An action packed week...

I can't believe how much we have done this week, and it's not even Friday yet! We are just packing in as much as we can and trying to show Mar as much of the island as possible, and loving every minute of it!

On Monday we dedicated the day to beach volleyball! Mara is an even bigger volleyball fan than me, and was so looking forward to Friday night volleyball when she came. However, I completely forgot to inform her that since the clocks changed and the sun sets earlier beach volleyball doesn't happen anymore! She was pretty disappointed so we met up with some people from church and played all afternoon which was so fun...and of course it wouldn't be Monday without a little bit of Mexican so we finished off the night with a yummy taco bake.

Tuesday brought some not so hot weather, perhaps Mar brought it over from England! So our plan to hang out at the beach was ruined by the 'chilly' wind...first day I've worn long sleeves since I've been on the island! These were the waves that greeted us at the usually calm waters of Emerald Beach...

But we did manage to get some good shell collecting in!

Then we went on a little Bike ride down to Grace Bay to check out some of the tourist shops, which are pretty tacky, but we got some tasty banana and mango milkshakes at Giggles to make up for the disappointing shops!

We found this cool mural painted on the wall, this is the whole of the Turks and Caicos Islands...here I am showing you where Provo is!

Yesterday the weather co-operated with us and so we ventured out to Chalk Sound. The turquoise hues were amazing as usual...

Next, we went swimming at Taylor Bay beach, I love the shallow waters there! 

  

We were even able to play a little sea frisbee...

And we found a starfish which was exciting for Mar!

We took a stroll the whole way along the bay...

and found a little shipwreck which By took some shots of, and then we wanted to try somewhere tasty for lunch!

I've been drooling over the beach BBQ menu at the Gansevoort hotel for a while now and so we decided to give it a try. The hotel itself is so snazzy, we had to take a pic in the gorgeous lobby!

And we sat on these nice white sofa chairs overlooking the beach, and were able to see our lunch being cooked.

It all looked so good Mara couldn't decide what to have!

So in the end By and Mara shared meals of Jerk Chicken and Mahi Mahi, which they were trying for the first time.  It is a local fish here and Mara said it was the best fish she had ever eaten. We were beyond impressed with our meals, and the prices were reasonable too!

After that we went on a beach stroll and decided to pop in at Windsong Resort. We'd heard good things about the homemade cookies and milkshakes at JoJo's Cafe. The milkshakes were

some of the biggest I've seen and mine was super tasty...By and Mar had a slight mix up with their chocolate milkshakes which somehow ended up being Cappucino flavoured...not so cool! But the homemade choc chip cookies were delicious 2nd time round! Our first batch ended up being a little burnt!

Last night Mar and I continued with our Christmas bakefest and stayed up 'til Midnight decorating and icing gingerbread cookies! They were going to be the toppers for our gingerbread cupcakes we made this morning...check out more on my baking blog

Today By went out with a dive company, it's owned by some people from our church and he is helping them out from time to time. He was pretty excited as they taught him how to drive the speed boat today so he cruised to French Cay and spent the day at Sea...topping up his already crazy tan no doubt!

Mara and I went to top up our tans at the beach and then went for a bike ride after By got home to Long Bay Beach, on the other side of the island.

We found a whole pile of cracked conch and enjoyed listening to the ocean! By showed us some of his impressive conch blowing skills that he picked up from The Conch Festival

Tonight, after we have a fish dinner provided by the big catch By brought home from fishing last night, we're heading to the beach to make s'mores around the fire! 

The definition of Turquoise: Chalk Sound

I knew that on this 3 day long weekend we had I definitely wanted to check out some more of the Island.  We live in Leeward, which is in the South East of the Island and all the places we go - School, Grocery store, Church are all in the East of the Island so we never really venture out of this area much.

I had heard alot about Chalk Sound and knew it would be worth a trip.  It is probably as South West as you can go on the Island and it was the furthest we've driven since we've been here (funnily enough it was only a 20 minute trip so not far at all but when you're used to only driving 5-10 mins everywhere you go suddenly 20 minutes becomes a 'far' away place!)

Chalk Sound is actually a National Park consisting of a 3 mile long bay of vibrant turquoise water studded with countless tiny islets.  It actually took my breath away when we arrived because it is so beautiful and I'm pretty sure you will agree when you see these pictures:

This was the view that greeted us as we drove down 'Picturesque Lane' and the street lived up to it's name!

We had read you could hire out paddle boats down there so were excited to do that! but unfortunately the place where you rent them from was closed.  Most tourist things on the Island are closed right now as it's Hurricane season, even alot of the hotels close down for September and October and then everything springs back into life in November ready for the heavy tourist season to begin again so we will have to go back and rent a boat another time.  

A lady we bumped into told us that there were some jet skis on Sapodilla Bay available for rent.  This was another place we had wanted to visit so we drove down the dirt road leading to the secluded bay and we found the jet skis.  She had told us the number for the guy who rents them was on the side of them so By waded all the way out only to find there was no number! So we didn't get in on any water action today...maybe next time:

After our morning of sightseeing it was time for lunch, and I've been wanting to check out Mother's Pizza for a while - apparently it is the best pizza on the Island! 

...and it's located down at Times Square! I bet you didn't know there was more than one!

It was quite cool inside, their speciality is Conch pizza which I am definitely not brave enough to try but it certainly sounds fun! 

They also had a part of their wall dedicated to currency from around the world.  I guess tourists sign their names on their notes and then stick them up on the wall, they had Zim dollars, Bank of Bahamas, Mexico, China...all kinds! They even had a £5 and £10 UK note.

Their topping of the month is Lionfish! which By would have been very keen to try had I not been with him! Apparently Lionfish eat lots of other fish (which I didn't know) and so they're trying to get rid of as many of them as they can to save the reefs of Turks and Caicos...hence Lionfish pizza! 

The pizza was HUGE! I'm pretty sure we will be eating it for days to come! Since it's the only pizza I've tried on Provo so far I'm not sure I can comment as to whether it was the best or not but I thought it was pretty tasty nonetheless and a can of root beer always adds to the enjoyment!