Tues Feb 11, 2025
Hi All! Today we were docked on the island of Grand Turk within the archipelago of Turks & Caicos. To be honest I didn’t know a lot about Turks & Caicos and while Grand Turk was nice, it was not the upscale, luxury place that I thought it was. That’s another island called Providenciales which is about 22 miles away from here. But we still had a fun day here.
Grand Turk is relatively small at 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. It has a population of 5,000 people with only 45,000 people in all the islands within Turks & Caicos. Salt and tourism are the two main industries on the island.
We took a tour around the island today in an open air tram. There were only about 12 of us so it was nice not to be jammed into a big group. We went to the lighthouse, saw some beautiful beaches and saw lots and lots of donkeys! They are everywhere and pretty much roam the whole island.
Two interesting historical tidbits. John Glenn splashed down near Grand Turk on Feb 20, 1962 in the Mercury Capsule Friendship 7 after circling the earth three times. They have a life size replica of that capsule on display within a traffic circle and that thing is little! I included a picture.
We also visited the Grand Turk lighthouse which was 60 feet high and stood at the highest point of the island. It was built in 1852 in England and brought here in 1853. The only other lighthouse exactly like this is in Bermuda. And this is the only lighthouse in the Turks & Caicos islands.
After our tour we got back on board and had lunch and relaxed on our balcony. I’ll do an update tonight after dinner. Happy Tuesday all!
The Wandering Italian 