Resort Report

Freemasonry in the Turks & Caicos Islands By Kathy Borsuk I must admit that I was mighty skeptical when local businessman Antonio Dallamano approached me to write an article about Freemasonry in the Turks & Caicos. Like many others, my opinions were rich in rumor . . . it is a Satanic cult . . . members ...

A rare glimpse of a wild and wonderful sport. Story & Photos By Wes Matweyew Waves in the TCI are as rare as the West Indian Whistling Duck, so when the unusual sound of waves crashing on the beach filled my waking mind, I sat up, wondering, “Is that thunder outside?” It is still dark outside as I ...

Merging two TCI real estate companies brings out the best. By Kathy Borsuk Just as cross-breeding produces gorgeous and long-blooming orchids (see “Plants of Passion,” page 28), hybrids are typically stronger and more resilient than either of the “parents.” Such is the case with the merger of two long-standing Turks & Caicos real estate agencies. In January 2013, ...

Secrets of orchids’ surprising beginnings in life and horticulture. Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco, TCI Naturalist My late World History professor’s house was set deep back in a fall under large hickory and oak trees in one of the small mid-Atlantic USA university town’s older suburban areas. Cold, unkempt evergreens and mossy bricks belied the ...

Taking on native orchid propagation by seed flasking. Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco, Department of Environment & Maritime Affairs Several years ago, I attended an orchid show in Tampa, where orchid growers and the orchid product marketers who follow them gathered to display and sell their finest plants. The rich chocolate scent of a maroon-spotted-white ...

Coral reef health: then and now By Don Stark, Chairman, Turks & Caicos Reef Fund During the summer of 2001, we spent three months living on Providenciales and diving nearly every weekend. During nearly all those dives, we shot video of the dive sites. We have had the opportunity to dive most of those sites again in ...

TCI Flight School makes flying dreams a reality. By Kathy Borsuk Aviation has long played a major role in this isolated, ocean-locked archipelago. Not only are the skies the “highway” connecting the country to the rest of the world, but airplanes serve as a lifeline in ferrying people and supplies from one island to another. But what pilots ...

Vacationing in TCI takes a turn for the affordable By Kathy Borsuk When I visited the Venetian Ridge Vacation Villas office to interview developer J. Kelly Sullivan for this story, I met him bubbling over with enthusiasm. He had just returned from his hometown of Toronto, where he was a lead sponsor of Toronto’s Ultimate Travel Show, ...

The spectre of Value Added Tax has been laid to rest. By Lindsay McCann, Director, Morris Cottingham & Co., Ltd. Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it. — “Macbeth” Macbeth, Act I, Scene 4 “ … I will instruct the Governor not to sign the Commencement Notice which would have brought in VAT on 1 April ...

Captive endangered turtles return to the sea. By Kathleen Wood, Department of Environment & Maritime Affairs ~ Photos By Amdeep Sanghera, TCI Turtle Project For ten endangered sea turtles—six green turtles and four hawksbills—it was a long journey from a fisher’s boat back to the sea, but on January 30, 2013, they finally swam home, thanks to ...

Final “missing” endemic plant found on Grand Turk Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco, Caicos Pine Recovery Project Manager The Turks & Caicos Islands have nine species of native plants that are found nowhere else on Earth —they are unique to, or in biological terms endemic to the Turks & Caicos Islands. Of these nine plants, ...

Harvesting benefits from the “Tree of Life.” By  Kathy Borsuk ~ Photos by Christine Morden, Paradise Photography Coconut trees are so common in the Caribbean as to be almost invisible, especially to longtime residents. If you have them in your yard, they quickly turn from delight to nuisance when the bulky leaves “molt” and the heavy shells ...

A look at TCI’s once-formidable salt industry. By Chris Morvan In the Turks & Caicos Islands in the early part of the 21st century, the only real “industry” is tourism. What the country produces at the moment is intangible, consisting largely of wonderful memories. But go back just a generation and you’ll find that some of these ...

A tribute to the Range Rats of Grand Turk By Bill Hocking “I salute—from my space helmet—the Range Rats, the unsung heroes of the space race to the future.” Buzz Aldrin, Apollo XI, 1969 On a clear St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1958 at 7:15 AM, the first Vanguard missile was successfully launched into a highly stable orbit. ...

The scoop behind Provo’s scooter renaissance. By Kathy Borsuk ~ Photos By Nancy Gargano When I first moved to Providenciales 20 years ago, many folks used scooters to get from Point A to Point B. There was little traffic, fewer people and places, and life was a lot more laid back. However, as the roads deteriorated and ...