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Grand Turk Cruise Port - Turks and Caicos Copyright Andy Richards 2012 |
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Grand Turk Cruise Port is one of the shallowest Caribbean Ports - part of the reason it is so conducive to salt collection Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
A BRITISH commonwealth "automonomous territory," the Turks and Caicos were, like all of the "Caribbean" lands, once inhabited by "indigenous" tribes (in this case the Lucayan and Taino people, of Arawak origin), were presumably discovered by Columbus during his 1492 exploration voyage (the information I was able to find on this is conflicting, with one account saying Colombus landed there in 1492, and others saying the first European sighting of the islands didn't come until 1512). The islands were alternately claimed by various European nations, but eventually came within the control of the British Empire. Originally ruled from the Bahamas, they became an autonomous British Territory when the Bahamas gained their own independence in 1973. Prior to European control, the indigenous people were known to be peaceful, and lived by farming, fishing, and salt raking.
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From our Ruby Princess Ship you could see the salt retention ponds Grand Turk - Turks and Caicos Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
TURKS AND Caicos, some time in the second half of the 16th century, became known (and exploited) by their substantial salt deposits. There are still large salt lagoons just onshore in Grand Turk. They can be seen from the cruise ship and are also very close to the village of Grand Turk. for a hundred or more years, the Bermudians and Bahamians fought over the rights (to exploit) the salt deposits in Turks and Caicos. Eventually, the islands have shifted away from salt production and toward tourism. The history of all of these Caribbean Islands is fascinating and well beyond the scope of these blogs. If you are interested in the history of the Turks and Caicos, I link here to the Wikipedia page as a good start. For an engaging and historically accurate fictional account, I highly recommend reading "Caribbean" by James Michener.
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Memorial of the "John Glenn Friendship 7" Capsule Grand Turk - Turks and Caicos Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
THERE IS one other historical facet, though, of Turks and Caicos, which should be of interest to American readers. From 1950 to 1981, the United States had a missile tracking station on Grand Turk. In the early days of the American space program, NASA used the station, also. The first man to orbit the earth in a spacecraft, John Glenn, left his print on Grand Turk, when following his three earth orbits in 1962, his spacecraft, Friendship 7, successfully spashed down in the Atlantic nearby and was brought back ashore to Grand Turk Island. While the actual spacecraft resides in Washington, D.C., there is a nice memorial to the event just outside Grand Turk, near the JAGS McCartney International Airport. We had an opportunity to visit it.
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Governor's Beach - Grand Turk - Turks and Caicos Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
THE GOVERNOR'S mansion, pictured here just behind Governor's Beach (thought to be the nicest beach on Grand Turk) is the official residence of the Governor of Turks and Caicos. As you can see, it is flying the Turks and Caicos flag.
did I mention that in the shops area there were at least two swarthy, bearded, camo-dressed military-looking guys with military rifles?
I HAVE promised to, from time to time, publish a humorous anecdote here on the blog. This one is - in my view - one of the most memorably humorous to me (though it could very well be one of those "you had to be there" stories 😆). Remember that we were relatively new to cruising at this time. This was our second cruise. We were not the "experienced cruisers" that we think we are today, with our drink packages, "status," and other things we now take for granted. We had been surprised (though not shocked) at our bar bill at the end of the Alaska Cruise. Like many service industries, cruise ships make a substantial amount of their profits on beverage sales and they are pretty expensive. Of course, you are not allowed to BYOB aboard (except for some very limited quantities of wine). Our "needs" were fairly simple at that time. We drank gin and the occasional bourbon. On line, my wife found some some bladders that purportedly "tricked" the scanning systems (they worked) coming aboard the ship, and we brought our own, which we mixed in our stateroom and often enough - drank on our balcony. NOTE: I am neither advocating nor recommending this practice and today, we wouldn't even think of it. Even back then, the magnitude of savings was probably negligible. These days? We just put our heads down and buy the drink package.
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BIG bottles at the Grand Turk Duty Free Store Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
ANYWAY, BACK to the humorous anecdote. By the time we reached Turks and Caicos, we had depleted our "private" supply of spirits. We knew that there was a large, duty free shop right at the cruise terminal and we determined to re-stock. So when we disembarked the ship, we took two of the bladders with us in separate backpacks. We bought a bottle of gin and walked out of the store, away from the cruise terminal, into a large area with shops. We had already determined that we couldn't fit a single bottle into just one of the bladders, so my wife went first - into the ladies room to "fill her bladder." 😕 A couple minutes later, she came out and we - as surreptitiously as possible, moved the bottle to my backpack, and I headed into the mens room to complete the job - disposing of the "evidence" as I came back out. Here we were, a couple in their 50's sneaking booze onto a cruise ship. Now, there is nothing inherently illegal about transferring the contents of a bottle into the bladders. But did I mention that in the shops area there were at least two swarthy, bearded, camo-dressed military-looking guys with military rifles? The probably didn't even notice us, but we were sure we were being surveilled and would find ourselves in a hot, sweaty, interrogation room! I felt like a nervous high school kid sneaking a cigarette (or worse) in the woods behind the school. Like I said, maybe you had to be there. 😅 I have since, always marveled at those huge bottle of spirits in those stores. We walked back through the duty free store, and back onto the ship to put our "contraband" away.
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Grand Turk Cruise Port - Ruby Princess and Carnival Glory Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights |
AS THIS was our first Caribbean adventure, and only our second ever cruise, we really didn't know much about many of the stops we made. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend were interested in snorkeling and similar excursions. We really weren't. On Grand Turk - other than our "deal," we didn't have much of a plan, so we walked off the ship and through the port area and hired a "taxi" (a golf cart - type arrangement) to take us "into town." In later years, I have gotten much better at researching (before and after our trips) the areas we have visited, learning at least a small amount about their history, geography and cultures, and my wife has become expert at finding excursions. The only "town" on the island where we docked is Cockburn Town. In 2012, it was tiny, and mostly older, local tourist - oriented establishments. In a way, it may have been the most "authentic" place we ever visited in the Caribbean. The little shops (there were only a very small handful of them) I photographed here are the sum of what there was for shops.
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Tourist Shops in Cockburn Town - Grand Turk Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
AT THE same time, there was obviously a (however small) residential population. As we drove toward the town center, cows, goats and chickens wandered across the road and all around the town. As rural as I have ever experienced. But the is a Masonic Temple there! Interesting.
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Tourist Shops - Cockburn Town - Grand Turk Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
THE TOWN (indeed the whole lsland) showed some signs of wear and tear - and poverty, almost as soon as you got away from the commercial cruise port and governer's beach/mansion area. There is little doubt that the relentless sun and hard weather takes its toll on dwellings and buildings in the Caribbean. Cockburn Town, in addition to being very small, was a pretty good case for that. That was 2012 and there was some ongoing construction of what looked to be the beginnings of a nice resort type hotel. Looking on-line today almost 15 years hence, you can see that it is substantially more developed than it was then, which retaining its essential, "Caribbean rustic" look. There appear to be numerous food and drink establishments along the waterfront, and many more shops. I like that it isn't "modern" with all the EFFY and jewelry shops (though they are certainly there back at the cruise port.
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Cockburn Town - Grand Turk Copyright Andy Richards 20121 - All Rights Reserved |
AT THE same time, there was evidence of commercial growth beginning to happen. I later learned that the Grand Turk cruise terminal is solely operated by Carnival Cruise Lines - which means in all probability only Carnival, Princess, and Holland America regularly stop there (though Carnival also owns Cunard, P&O, and Aida - so perhaps they have some traffic there, too). We have not cruised on a Princess ship in the Caribbean since, which may explain why we haven't been back to Grand Turk. But a little bit of internet research makes it clear that other cruise lines (MSC, Celebrity) also stop there from time to time. What really strikes me, though, is that Grand Turk is a tiny fraction of the Turks and Caicos. It is really solely a beach, bars, and related activities destination. Yet Turks and Caicos is known to be a very popular vacation spot over on its main islands where there are several all - inclusive resorts and high - end hotel chains. We didn't know that. Nor did we see any of it. No cruise ships port there.
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Masonic Temple - Cockburn Town - Grand Turk Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved |
IT WAS a nice, quiet, afternoon though. We bought some conch fritters (Turks and Caicos are also known for conch - having until only very recently, the only organized "conch farm" in the Caribbean), walked around a bit, and eventually headed back for the ship. This was our final destination stop on this cruise, though we would still have one more "at sea" day before arriving back in the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal. We came in very early in the morning, and I was up and watching as we moved toward our berth. I tried to make some handheld photos of the area, without much success - but I did make a couple of them into painting-like images, to hide the lack of sharp focus. 😊 As we disembarked and headed toward the Ft. Lauderdale airport, in my mind I thought we probably got that Caribbean cruise under our belt and probably wouldn't be repeating it. Fun. Now lets move on to the next thing. Surprising how wrong I turned out to be, as the very next year, we had another - completely different - opportunity to cruise in the Caribbean once again. And this "cruising thing" began to "get some legs with us."
Next up: The O'Brien Cruise.