There is always room for more...

Oh, yes.

Sometimes I wonder if they are coming to the island or going to the DR... But what is the difference? The biggest question here is: How do they manage to put so many things on the boat and sail with them between here and the DR?

Does everything arrive? Does anyone care?

Anyway, it was pretty interesting this morning trying to guess how many things there were on this boat. At least 3 cars, a couple of fridges, beds, mattresses....

I did not even try to estimate the number of kg. or lbs. that boat carried but the courage of the ones on that boat is really something to admire...or maybe the need of doing the job does not allow any other kind of thought.

Island life has these things... The price of living in paradise is sometimes like this.

Tomas on the island ... and after

Well. Tomas was here and his effects are still around... Friday afternoon and evening, the island looked so dead...

Everybody was at home or protecting windows, placing sandbags, etc.

All the stores closed (or almost all of them...). Cloudy sky, a little windy but the ocean on the west side calm as a pool.

I prepared my "emergency backpack" and went to my friend Phyllis' place to spend the night. I do not like to listen to the strong wind and the waves (I knew that calm would not last...) on my own.

Around 2 am we heard a big noise: one window had broken. It was the only one on the west side that was not protected and Phyllis brought this big panel from outside to cover the hole, since the screen was already gone.

For a few minutes both of us were holding it but realizing that we would not be able to hold it for hours, although it was certainly a very good arm workout...

So, clearly in those moments, creativity is really good and we built some kind of barricade to stop the big piece of wood from falling by using bottles of vinegar, boxes filled with dog food cans, bottles of water and everything that we were able to find ... and it worked.

Yesterday, the Atlantic side was completely calm again... Tomas had decided to go somewhere else.

However on the west side (...my side) the wind was still strong and the waves quite wild. I went home to see how things were and I found a couple of chairs that had flown around the deck but nothing too bad.

Today the ocean is still wild (not as bad as after hurricane Earl) and windy/noisy but I am back home hoping to be able to dive again in a couple of days.

Tomas is far from us but his effect is still over here, at least on this side of the island. Of course, it also affected the supermarkets that have not much to buy so I am anxiously waiting to see if anything comes tomorrow...

It also had an impact on the cruises. Tomorrow's cruises had been already cancelled and we'll see what will happen on Tuesday.

But, we have to look at the good part. No big damages.Nobody hurt.

Nature is being nice with us. So, let's be thankful.

See you soon.

PS: Here's the pic of our barricade for the western window, built in the middle of the night :)

Still here... well not here but I'll be back soon ...

Yes, I know. It's been a while... But I have been super busy with my IDC (Instructor Development Course) here in Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras...
And it was totally worth it because now I am a PADI Open Water Instructor, something that I have been dreaming of for a couple of years :)

Now I am training to be instructor in some specialty courses (I already have the Emergency First Response specialty and Oxygen Emergency Provider done)

And yes, I miss my little Grand Turk, the turquoise water, the unbelievable visibility and the sunny days mainly because it has been raining in Utila since before I arrived and it never stopped. Well, it stopped for about half an hour a couple of days but now we are currently waiting hurricane Richard.

It is now at 130 miles of Utila, estimating that will hit the island Sunday morning or noon. Everything almost prepared: food in the fridge, candles around the house, movies to watch (if there is power) and lot of water and other things. Of course, as in any Caribbean island, many people prepared their stock of rum, vodka and beer just in case LOL

Utila is a small island too (7 miles by 2.5 miles), with about but totally bilingual Spanish-English, full of foreigners that are allowed to work with almost no restrictions and and amazing and intense diving activity. Many people come here for training in all levels, so there are divers everywhere.

But yes, there are things of my little Grand Turk that I miss a lot and I want to come back since this time I will not be there for long and I want to enjoy the island as much as possible.

However there is something I do not miss at all: the prices. Living in Utila is waaaaaaaaaay cheaper. Just to give an example, today I went to a small supermarket to buy a few things I needed: 2 litres of orange juice, 4 candles, 5 avocados, a huge packet of Oreos (the one that has 3 dozens of them...), 1 lb of very good cheese and 1 litre of soy milk: USD 8. Clearly is more expensive than other cities in Honduras but much cheaper than our island. And yes, everything is brought from the cities "in the continent" to here too, however the prices don't double or triple. Different policies I guess.

Well, now I go to watch a movie (if the satellite works...or in my laptop) and then to bed since tomorrow Richard's winds will wake me up really early I guess.

And I will see you all really soon. One week more of training, then a bit of Miami and I will be back in Grand Turk.

xoxo

Dog's life ... in good hands

These last days Erika and I have been busy with my guardian dogs like real moms. We have been checking up on Steve, Tipsy, Princess,Chiquito, Chiquita and even Crazy Mojo, since they started to cough too much. Steven actually was the first one with this problem, so he was the one to be taken to the vet. We wanted to take with us also Princess, since she had this weird tumor/cyst full of blood attached to her leg that made her walk in a very uncomfortable way and made everybody think that she was a Prince more than a Princess...

Katya and Tonya helped us by giving us a ride with the truck. Impossible to convince Princess to get into it. She tried to bite Erika so we let her go. Not easy to take Steven either, who is not very used to car/truck rides, so while the girls were in the front of the truck, I was in the back trying to stop Steven from jumping to the street every time we turn. A real struggle... End of the ride at Clinic Road with an exhausted and pissed off Steven and an Estela with the hair like after a street fight.

It was not easy to take him to the very nice big motor home where the vets Gavin and Lance, provide with efficency and care and with no charge all the treatments for the pets. Once we thought we had Steven in it...he ran away and it took a leash, a rope and the strenght of Erika to carry Steve and his 52 pounds in her arms inside the vet's office.

Dr. Lance was extremely efficent and lovely with Steven. He took his temperature, cleaned his eyes, gave him some shots for the cough, antibiotic,

antibacterial and cleaned and cured a couple of wounds in his ear (he has been fighting a lot lately. I mean Steven not the vet...).

While Erika and Katya were looking in other direction, I was paying attention to the details (yes, I would have liked to be a vet :) and the patience and how caring the vet was with our Steven. No charge for any of the services. We just had to buy some cough medicine.

He told us to take him back next week for a follow up and wrote down all the info such as name, weight, owner's name. Of course, we tried to take Steven back to the truck but he ran away. A few hours later he was back at Salt Raker but he kept some prudent distance from me during the following days every time he saw me with the cough medicine bottle...

Something similar when we took Tipsy and Princess a few days later to treat their cough and to have Princess checked for the cyst. This time, instead of the truck, we went by walking. As Princess follows me everywhere, we assumed she would go with us...and she did. When I tried to convince them to enter the motor home Tipsy was Ok about it, but Princess tried to leave the premises.

After I sat for a while outside the building she sat beside me and in segments of 3 meters each, I went approaching the place and finally the vet (this time Gavin) went out and checked her outside. Tipsy was a total lady. She received her medicines without problem. Princess allowed him to check the cyst and an appointment was made for the surgery.

Today morning we took Princess by walking and she received some sedative to be able to get her into the OR (or something like that) and once there, some anaesthesia. Erika waited outside and I stayed with Princess and the two vets watching the surgery that did not take longer than one hour. Actually the longest part were the stitches. Princess stayed for a few hours there because she was asleep and late in the afternoon I went to pick her up.

She was kind of stoned still and she walked really slowly. However every time we found other dogs on our way... she barked at them and tried to fight.

We also found Dale on our way and she offered to take Princess in her car but Princess refused to get into the car... so she continued by walking.

Anyway, we arrived home, she drank water, she ate and now she is resting a bit. I have to cure her every day with Peroxide and antibiotic ointment until some of the stitches are remove.

We are so glad she is free of that cyst and we hope she feels better soon.

We are also really happy about the way the vets treated the dogs. They are so dedicated and efficient and they are so lovely with the pets. They provide an excellent service, every day, morning and afternoon and with no charge.

It was one of the rare and nice surprises on the island and I think it was necessary to write about it.

See you all soon again.

At Water's Edge ... edge??

Well, last Tuesday night, since Earl had been in the neighbourhood, it was understandable that the waves were kind of crazy, the surfers happy, we (divers) understood that we had to wait a few days to go back to the underwater life ...

Thankful because the winds were not so strong, no damages at sight, Fiona decided to go far to the East and Gaston disappeared into the ocean, I took my time to contemplate the ocean every evening, and morning... and afternoon... waiting for the waves to calm down and start the cleaning process (there was sand almost everywhere...) .At least a little bit.

But no. That never happened. Every night I went to bed with my iPod because the noise was too loud for my taste and every time I went out to check the proximity of the waves, they were kind of closer... yes, even leaving some kind of memorabilia on the deck.

When finally Thursday evening, all the dogs decided to go to sleep somewhere else I realized that probably the deck had become a bit dangerous.

So I asked Kirk what was going on with the waves and everything and he explained stuff to me about the winds and things like that but suddently he interrupted his own explanation to ask me: - Why? Are you spending the night still at Water's Edge with this weather?

I said: - Yes, why?

And he replied: - You should go somewhere else when hurricanes are around.

I felt in his tone that it was kind of obvious but what do I know about hurricanes? Nothing. Except that they have people's names in alphabetical order, they form when there is a low pressure system, and some other scientific stuff that for prevention, safety and common sense are not very useful...

So I promised I would go somewhere else for next hurricane, hoping the waves will go back to their normal behaviour today but no. Still our usual calm turquoise waters are only in my memories but not in front of Water's Edge that now more that "edge" is almost "in".

When I came home this afternoon, the waves were breaking against the deck and the water sometimes reached the street on both sides of the house. Weird. Really weird.

Before sunset, the dogs one by one disappeared. Probably trying to find a dryer place to stay...

Only Tipsy, Paws and Chiquito stayed. Tipsy looking at me with those 'May I come in?'eyes, Paws trying to find a corner where to sleep and Chiquito hiding his attempts to open the kitchen door, unsuccessfully.

Now it is 8.30 pm and nothing changed so I do not think it will improve tonight. Let's see what happens tomorrow....

Between Earl and Fiona

And yes. It's hurricane season and the wind is all around the island. Earl was as close as 100 miles or something like that with winds of around 135 mph. Level 4.

Yesterday night was really noisy and the wind kind of strong.

Cockburn Town (well, you know, our "downtown") seemed so lonely...

SandBar was closed the whole day. Joan's Deli at least was closed when I stopped by in the afternoon. I spent most of my afternoon at Salt Raker on line but Erika told they would close around 7. Everyone was trying to stay at home, waiting to see what would happen.

I went to Cee's early in the afternoon to buy some things to have at home and the moment I left the supermarket rain and wind started. Useless to wait really. So I started walking while Princess looked at me like asking: Why? Why do you have to choose this moment?

Anyway, halfway home, Uli stopped his car and gave me a ride and avoided me the effort of fighting the wind and end up in the pond...

Late at night, at home the waves sounded as if they were in my bedroom, so iPod on to make sleeping easier...

My guardian dogs (now they are around 6?? or 7?? ) decided not to sleep on the beach for obvious reasons and at least 3 of them (Princess, Paws, Steve) were on the deck.

I came home around 9 pm after having dinner at Osprey with Valerie, this French diver/art gallerie owner who came a couple of weeks ago, and with whom I have been diving (deep dives!!! :) a lot. We tracked Earl in her iPhone for a while and it seemed to be already moving away from us but around us, it did not seem like that...

She left me all the things she did not use and did not want to carry with her (that usual gift/treasure for us, who live on ths island and know the value of conditioner-hair repair treatment-etc. stuff...). Among other things, she left me some food such as turkey for my dogs since I am vegetarian, so all of them had some kind of "hurricane special" last night. Thanks, Valerie. Steve, Tipsy, Princess, Paws, Chiquito and Chiquita loved it and I think they were a little surprised about the unusual menu.

In the middle of the night I woke up to go to the bathroom (located outside) and I had to fight a while with my door to open it but it was ok. The waves looked unusually high but not thaT scary anyway. The sound was not nice though. My bathroom floor was wet but not completely flooded (there is a leak on the roof and when it rains too much it is flooded...) so it was not that bad... and I fought again to open the door to come back inside but that was it.

Now, being a bit later than noon, wind still here but not that strong, it's sunny and the ocean looks like in winter but Earl is no longer close to us.

Fiona is 640 miles from us, but it seems that her path is going to be NE taking her far from us.

This is just the beginning of the season so candles, batteries, water, food, credit in the cell phone, Off, always. And good thoughts and good vibe to keep the hurricanes away. The best thing is all of us look after each other and our little beautiful island.

See you tomorrow or some other day before weekend...

Cemetery - New entrance

Yes. I have been off line a lot... But as I said a couple of weeks ago, my friend Andrea would visit me and I was busy mainly ... talking!

Yes. That is what happened when friends meet after a few months without having a real conversation...

Of course, she loved the island and had a great time and I will tell you more about her visit in other entries of this blog, but I have to start by talking about this particular evening that we went for our daily walk.

I usually chose different routes so she had the chance of knowing other parts of our small island and one particular evening we took the road that runs in front of Salt Cafe, Doo Doo's, etc. and when I was showing Andrea Grand Turk Cemetery I realized that as the gates had a chain and a padlock ... someone decided to build a ladder (actually two...) on the external side of the wall so it is possible to enter the cemetery without ... climbing the wall??? :)

Maybe I am wrong and this was a legal and formal decission but I am guessing that is more an spontaneus solution... Who knows...

Another Argentinian on the island... for a few days

I know.. I know... After the Lion fish hunt stuff I did not write anything but I have been preparing a couple of things in my house because for the first time a friend from Argentina is coming to the island to visit me :). Her name is Andrea.

I am really happy! and she is so excited about it that she is driving crazy everyone around her at home and at work ... LOL

We used to work together (in my previous life as a project manager) for a few years in Argentina, Peru and Honduras and we have done lot of travelling together too to Roatan, Miami, and other places.

However she has never tried a diving experience yet and she is willing to start here so she is going to do her DSD.

Her husband gave her the ticket to Grand Turk as a birthday present (yes, guys, sorry! she is married :) so she is taking a few days off from work and from the Argentinian winter, currently with the temperature around 0°C to come and enjoy our beautiful waters and the sunny hot days.

So, once she arrives we will do our first "tango encounter" somewhere (I will let you know in advance...) and I plan to take her to some place where we can have the chance of dancing some merengue and salsa... Yes, I was told by some Dominican girls that it is possible to dance merengue and salsa so I will not stop until I find those places...

So, another Argentinian (also from Buenos Aires) will be in Grand Turk for 10 days, she is also crazy about football (soccer), Boca Juniors fan, NOT a vegetarian, loves to dance and ... (this is for Jesse...) she will bring some sweet excellent stuff to eat during the surface intervals... ;)

It's going to be very good to remember those days when we used to stay on the beach of Roatan, enjoying the beautiful weather and the warm waters and I dreamt about living on a Caribbean island where I would see the turquoise sea and dive every day without thinking about software projects and office hours, without even imagining that there was already a small beautiful island called Grand Turk waiting for me ;)

Lion fish dead NOT alive!!

Today morning at 6.50 am I took my little camera and went to the SandBar to take some pics of the first moments of the Lion Fish Dead not Alive" event. Of course, Jodi and Jewel from the DECR (Department of Environment & Coastal Resources) were there arranging everything but nobody else :) ... Island schedule (Well, Tipsy was also there ...)
At 6.59 Smitty showed up but everything seemed to be a little slow so I took a couple of pics and went back to bed. At 11 I went to dive and when I came back, after my shower I went back to the bar since it was also Jorika's birthday and everybody was there. So we spent a couple of hours drinking champagne and taking pictures of EVERYTHING possible, as usual, including the delicious birthday chocolate and caramel cake that Phyllis prepared for Jorika, and waiting for the boats to come back.
Five boats registered to participate. Between 2 pm and 4 pm the boats arrived and the 1st prize was for the Oasis team that came with 57. I do not remember the exact number but I guess that more than 140 lion fish were caught today here so it was a very productive day in terms of helping terminate them...
Jewel encouraged people to keep on catching them and eating them (she said they are tasty. I can't give my opinion about that since I am vegetarian...) so let's keep on going after them!

Far from home, back home :)

I am back on the island so The Little Grand Turk is back too.
I have to admit that I am still surprised by the fact that time is a totally different thing here (compared with Buenos Aires, for instance...).

People told me that nothing happened here while I was away (almost 3 weeks) however I found that things changed and not in a pleasant way ...

First of all, Dona left and I missed her for a day or two... and she does not know when she will be back... I do not like that. And Tipsy is going around with that face like saying "Where is mom?"...

Second, Joan (Deli's Joan) told me that she is leaving soon too. She is going back to the UK so Captain Zeng will close for good. I do not like that either... The Deli will still be working though.

You might think I do not like changes... Well, you are right. But I tend to adapt easily. But not to these changes!


I do not like nice people leaving the island :(



Between that and the people that usually decide to leave the island during August/September because everything is slow, this place is going to be nobody's land...

So, I decided I will be proactive and I will not be depressed or anything like that. I had a great time in Argentina, spending 3 weeks going out, having good food, dancing almost every night, visiting friends, etc. And I decided that I will keep on dancing here, even if I have to do it on my own.

So I brought music, I learnt also the leading role in tango, and I will teach some friends here how to tango (if we ever find men who want to learn...).

There is also this friend of mine coming to visit me to the island and even when she is a tango beginner she said she would help me too!

So, people, be prepared because tango season will start in August!!

About sweet things...

Yes, my friends. I am in Buenos Aires, but one part of my heart is on the island and my blog is still alive...
Arriving to my beautiful city during a very mild winter (13°C) but extremely humid (average 80% to 90% humidity every day), the days are perfect for cappuccinos and croissants every morning and spectacular food the rest of the day.
Fantastic for me because I should gain some of the weight I lost. (The day I arrived I verified in my bathroom scale that my current weight is 105 lbs. kind of 10 lbs below my ideal weight...) So with that and the local prices that are much better than in GDT (although higher than last February because inflation is huge while the government lies about it but that is a subject for my traveler log not this one...) I decided to eat well.
However some of the tastes of the good sweet things here remind me of the fantastic brownies and rum cake of the Salt House Cafe. I am not a fan of chocolate except in two things: Ferrero Roche bombons and brownies. I remember the first time I tried those amazing brownies that Phyllis make...

OMG I asked her to prepare a dozen to have in my freezer to henjoy during Xmas and New Year's week... they did not last more than 3 days... and even when they are really big!

So, since the Salt House Cafe is now open on cruise ship days and these weeks there will be some, my advice for you, it is to take your time and go to the café and for breakfast, dessert or just with a very good cappuccino, spiced tea or something like that and have a brownie, rum cafe, bread pudding or any of the other great things (not only sweet stuff: the wraps, sandwiches, salads, lunch specials) together with the iced tea, lemonade, teas, sodas, or beers.
You can also enjoy the things you can find at the gift shop. Two very interesting things for me: 1) The women t-shirts are actual women sizes! not those huge t-shirts only good for sleeping... 2) The little bags that you can prepare with salt stones to make your own potpourri are very nice and the price is excellent: between 3 and 5 dollars. It's on the cemetery road, between the white church with red roof and the Windmills Plaza and yes, there are signs on the road and on the front :)

Vacation ... vacation?

Yes, I know. I said it would be a daily blog but I have skipped a few days... I have been busy studying some things about First Aid and CPR (by the way, very interesting things that made me realize among others, that the more you study about human physiology the most surprised you are about how complicated and yet perfectly balanced the human body is ... but as Seinfeld once said:the human body needs so much maintenance, that if it was a car nobody would buy it ...).

Well, besides the hours for studying there is also the problem of internet that comes and goes, (more goes than comes...), hence the absence of logs these last days.


I have also been watching the World Cup and preparing (just in my mind, still not reflected in the material world...) my trip to Argentina.Some kind of vacation, although it sounds really weird living on this beautiful island and saying "I am going to Argentina on vacation" since it was Grand Turk where I used to come to spend my "what I love to do" time by diving.

However it's a vacation because I go to spend some quality time with friends and family and, of course, going to my favorite restaurants, dancing tango as much as possible and watching the games in some cafés especially prepared for football fans.

Of course, I promise I will bring back some sweet stuff from Argentina (dulce de leche, alfajores, those amazing lemon biscuits) and as I am sure I will be back totally hooked-up on dancing again, I already kind of arranged with a few female friends and one male friend (at least one!), that I will start teaching some tango, at least the basics to those who are interested. But we need some more men who want to learn!!! Remember guys, the most important thing in tango is the "abrazo" (the way man and woman hold each other) and it needs TWO TO TANGO!!! So I hope to have more guys interested when I come back.

It's going to be interesting to go now to my country, moving from the beginning of the summer (starting here today) to the beginning of the winter (starting down there today), to go back for a while to the noises of the city, people rushing to work, all dressed-up (people in Buenos Aires are very elegant) with winter coats and boots and scarfs. And I arriving with my island rhythm, with no chances of walking very fast (and no reasons to ...), with my "diver hair" and, as my Argentinian friends say, this expression of "I used to live here in my previous life...".

But I love to go home. I love staying in my flat and enjoying it. And I enjoy it more because I also know that I am coming back here. I guess that happens to most of us, people who live here, when we travel home for a while. It's knowing that we come back to the island, what makes us enjoy even more to be abroad. Grand Turk is our home too. And it's so difficult when I am in a city to imagine that while the crazy activity lives there, on the island this beautiful quietness waits for me. But then, I just close my eyes, and remember the image of something: a moment of diving, the water or just the view from the kitchen window. And that is enough to go back to the island for a moment.

Many times I say that for me, the ideal way of spending a day would be to wake up in Grand Turk and spending the day here until 6 pm and then to go to Buenos Aires and stay there, going out, spending the night to wake up again in Grand Turk.

For now, that is possible only when dreaming. But one day...
See you tomorrow. I have to go back home to pack.

About swimming...

Sunday at noon, after watching the "sweeping the floor" process at Blue Waters dive shop while talking with Audrey, I came home inspired and started sweeping my own deck floor that was completely covered with sand, dust, leaves and more..
It took me quite a while since it was a really hot day, the deck is large and there was a breeze working against me but after a few minutes I got the rhythm of it until I felt that someone was looking at me. You know. That thing that you feel without even looking... There he was. A kid about 5 years old, standing by one of the tables on the deck looking how I was trying to clean.
There was a group of kids on the pier. A couple of them in the water, another on the beach, and this one in my house, just looking around,observing me, saying hello. This is the kind of things that you can see here and somewhere else would be unacceptable. I asked how he was. He said ok and continued walking around checking if the areas I had already swept were clean or not and when he was tired he went back to the beach.
Really nice kids. Very polite. All of them said goodbye before picking up their shoes and leaving the beach.

It's the first time I see them swimming here but I have seen kids playing on the beach close to SandBar and Sunset Cabana. However many of the kids around here do not know how to swim. It sounds absurd, living on an island but that's the way it is.
It sounds weird for many people because in most of the countries, swimming lessons are part of the basic training as a safety measure. But not everywhere.
I know that Jazmin and Daniel are teaching the kids how to swim Sundays afternoon close to Sunny Side, just because they want the kids to learn. And they enjoy to see them improving their skills every week and not being afraid of being in the water. I find that amazing since they are opening one extraordinary door for those kids.

I also know that last year there was a special program for local school kids, so they could learn how to dive. I saw them diving with some of the Oasis dive masters. But, for that, they have to know how to swim first.
I hope eventually swimming will be part of the basic education also here... Or someone starts a program to teach adults too. We'll see...

Sometimes there are so many suggestions, so many things that can be done on the island to improve quality of life that it drives me crazy not to be able to do much about it.

But well, I have to go now to get some internet connection to send emails and things like that. I try to write off line now, so I suffer the mosquitoes around me just for a few minutes while pasting the texts and sending them...

Have a great evening and see you tomorrow...

Island dogs.

When I started living in Water's Edge, I received together with the house a dog: Paws. Brent and Neilda had had Paws for some time and had taken care of him through all the process of chemotherapy since Paws had cancer.
They told me that Paws liked to be around other places but he had been in the house lately.
The first days I was here, Paws stayed with me but when he found out that I was a vegetarian and he would rarely get some meat... so he moved out. He decided to go and stay most of the time at Grand Turk Diving where Chris gives him all kind of treats and a lot of attention too.
He comes to see me every evening and Sundays though . He is a lovely dog.
Around one month after I moved, my friend Jo-Ann left her dog with me for a few days, and then other dogs started to come to my place and hang out with him and Paws. Tipsy (Donna's dog), Princess (German Lisa's)dog and Steve (everybody's dog) came almost every evening around supper time Bto see if they could get some leftovers or just to play with the new guest.
But the new dog in the neighbourhood went back home and the rest of them, stayed around, being some kind of personal security service for me. They are around the house, on the beach, on the deck at different times of the day but mainly they stay here at night, except Tipsy that sleeps at Donna's. Every time someone is close to the house, or the pier, they start barking like crazy. It's really good to have them around since they act like some kind of alarm system although sometimes they overreact... They also bark to almost every person on a bicycle, making them almost fall sometimes or at least to get really scared, specially if they do not know the dogs. They also like to walk with me or any other person who walks. They escort people, sometimes for almost one hour...
Dogs on the island are very different from the dogs I had ever been with.I had many dogs before but none of them was like these ones. These dogs have a very independent life. They have owners but they do not belong to anyone. They decide where they are going to eat, sleep, hang out.
Sometimes they go to spend a couple of days in a different house and then they come back. They choose what to do and where. So I had to get used to that too. Not to get so attached to them even when they are so cute and loving. All of them have a very distinctive personality and an special way of asking what they want.
Sometimes I find a dog or a cat, that was hit by a car or something like that (last weekend in a single day I found two, dead on the same road) and I wonder what is going on here about respect/love (or lack of it...) to animals. Not only with dogs and cats. I have seen very cruel things done to horses, cows, donkeys... It's like many people here consider that animals are just objects to play with... I can't understand that. But I guess that has to do with education. At home and at the school, right?
If you do not teach your kids to respect life in any form, if you do not act with respect and love, if there is no education at school about this, how can we change that? And a kid that does not respect animals will become an adult who doesn't and this adult will have kids who will look at him as an example... so something should change now. I have hope. I think that changes are possible. It's a matter of starting with a little step.
See you tomorrow.

The ups and downs and the beauty...

Sunday evening, after spending a couple of hours downloading stuff and using skype, I came home hungry, tired and ready to finish my day with a simple but tasty dinner according with the celebration of Her Majesty's birthday so I prepared some porridge, bread with butter and Marmite and enjoyed my meal while watching episodes of Fawlty Towers (and no, I am not kidding. I loooooove those three things:porridge, Marmite, Fawlty Towers).

However, as a consequence of (probably) the number of bowls of porridge I ate, Monday morning I woke up with some kind of stomach ache that stopped me from going to dive so around 9.30 I went for my daily walk with the morning heat and everything.

When walking in front of Sunset Cabana I noticed the number of birds that were around the pond and remember that last summer, around August, one morning I woke up with that feeling that something unusual was happening. And it was true. I went to the window of the apartment where I lived, in Pelican House, and look outside. There they were. Three beautiful flamingos were walking with that elegant unique style...

As fast as possible I took my camera and went downstairs and I realized that there were more flamingos around. All of them with different shades of pink. There were also two pelicans that seemed to be "patrolling" the pond. They did not look very happy about the flamingos being around... It was a fantastic show beside my house. Amazing.

With all those memories in my head, I took some minutes this morning to watch the birds around the pond and just enjoy them. It's so fantastic to have this. I mean, never ever getting used to these wonderful things that the island has. Not to take anything for granted. Any little thing that we can see here every day, every time that we see this amazing turquoise water, or the flamingos, or the birds, or the magnificent sky at night I feel how lucky we are. We live in a place that most of the people dream of.
And I am not naive. I know that living here is not easy. But every day, I remember the "up"s of this place because they allow us to deal with the "down"s.
I am posting a couple of the pics I took that morning of August 2009. The flamingos are already here, I saw them this morning at the salina. There is beauty everywhere here. It's just a matter of taking the time to notice it and then some extra time to enjoy it.






See you later or tomorrow.

Football and the Queen's official birthday

I apologize in advance with my British friends but I can't avoid finding funny to celebrate an "official" birthday, that is different than the real one... but it's the Queen privilege, of course.

Anyway the point is that because of this celebration yesterday there was a nice parade in Grand Turk (unfortunately I had left my camera at home... but there is a video in YouTube of the one of 1998 and ... it is exactly like the one I saw yesterday so you can take a look at it ).
I found the parade on my way back home from my friend Graham's house where I had been watching football like a total maniac since 10 am when my Argentinian team won the first game 1-0 (and makiing me suffer a lot....).
During the "surface interval" between the half-times, I was checking the wall posts of friends in different parts of the world. A friend of a friend from England, still with the pain caused from the events of the World Cup in 1986, made a funny comment about Maradona. He said: "Forget about the Hand of God. Maradona has the Belly of Buddha now" LOL.

In the afternoon I watched England-USA. Interesting game. No comments about the embarrassing moment of the goalkeeper... it was enough that the fans were not supportive at all.
But football is like that. Not always the final score shows how the game really was. In any case, I had a great day since I missed watching football so much.

Among the few things I miss of living here, football is the most easily solved I guess. Since by getting a cable service I would be able to cover it. The others are not so easy. One of them is that I miss dancing a lot. Why aren't there places to dance? I remember that place La Policia a couple of years ago. Salsa, merengue,...
Now, no way. I miss dancing Latin music, rock, tango, no matter what. The Dominican bars play just bachata. Forget it ... I am talking of music you really want to dance. Sometimes Saturday nights at Bohio there is a possibility of dancing but not always. I am talking of a real place for dancing... I don't know, with music of the 80's of the 70's during a couple of hours, another couple of hours with Latin music, something like that. That is why, when I go to Buenos Aires, I go dancing at least 3 times a week. I have to "re-charge" with a lot of dancing and I do it also at home here on the island, alone. So, open to suggestions about how to solve this soon... See you tomorrow again, people

There is a first time for everything ...

Yes, no doubt about it. And this is the first time for me, that I watch the World Cup without my Argentinian friends around. Even in 2006, when I was living 75% of my time in Honduras.
But that year, I was working with a group of Argentinian consultants so we met for all the games to scream, curse, laugh and cry sometimes (yeah, of course...) around the giant TV at home or at the Marriott hotel. No matter the time of the day. We re-scheduled all the work meetings to be able to watch all the games. Yeah. Football for Argentinians (for South Americans in general) is a very serious matter.
We all think we know more than the coach, which in this case (for this World Cup) is absolutely true, since Maradona was probably the best player that ever existed but as a coach... he sucks...
I am no exception and while watching the games, I stand up and start giving orders to the players screaming at the TV running a high risk of having a heart attack...
This time, I will travel to Argentina for the second round (that I hope we will reach...) since I was not able to get a ticket with a reasonable price for an earlier date.
So, tomorrow morning, at 10 am I will be in front of the TV but this time without the other "coachs" to discuss the players' performance but my heart will be with them and, of course, with the players too.
I remember that a few months ago, I found this young guy on the island, wearing an Argentinian T-shirt, the formal one and I felt so moved that I took a picture of him and I apologize in advance to him.
I said: - Listen, just in case. I am sorry if we do not perform very well in this World Cup. I promise we will have another coach in the next one and that Messi will play at least in a couple of games. I hope he does or I will have to give some explanations to this kid...

Well, I go now because Mitch just arrived to play with the band at Salt Raker's and I want to come back for Friday night fun...

Il y a des croissant à Grand Turk ...

I have to admit that yesterday evening, when I came back from the Reef Check dives in Salt Cay, I was quite tired. And on top of that, I had to spend like one hour and a half detangling my hair full of knots with the little bit of leave-in conditioner I had left...
Because of that, when I finished the hair painful process, Cee's was about to close so no chances of buying bread to have with my feta cheese, potato, spinach and black olives salad.

But it was a blessing in disguise because I went to the new bakery to buy bread (they work until 8 pm...) and besides buying bread I found out that they make croissant and they are really goooooood. I bought a package of 10 croissant at usd 5. Of course, I ate 5 croissants in like 15 minutes...so now I better stay away from the bakery in the following days.
Of course I felt the moral obligation of letting you know, my dear friends, that there is hope: croissants can be bought on the island and we do not have to sell our gold to get them ... See you tomorrow...

Reef Check in Salt Cay

After the first test dive on Monday and three successful survey dives in GDT sites yesterday (Mama Nature a.k.a Middle Reef, Chief Minister and Wind Mills), today we went to Salt Cay.

This time with Blue Waters Divers boat in the hands of Daniel, we arrived in Salt Cay in 33 minutes and after loading the tanks on the boat we went to the first site: Three Pillars.
After the surface interval (very well used to have some snacks and water/juice and rest) we started with the second site survey that was located very close to the first one: Shark site, wishing that the name was only an anecdote and not a descriptive note...

We did this second one in about 45 minutes. It shows that we (us, the rookies...) are getting better at this or at least we are getting faster ...
We used the opportunity to stop and take a look at the recently sunk airplane (just sunk this morning...) that will become a new dive site and the boat sunk around one month ago.

Back to the shore to leave the empty tanks around 2.30 pm in a few minutes we were ready to go back to Grand Turk and this time the ride was about 24 minutes. I guess it was a record for Daniel.

It was a very nice day and we took pictures of the Salt Cay Reef Check team. Here 2 pics. One taken by the team leader Marlon and the other taken by me.
Fernando is in the picture but he was doing the Reef Check in Grand Turk the first day. Today he went to Salt Cay to help in the "airplane sinking" stuff.
Tomorrow we will do the last dive in Salt Cay and the final assessment to close the activities. Jody (the Environmental Officer) told us that, ideally this survey should be done 4 times a year, but they usually do it twice
since there are not enough resources. Let's hope this year we can do it more than twice...
See you tomorrow...

Counting fish and other things...

Today the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources started the Reef Check programme.
Like 5 seconds after Audrey from Blue Waters told me about it and asked me if I interested in participating, I said yes! and this morning at 8.30 we started with the brief and training at the National Museum followed by our first dive.
We met again at Grand Turk Diving and after organizing the teams, we left to the dive site in 2 boats. We went to Black Smiths Rock and it was more a practice to see how well (or not...) we (the volunteers who were doing this for the first time and the experienced ones...) could do.
After the dive we had a short meeting to talk about the mistakes we made, the possible alternatives to avoid them in the next dive, and to compare results such as number of groupers, % of damaged coral, etc. Also to ask questions.
It was really interesting and I am excited about continuing tomorrow. The plan is to work on about 4 sites in Grand Turk and 3 in Salt Cay in the rest of the week.

It is so good to do something like this while diving. I felt something similar when last year I participated in the "coral move" diving sessions to help building the artificial bio reef. After this kind of activities, the dives change because you start observing the marine life from a different perspective, paying attention to different things, details that were unnoticed before... For example, i
t's impressive the number of gorgonians you can find in a rectangle of 5 meters by 5 meters (sometimes more than 100...) or sometimes you find 8 flamingo tongues in a rectangle and none in the other one...
Well, more info will come in the following days... I have to take a nap now. It's a bit rainy now, so a perfect time for that :)

Diving ... Getting better every day... and every night

With the proximity of summer, days are getting hotter, mosquitoes wilder, rain more frequent and ... diving better and better :)
The waters are warmer every day, the viz close to perfect and I am sooooo ready to leave my 2mm wet suit and start wearing my skin!
We are all so into diving that also unusual things are happening (besides the manta rays that, of course, I never see...): one day last week, we were ALL at Tunnels at the same time: Grand Turk Diving, Blue Waters and Oasis. I spent the whole dive counting divers just in case because we crossed with Oasis' people a couple of times.
Also simultaneous night dives. Besides the amazing night dive that I had last Tuesday with my friend Jo-Ann and Smitty, there was another Thursday (I missed that one). The same night BWD, GTD and Oasis went for night dives but in different sites. I am not sure but I think they were Middle Reef, Mc Donalds and Library.
So you guys, the ones who are not on the island, come down here and join us that the weather is perfect and the diving, the best...

The price of living in Paradise (well part of the price...)

Reading the comments about a previous entry of my blog, I realized that sometimes we are kind of used the high prices on the island... And I just remembered my last time at the supermarket (s) and the bakery a couple of days ago: 6 oranges, 6 carrots, 3 potatoes, 1 bag with spinach, 4 heads of broccoli, 1 spray to kill cockroaches, 1 can of sliced vegetables, brown sugar, 1 bread, 1 muffin, oats Quaker (the smallest box)= 47 dollars.
I wonder why people do not grow vegetables here. I never asked but I guess it would be very good to start finding out... With these prices, I think it is totally worth it to give it a try... At least it would be good to try with things like tomatoes (impossible to buy since there are either sooooo expensive or sooooooo impossible to eat) or oregano, basil, etc.
I have to go now. I am using Internet at Salt Raker's and everybody is starting to order dinner.. Better go to feed the pets, take a shower and change to be ready for Friday's night with Mitch's band music and talk with friends :)

Rain and cappuccino in Grand Turk

Sorry I was not able to post this yesterday but I had to spend some time looking for Spot (one of Donna's beautiful cats) who decided not to show up at sunset, so I had to go later to feed her and that took my internet time, but "kids come first" :)
Anyway, I was really happy yesterday about all that rain that let the cisterns full of water.
Also it was different to enjoy the morning dives, feeling how the lightnings illuminated the underwater scene but did not distract us from our main goal: be totally present while diving.
On the boat, waiting for Tim who had gone underwater again to look for the weights that one of the divers had dropped, the situation was quite different. It is not very nice to listen to the thunders and see the lightnings in the middle of the sea, no matter how close the coast is... Underwater I feel really safe, on the boat .. not so much... Better be diving.
Once Tim and the weights were back on the boat, we went back to shore for the surface interval, that I used to have a hot cappuccino (USD 4) at Joan's Place (by the way, and related to my previous post, this place has not only a sign in front of the café but also on Pond Street!).
See you later...

To sign or not to sign...

It always cheers me up when I find a new sign on the island (for a store, for example) since, as we all know, it is not usual and it makes more difficult to give directions...
I found the new bakery about 2 months ago, following a friend's directions and, in the last 50 yards, asking around. As the bakery looked like any of the other houses around, I just followed the smell of the muffins and that was enough to find it... But a few days ago, they put a sign on the front :) so now, directions are: Take Pond Street (South-North) upto the Court House, turn to the right and on the left side you will see the store with green walls and the sign that follows...


By the way, the bread pudding is really good at usd 2.50 and it is a big one. They do not have it every day but just ask the nice lady than is there most of the time, when they will have it. I asked today and tomorrow after 1 pm they will have some. The flan is good too. Not so good the muffins though. A little dry and I haven't tried the bread so far.

Have a nice evening and see you tomorrow. I have to go now because I am going to my night dive.

Holiday in Grand Turk

For those who did not know it, last Monday (May 24th) was a holiday on the island but for some reason it was moved to May 31st (today). I suppose to make it match with Memorial Day in the US or the Spring Bank Holiday in the UK...who knows... But this made me want to know how many Public Holidays and/or Bank Holidays there are during the year in the Turks and Caicos Islands. So I went for the ones in 2010 and I found 15. I had always thought that countries like mine (Argentina) or other Latin American countries, where the ones with the highest number of public holidays. Well, no. The islands win!
If you are interested in knowing the public holidays in TCI (2010) , here they are:

Anyway, National Heroe's Day and everything, Joan's Deli was opened until 5 pm so I was able to enjoy a vegetarian wrap after diving and my friend Jo-Ann her mango and prosciutto salad. And SandBar is ready to receive people for drinks and dinner so there will be places to go at walking distance after all.
See you tomorrow...

First post first

The goal of this little blog is to post every day something about our little island. Sometimes news, sometimes comments, pictures. Who knows... The idea is to post something useful or interesting than can be read quite quickly... Tonight, almost 11.10 pm, and being the last person at Salt Raker using Internet (thanks to Erika who allowed me to stay here alone and the directions to turn off the lights and fans before leaving...) I think that I will stop here... Good night and tomorrow I will come with more...