole to the main natural attraction -the Aquarium. The channel between Pine and Water Cays was hit by Hurricane Donna in 1960 enclosing a pond with sand walls. Since the 1960s, the south side has eroded back to free the inhabitants but the name has stuck. The northern shore runs the length to Leeward Cut. Pine Cay has what I believe to be the widest, most beautiful flat beach in the Caicos Islands. It is pristine, dotted with just clam and snail shells, and connects to Water Cay.

On Water Cay there are tall mounds of solid rock like blobs of magma that keep vegetation at bay and most of the way I am able to weave back and forth, jumping hill to hill and tearing through the troughs of pigmy palms and prickly brush. A quarter of the way down I find an old wreck just offshore with a windlass and a scupper poking through the surface. The waves stir the sediment to a milky haze, preventing a good view.

On a typical day, this section of islands would keep me busy past afternoon but the excitement of making it to Providenciales eludes lunch and snack time. As I approach a choice appears: head towards the northern rim on Little Water Cay and finish it off with one crossing or cut inward from Water Cay to Sinken to Bird to Lizard to Donna to Mangrove Cays and finally to Provo. If the tides are moving northward it will give me some buffer in case I am swept out to sea again. The maps have no information about depths so I decide to cut inward and take a look. Each expanse looks huge, whereas from my vantage point upward to the point on Little Water it looks as if it can get me right up to Leeward Passage and leave me with a small leap across. I decide to go for the outside pass.

On the point I am welcomed with boardwalks and signs about the endemic iguanas and unique vegetation. And there’s a surprise: this pass is monstrous, the winds are again at full tilt and the current is nasty. This reminds me of the flogging a week earlier, but it’s about ten times greater in distance. I don’t know whether I should start blowing up the raft or swim back to an anchored ketch in Stubbs Creek and ask for a ferry trip over in their Achilles dinghy.

The beauty of the tip is still quite breathtaking. Even down and out I can still appreciate the warmth of the day surrounded by an ocean the temperature of bathwater. I revel in the fact that the water passing before me will take this heat and swing up the eastern coastline distributing it northward. My nemesis today is the equatorial heat pump up to the North Pole. Traveling eastward on the Labrador Current off Newfoundland, this water will then bring cold currents down the European coast only to return in a few years and do it all over again. I know one thing -I really am not interested in seeing all this firsthand.

I dreamt of swimming the last crossing to earn a mental badge of accomplishment, but do I attempt it with conditions of suicide? A party pontoon boat comes around the corner. J & B Tours has come to the rescue. The same boat that had passed by me all day beaches to show patrons the famous TCI fauna. I come aboard to explain my trip to the captain and ask for a trip across.

“Are you that guy that has been walking along the edge of Water Cay all day taking photos?” he asks.

“Yeah that’s me,” I say.

“Wait, you’re the same guy that was over on Dellis last night too, huh?”

“Yeah, I was hiding, waiting till you guys left so I could camp under the awning. I didn’t have enough room to bring a tent and I knew that rain was coming,” I reply.

He has no problem letting me aboard, but it means that I have to finish the rest of the tour with the group. They’re going back around and down to Dellis Cay to hang out on the beach. Luckily, a chase boat arrives shortly after and is able to zip me over, drop me off and get back to the group in a few minutes.

So the walk-about ends in a fizzle. But it really doesn’t matter -I made it to the last island through walking, swimming, hitchhiking, boating, floating and crawling; laughing, sighing, moaning, huffing, crying, sweating, swearing and shaking.

FaI am able to catch two rides across Providenciales to the airport. The first is from a British outdoor enthusiast. His friends call him Extreme Ian and sensing my endeavor he picks me up without a problem. After consuming a whole chicken and drink at IGA I try to find another ride to complete Provo. Nobody wants to pick up a strange man with a huge rucksack. The only one who will stop is an off-road forklift returning to the dock. I ride like a king underneath the behemoth hydraulic arm as we lurch down the road, taking up both lanes. This is the perfect way to finish the journey.

The experience has had its own rhythm, beginning in complete solitude, interspersed with time spent talking with the local folk and other conversations catching up with ex-patriates. In the words of Albert Frommers, “The less one spends the more they enjoy their travel” and this trip was that of a miser. I have nothing but gratitude and warmth for all the people who were prepared to help me on my journey, asking nothing in return. These were the people who saved an idiot from himself despite the unpleasant smell he emanated.

The biggest lesson learned on this trip? DO NOT TOUCH THE POISONWOOD TREE! I rolled through a patch one evening and the sap formed a rash with blisters that spread down my leg. An almost ineffective treatment is to cover the area with WD-40 in order to dissolve the pitch and remove the toxins. I have been lubed-up for weeks with little improvement. My rust is gone but the poisonwood rash remains.

Martin Pepper is currently working for the world renowned Walindi Plantation Dive Resort in Papua New Guinea as a project manager and freelance photographer and writer. His work can be seen on http://martinpepperphotography.com

Editor’s note: The two photos of Martin appearing on p. 28 and p. 75 of the Summer 2006 issue of Times of the Islands were taken by John Claydon.

Story by Doug Camozzi and J.P. Fidelle, Nautique Sports

In Biblical times, the supernatural feat of walking on water was done ever-so-gracefully – with no assistance from a boat with a 200 horsepower outboard engine or even the power of the wind! These days, watercraft and sails take the place of divine intervention and in the Turks & Caicos, you can see “water walkers” gliding along atop the beautiful turquoise seas in a variety of ways: using kiteboards, wakeboards, wakeskates, kneeboards, waterskis, and even one’s own feet!

For the last two decades, the Turks & Caicos Islands were best known as a world-class scuba diving destination, and are still consistently ranked as such. However these days, boards, skis and kites travel down the luggage carousel next to dive bags as watersports taking place “above” the Islands’ underwater realm rival scuba diving in popularity.

Besides parasailing, “water walking” sports such as waterskiing, barefooting, wakeboarding and kiteboarding all offer an exhilarating rush. Whether you are just starting on two skis, an avid skier on a slalom ski, catching big air on a kite or wakeboard or ripping across the water on your feet, the thrill is reflected in the crazy grin that’s sure to be on your face.

Waterskiing in Turks & Caicos is the cream of the crop. Miles of gorgeous, glass-like turquoise water, white sand beaches lining the way and very little boat traffic make this destination a top choice for tourists and locals. Best of all, Providenciales watersports operator Nautique Sports, based in Turtle Cove, teamed up with the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources in protecting the open waterways and coral reef systems of the TCI’s national parks. Ski zones have been established and the utmost respect for the ecosystem is a priority.

Footin’, the sport of barefoot skiing, is one of the fastest and most exhilarating of the “water walking” sports. When performed on a glassy day on the north shore of Big Water Cay, the experience is close to the feeling one must get when taking that first step out of a plane at 14,000 feet with a parachute strapped to your back. Adrenaline courses through your body as the boat’s prop bites into the sea and begins its rapid push to 44 MPH. “The best way to describe the feeling of barefoot skiing is comparing it to a really good foot massage,” says Nautique Sports instructor, Doug Camozzi. Reflexology comes to mind as every pressure point in the foot is simultaneously stimulated to produce a common result of either a “thumbs up” or another international sign for surfing or boarding, the extended thumb and pinky finger wave.

In barefooting, the boat is traveling 42Ð44 MPH as you ski on a surface area of your foot about the size of a silver dollar, between your arch and heel. Some skiers ski forward and off the heel, but whatever position you ride in, one thing you are going to get in TCI is a really good foot burn. (The result of the epic flat water conditions that exist on many waterways around the Islands.) As the skier rides on “glass,” the water gets pretty slick and the feet get pretty hot. Friction at it finest! But most of the time, the skier thinks, “This is just too good to stop,” and eventually, your feet do get used to it and the burning subsides. Good practice is to get rid of your shoes early in life and walk around barefoot.

If footin’ sounds too intimidating, don’t despair. Waterskiing and wakeboarding are offered by a number of TCI sports operators, including Captain Marvin’s Parasail, J&B Tours, Silver Deep, Ocean Vibes and Nautique Sports. Waterskiing and wakeboarding are performed at much lower boat speeds than that of barefooting. Both share the common joy of gliding across crystal-clear water and looking down to see conch, starfish and the schools of fish swimming below you.

Wakeboarding has steadily gained in popularity and actually surpassed waterskiing as a favorite sport among all ages. Wakeboarding is performed by using a board similar to a snowboard with attached bindings to slide, glide and jump the wake while being towed with a 50Ð70 foot rope. Both snowboarding and wakeboarding use the method of “toeside” and “heelside” pressure on the boards’ edges to cause the board and rider to turn left or right directions.

In the water, the “rider” carves to the left and right while being towed by the boat. As the rider approaches the wake or “curl,” he or she can get “big air” by popping off of the top part of the wake. “Loading up” the rope is done by pulling the rope to the hip while approaching the first curl in the wake. The more speed gained by loading the rope, the bigger the “air” or jump.

Acrobatics similar to gymnastics are performed by the top riders of the world, including double back flips, front rolls and 360¼ and 720¼ rotations – all while in the air and being towed by a boat! Wakeboarding is very exciting to watch and even more, to strap one to your feet and give it a ride. Wakeskating is quite similar, except that you ride directly on the top of the board with your bare feet or with a pair of light skate shoes – no binding necessary! This sport is like skateboarding on water.

The skiing and wakeboarding techniques taught in the Turks & Caicos are the most up to date and advanced in the Caribbean market. Nautique Sports exclusively uses Mastercraft from Mastercraft and Edgewater of Turks & Caicos. (Mastercraft produced the first fiberglass water-ski specific tow boat in 1968 and has since become one of the world’s leaders in waterski and wakeboard sports equipment.) A boom system is used on Nautique’s ski-specific boat so the student can learn while holding on to a fixed bar only 7 feet from the coach. The next step is adding a 7Ð10 foot rope to the boom, giving the skier the experience of trying to balance themselves while being on the rope. Finally, the skier advances to a long line behind the boat and 95% of the time, gets up on the very first pull. “This has totally revolutionized our industry,” states Camozzi. “What was once very frustrating and challenging to new students has become a method of learning and excitement.” Wakeboarding and wakeskating are taught with the same progression method, allowing the rider to advance with confidence.

Nautique Sports (www.nautiquesports.com) on Providenciales at the Graceway Sports Center (behind IGA Supermarket) and soon coming to Turtle Cove Marina, can get you hooked up for gear. They are representatives for Connelly skis, CWB boards, Liquid Force boards, Jet Pilot vests, Sportstuff towables, Straight Line ropes, ski gloves, Fox Racing board shorts and even the boats to tow you by. Their knowledgeable staff, all of which are USA waterski certified ski instructors, can guide you to the exact board or ski to make the most of your experience, not mention the coolest looking impact vests and board shorts this side of Miami! Towable tubes, wakeboards and water skis may be rented by the day or by the week if you are visiting the Islands and would like to try their own special brand of ski and ride action.

As waterskiing and wakeboarding have become popular in the TCI, a sister sport has arrived. When looking down the beach on the north shore of Providenciales, you can often see dotted in the skies a dance of colorful kites – those of a new type of childhood play. Kiteboarding, born and bred in Oregon’s Hood River, areas of Florida, and Cabriete and Sousa in the Dominican Republic, has gained a lot of interest and momentum in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Kiteboarding is very similar to wakeboarding in that the toeside/heelside turning method is used to steer the board – while being pulled by wind power in a 12 meter sail or kite. The kite resembles a small or half-sized parachute that has lines running from the outside edges of the kite down to the handle that is gripped by the rider. A rider wears a harness similar to that used in windsurfing and uses either a specific kiteboard or a wakeboard. Some have foot straps for a simple entrance and release and some use full wrap bindings.

This sport is as thrilling as it gets! The TCI’s wind conditions and waters are perfect for the two local companies giving lessons. The process of learning on a training kite that is much smaller than the riding sail teaches the new rider the techniques of controlling the power of the wind. After mastering the training kite, students move to a larger version and then on goes the board. (Most have success after a day of training.)

So for a real thrill, walk up the beach and ask for Mustache Mike, Terry, Mike Haas or Randy and let them show you the tricks of the trade. You can also find them at Kite Provo (www.kiteprovo.com) or Windsurf Provo (www.windsurfingprovo.tc). A third school is coming soon that will specialize in instruction to children and young riders. No matter your age, you’ll be flying across the water before you know it!

Skiing, riding, flying or footin’ on the waters of the Turks & Caicos is a wonderful experience. Some will be enchanted by the excitement of ripping across turquoise glass on their feet; others will be drawn to a pull on a board; thrill seekers will discover a kite flying experience that trumps any in their childhood. Even seasoned scuba divers might be tempted to hang up the BC and regulator and turn to “walking on water.”

Story by Suzanne Gerber

Photos by Barbara Shively

Of all the fish in the sea, the parrotfish may be the most recognizable. Technically, these common reef dwellers (and favorite of snorkelers and divers) are members of the Scaridae family. A number of years ago, marine biologists believed there were some 350 different species of Scaridae – until they realized that parrotfish have so many different color phases that there were actually only 80 species. That’s a lot of color changing!

Parrotfish are so named because of their bright colors and beak-like teeth, similar to their avian namesakes. The biggest bloke in the family is the bicolor parrotfish, which can grow up to three feet (90 cm) long. You can tell where a parrotfish is in his life cycle by his coloration. As juveniles, the spotlights are dark red-brown, with three rows of white spots running the length of his body. While both are basically a mottled red-brown with spots, the female will sport a yellow top half with a green/black bottom. The males’ colors are brighter – green scales with pink tips and fins that could be a flamboyant blend of pink, purple, green and blue. Just under the mouth there is a green band with a splotch of pink underneath. All parrotfish, regardless of size or phase, have bright orange eyes.

But what’s fascinating about them is the whole sex-change process. Parrotfish are born with both male and female sex organs and can start life as either gender. Those that were born male will always remain as an initial-phase male and will never have a chance to be a dominant male – ironically, that is a role played by fish that start off female and morph into a supermale (usually when another supermale dies as a way to insure there will always be a stud). These large fish, also called terminal-phase males, have bright, distinctive markings and colors, which attract the females. (In courtship, the supermales’ colors grow even more brilliant.) Sex change in parrotfish ensures there will always be a male to reproduce with all the females.

Parrotfish spawn year round, with a spike in summer. Spawning occurs in deep water, always at dusk. A supermale will mate with a group of females, and when the deed is done, the fish return to their much shallower homes, leaving their tiny eggs to mature on their own. Three days after hatching, the first hint of the pouty mouth appears.

Parrotfish behavior is also intriguing. Herbivores, they munch on corals and algae found on reef rocks. They use their powerful bird-like teeth to bite off chunks of coral, getting their nutrition from the coral polyps and a symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae). After being ingested by the parrotfish, it’s crushed by special teeth in the throat, digested, then returned to the same reef in the form of powdery white sand. And this is no small deposit: a single parrotfish can produce up to one ton of coral sand per acre of reef each year ( just over 1.4Êmillion pounds of sand per square mile of reef annually!)

Parrotfish also have a clever, self-protective way of sleeping. While a few hide or attempt to bury themselves, most secrete a mucous membrane that envelops them as they sleep, hiding their scent from predators. It takes them about 30 minutes to produce this bubble, and it takes them roughly the same amount of time to break free of it in the morning.

Trumpetfish

These masters of camouflage (Aulostomus maculatus) get their name from their long, thin snout and matching body. It’s a true but little-known fact that they’re actually related to the seahorse. Depending where in the reef – and where in the world – they are, trumpetfish usually show up in a mottled reddish brown outfit, though they can just easily be grayish-black or yellowy-green with blue or purple heads. (In Hawaii, where they’re called nŸnŸ, I’ve seen them completely lemon-yellow.)

They’re often spotted swimming vertically in the water column, snout down, to hide themselves in nearby sea fans, sea rods, whips, gorgonians and sponges. It’s not uncommon to see them accompanied by a small oval fish, such as a tang or small grouper, hunting alongside. Trumpets can grow to over a yard (1m) in length, with a head that’s often one-third that size. To my mind, there’s almost nothing cuter than a juvenile trumpetfish – about six inches long and nearly as slender as a pencil.

A similar species – which can be confusing to new underwater humans – is the cornetfish (Aulostomus strigosus), which is thinner and slightly less common in the Turks & Caicos region. Trumpetfish are voracious eaters, and can be very clever when it comes to catching dinner (this is where the color changing comes in handy). Trumpetfish will “shadow” large herbivorous fish and use them as camouflage till they find the perfect moment to attack. They’ll hang completely vertical, swaying with the current, then, moving very slowly, will suck up anybody passing beneath unawares. Because it can stretch its mouth to the diameter of its body, even larger critters aren’t safe. But their meal of choice is small cardinalfish, such as wrasse.

Like many other fish, trumpets undertake an elaborate mating ritual, another situation in which its color-changing comes in useful. Like their cousin the seahorse, trumpets dump the bulk of reproductive burden on the males. After producing eggs, females transfer them to the males, who fertilize them and transport them in a pouch until they are born.

Hogfish

A member of the enormous wrasse family, this fish (Lachnolaimus maximus) is also named for a prominent body part – a pig-like snout, which it exploits impressively to root around the ocean floor for food.

A hogfish’s color is determined by his age, habitat and gender. In general, males are more brightly colored, ranging from gray-brown and dusky to dark with yellow pectoral fins. Juveniles and females tend to be pale gray, brown or slightly reddish brown, with a paler belly. One hallmark of all hogfish is their bright red iris.

The hogfish we see in TCI are typically around 12 to 18 inches, yet they can actually grow to lengths of eight feet (2.5 m) and weigh in at a hefty 22 pounds (10 kg). They are believed to live up to 11 years.

Because of their snouts, hogfish are generally bottom feeders, utilizing their strong jaws to dine on mollusks, hermit crabs and sea urchins. In their youth, favorite snacks also include crustaceans and echinoderms.

Hogfish, like so many of its marine kindred, are hermaphrodites. The born-females, upon reaching sexual maturity at around three years of age, can (and often do) mutate into males. The male will gather together a “harem,” and spawn only with their ladies. Spawning occurs late in the day, as the lovers congregate and often make a mad dash toward the water surface. Eggs are released into the ocean and left alone to hatch – about 24 hours after fertilization. A few weeks later, the hatchlings are mature juveniles and find themselves a suitable home (like sea grass). Juvenile hogfish are adorable, with a more oval profile and more slender bodies. Note: Although the hogfish is a prized food fish, it has been linked to ciguatera poisoning.

New York-based Suzanne Gerber writes about scuba, travel and health for a variety of publications. Book your next dive trip at www.worldofdiving.com.

Avid underwater photographer Barbara Shively discovered Grand Turk diving in 1997 and has returned every year since. It has become her passion to share the beauty of the coral reefs with friends and family through her photographs. See her work at: shivelygallery.home.comcast.net.

By Kathy Borsuk

It doesn’t seem fair. These days, a sun, sand and sea drenched lifestyle in the Turks & Caicos Islands, especially on Providenciales, appears reserved for the rich (and/or famous). A glance through the local real estate association’s magazine turns up beachfront condominium prices typically well over the million dollar mark (and rising each quarter). In fact, one local realtor estimates that over the last five years the average unit price for Grace Bay condominiums has increased over 150%, from $531,000 to $1,395,000.

Have investors who don’t feel comfortable paying such prices been left out in the cold?

Fortunately, some developers are beginning to carve a niche for luxury condominium projects that are close to, but not directly on, the beach. This simple distinction can make the properties more affordable, opening up the possibility of a Caribbean vacation get-away, retirement and/or offshore investment to folks whose net worth may not be astronomical. The Villa del Mar Hotel and Resort is one such development.

The Villa del Mar holds a well-positioned “off the beach” location in Grace Bay. Its two acre site is directly south of the prestigious Grace Bay Club, with a palm-lined beach access walkway adjoining the grounds. From here, it’s a short and enjoyable stroll to world-famous Grace Bay Beach, with its sugar-soft sand and shimmering turquoise waters. At the same time, Villa del Mar’s prime Grace Bay address puts you within easy reach of many of the island’s top restaurants, several shopping plazas, spas and the Provo Golf & Country Club, as well many business offices.

Although there’s plenty to do along the “Gold Coast,” you might not want to leave home. Villa del Mar’s architects and planners conspired to create an enclave of tropical comfort, with all the amenities of a four-star resort. The three, four story residence buildings are designed in Spanish Mediterranean style, with classic pilasters, curving arches, an abundance of balconies and attractive clay tile roofs. Each suite overlooks the wide central courtyard, across which curves a sinuous pool surrounded by extensive decking and tropical landscaping. (Bathers enter this unique pool by walking in straight from the pool deck. The bottom gradually slopes down, letting you lounge in shallow water or wade down to deeper water for a swim.) Destined to become THE spot for relaxing and enjoying the indolent climate, this locus also includes a tiki hut entertaining area for socializing and an air conditioned exercise pavilion housing a well equipped gym.

Only 42 suites are available – 18 deluxe studios, 18 one bedroom suites with dens and 6 penthouses. All are furnished in upscale fashion, with “indoors” embracing the “outdoors” with large, window-lined balconies and terraces, featuring sliding glass doors. Care in planning is obvious, with features on par with those of more expensive properties, including travertine floor tiles, custom lighting and ceiling fans, Kohler faucets, custom cabinets and marble-topped vanities, owner’s closets, breakfast bars and separate showers and bathtubs. One bedroom suites include a stainless steel appliance package of range, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher, while studio suites are furnished with a bar refrigerator and microwave. Complete furniture packages are also available.

Villa del Mar is ultimately intended to operate as a four star resort, offering well appointed rooms at very attractive prices. With Grace Bay evolving as the island’s business and tourism center, the suites are expected to be popular with business people looking for comfortable rooms that are close to their meetings and fine dining, as well as families and couples during their diving, fishing, golf and beach vacations. For owners seeking investment opportunities, this means certain income potential through a managed rental program, which includes an on-site management and concierge office.

Other well thought out features, including trellis-shaded parking areas, all-concrete construction and elevator access, speak to the experience of the project’s development consultants, The Kaitlin Group of Toronto, Canada. Kaitlin’s core business is land development, typically conceiving and executing a project from start to finish. To date, they can boast of 25 developments completed or well underway, including waterfront vacation properties and golf and resort communities.

The astute team chose Providenciales for their first foray into the Caribbean after researching a number of locations. The up and coming island met their most important criteria, including being a safe and inviting location with beautiful beaches, easy air access from many countries and an abundance of fine dining and sporting activities.

Greg Greatrex, representing TCI-based Temple Group, was appointed to assemble the local development team, including TCI-based engineers, designers and builders, to ensure the resort’s construction is handled flawlessly. With over 1/2 of the units sold in the first 60 days of offer, Greatrex urges interested investors to act quickly, as Villa del Mar is among the last pre-construction properties available in this prime area. With prices starting around $400,000 and expected to follow the area’s strong upward trend, this prime investment opportunity will not last long. Construction is anticipated to start by November, 2006, for completion in the fall of 2008.

By Gilbert NMO Morris, Chief Economist, The Landfall Centre for Finance, Trade and International Affairs

Finance is the Turks & Caicos Islands’ second most profitable industry after tourism. A steering committee set up earlier this year aims to breathe new life into the sector and boost the industry’s share of the economy, creating high quality jobs and income for Islanders. Dr. Gilbert Morris was recently appointed to handle marketing for the TCI’s Financial Services Association, charged with the task of raising the profile of the sector. Following are some of his ideas for doing so.

Following is some insight into the objectives in advancing the financial services of the Turks & Caicos Islands. This I must do without revealing specific plans, since I mean to include every stakeholder and have not yet had the advantage of their fullest opinions. As such, what you will see is a substantial outline of the thought process which will be critical in making our way.

The opportunity

There is an opportunity to create a financial services centre – not yet in existence – sufficiently small, providing a more intimate service model, yet technologically advanced enough to allow for maximum client participation and real-time reporting. It will be profoundly well regulated – with a reputation for the same – with deep and wide domestic economic impact. The disparate strands of this opportunity have become my bailiwick to bring into unison as a full-bodied financial services centre, which has been in incubation for many years.

My position on financial services centres in developing nations – brought on by a wide experience – is as follows: (a) The sector model must emerge from, or out of, collateral developments or reforms of a domestic market; (b) Such markets should have demonstrated investor comfort with the jurisdiction; (c) The institutions which service the existing international client base must serve as the initial springboard for advancements, additions or improvements to the model; and (d) The jurisdiction must first master basic instruments (trusts, IBCs, property transactions, banking transactions, reporting, technology and legislative turnarounds) as a means of demonstrating its commitment to servicing a select client base.

The thinking framework

The nexus

The nexus we must keep in mind is financial services and tourism. They may overtake each other in sequence, but must be in discrete and continuous coordination. In the Bahamas, for instance, financial services ignited the tourism industry. In the Turks & Caicos, the matter is the other way round. Both employ similar promotional mechanisms, yet they must never become so intermingled that they disappear into each other since this will mean that unforeseen external economic shocks may bring them both to ruin at once.

If we look to London, notice how its financial services model was developed – organically, from its position as an international trading centre. It became necessary to develop financial services as an aid to the trade process. This is true particularly for the rise of the insurance industry in London more than 500 years ago. If you look to Switzerland, it seems that financial services are dominant. However, the quality and prestige of the Swiss financial services model is strengthened by its history and reputation for engineering, since the first precision locking systems for safes and vaults were developed there. The point is that if we are going to develop a comprehensive financial centre, that cannot be the only thing we do well. We must cultivate excellence across our administrative, economic, social and political spheres, as a means of building confidence in the world community as to our acuity for sustained excellence.

The impact

In choosing which of the nexus industries should lead, in my view it must be financial services. Tourism is not an efficient creator of domestic wealth. It is rather a reflection of some other more efficient wealth generation process. Further, in tourism, proximity to The Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and even the United States means competition. In financial services, it means opportunity. What must be done therefore is to exploit that proximity to greater advantage. Switzerland did not become wealthy in proximity to Europe, nor has Singapore become wealthy merely by proximity to China or Japan through tourism. Both have strong tourism industries. But their tourism is a by-product of other expertise. The willingness of the world to see us only in touristic terms is a result both of our self-conception and the absence of a professional international footprint that challenges those assumptions.

India challenged assumptions and is becoming the IT and Biotechnology capital of the world. Ireland is now a financial services/IT centre in Europe. Australia leads in legal services; Finland in education and hardware development and in Qatar, its natural gas trading.

Each of these nation’s core activities has led to tourism. None of this is new, however. I do not believe our current disassociated tourism model can last beyond the next 10Ð15 years. The product is too much available in too many nearby places. Already we are seeing diminishing returns. It is law of development. If we stick with the current model, then service people are required. But our people – in the region as a whole – and particularly in Turks & Caicos, The Bahamas, Cayman and Barbados, rightly want a lifestyle which tourism cannot offer on a mass scale. At the same time, their opportunities and access to capital and credit, to earn the lifestyle they want, are limited in the tourism model because of the capital intensity of that industry. As such, to extend the current model is merely to deepen and prolong the socio-economic problems they incubate. Financial services operates primarily from legislative strategy and comparative skill, and is thus more amenable to the priorities and policies of developing nations.

The new normal

It will not be available to us to erect a financial centre without notice of the rest of the world, either as competitors – particularly amongst smaller jurisdictions – or without concern, from the larger ones. We must initially get the fundamentals right: good training, education, legislative platform and regulation. In these we must attain a form of routine perfection. Then, the challenge is to find the thing in which we can effectuate a position of dominance, as Bermuda has done with insurance. It follows that there will emerge two or three additional areas which are collateral to financial services – such as technology, tourism and health care, for instance – from which can be established a broader and deeper field for success.

The particular advantage Turks & Caicos enjoys is that at the very least, more than 2,000 persons have struck – by their purchase of condo-hotel properties and various other investments – a vote of confidence in the Islands. Taking the mean of the market prices over 10 years, that is more than $2 billion of retail good faith. We must improve the experience of condo-hotel owners to a degree that is sustainable, then we must tender our existing and new financial services to that “inherent market”, for whom we generally do little in the way of comprehensive financial services. No other jurisdiction enjoys such a position.

It is reasonable to ask several questions: one concerning the viability of these islands as a financial centre and other questions about threats to a financial services model. First, viability is a question of capacity and systemization. I have heard some people say investors will not put their money into such places. Yet, we know already the case is different for Turks & Caicos. Markets are about structure and performance. If it is well structured and performs, I see no reason for doubt.

Moreover, people used to say that clients would never allow their accounts to be held in our region. Now we are responsible for more than 1/3 of bank accounts in the world.

Second, the more obvious of actual threats are the shifting sands of cross-border regulations and in particular, the various initiatives of the global institutions, still vying for predominance in the regulation of financial transactions. Our attitude to these issues must be very, very serious. The United States is increasingly advancing upon what one of my colleagues calls “Lex Americana Universalis,” (or American law made universal). This can be seen in the disregard that was had for Antigua’s defeat of the US before tribunal of the WTO, and in the US’s subsequent disregard for the ruling and its recent outlawing of Internet gambling, with the effect that it reaches across borders into the sphere of other nation’s laws. There is nothing a small jurisdiction can do to stop these overreaches. Our duty will be to master them by knowing their trends and the turnstile of objectives at which they aim. This is the “new normal.” Things will not now, nor ever, return to their old ways. A new President will not restore things as they were. No jurisdiction can live in hopes of returning to the old ways and compete or survive.

The response

Our response to the new normal (which is nothing more than that small governments will have a harder time guaranteeing what their laws promise, where it conflicts with the laws of larger nations) must be strategic.

Any strategy will begin with international treaties and agreements signed by the government of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Deciding which agreements to sign will arise from the foundation that is established as the basis of our service model. This is a critical point, since agreements such as double taxation treaties or tax exchange agreements will have a determinative impact on financial service provision. The key is to know what to sign and why, and the “why” must not be external pressure but internal strategy. The mastery is to structure matters in such a way that the former is anticipated elegantly in the latter.

In pursuit of a strategy, and to ensure the broadest possible participation by those directly affected, we shall have to form a number of committees. Of importance will be:

• The Public/Private Sector Working Group
• The Financial Sector Discussion Group
• The Working Group on Regulations
• The Permanent Sector Review Committee
• The Working Group on Terrorist Financing

These are but a few of the working groups. Over the fall, we shall be seeking out the general opinions of a wide number of persons. We have established a “wiki” for electronic review and commentary on strategy, policies and bodies of legislation to be announced. Yet there are even more general factors which must be put right to advance our objectives.

First, we must get our foundation right. General educational success must be seen as a means of combating crime long-term, along with after-school programs to engage the young people of these Islands. This impacts financial services in the same manner that it does tourism: it creates a “crime-free” environment, even as it develops a groundwork for a skilled labour force. The idea is to cultivate a “smart nation” image which is true in fact and achievement.

Second, continuous training, monitoring, modeling, scenario building and testing – designed by us for ourselves – is necessary to drive the Turks & Caicos financial services model toward sustained excellence. (It may be said that Switzerland did none of this. However, Switzerland did not have another Switzerland as competition when it began, nor did it have a Bermuda, Cayman, Bahamas or Barbados.) As such, the process must be very deliberate, and the organic national development must emerge from that.

Third, we must get our general services platforms in perfect working condition. Communications, power supply, medical care, mail services and basic banking platforms must be made ready to meet the most exacting standards.

Fourth, our contact with the centres of American and international cross-border financial services regulators must be maintained at all times. We should not wait until some initiative is passed or announced before we react. Tactically, we must cultivate an ongoing relationship.

Fifth, our services platform should be designed to substantially steer clear of the stated concerns of large nations and their membership bodies. As such, general tax arbitrage will be difficult to sustain as a free-standing policy and service offering. Tax neutral structures which advance the overall financial management of clients, or which provide services to international businesses, will prove more sustainable. Yet, it is not to be doubted, that some larger jurisdictions are careless as to whether policies are neutral where their competitive impact is significant. However, when small nations select competitive models that are tied to their unique position in the world, or the unique structure of their economies, they are less vulnerable to international pressures.

Once we have the right understanding of our opportunity, the correct discipline of mind, the sharpest – remorseless – instincts about the “new normal” and a committed attitude to a comprehensive plan, it seems clear to me that the Turks & Caicos Islands can advance upon its long held hopes of developing one of the more unique financial centres in the world.

Gilbert NMO Morris, FSWGC, FRSOF, FIDSR is Chairman of MDB Trust International (www.mdbintl.com) and Chairman of The Landfall Centre for Finance, Trade & International Affairs (www.landfallcentre.com) at 242-322-8771. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Turks & Caicos Free Press.

A renowned leader in the fight against the OECD and FATF blacklisting, Dr. Morris became an advisor to 40 of the world’s most prestigious private banks and over the years has advised jurisdictions on how to design, construct and regulate their financial services sectors.