Why Turks and Caicos Will Always Hold a Special Place in My Heart

Back in May, I was messing around on the internet (like any good millennial) and decided that Mike and I should go away for a long weekend in November to celebrate being together for three years.  After searching Kayak and JetSetter, we picked Turks and Caicos.  It wasn't super expensive and not terribly far away, so it looked like the perfect place to escape to.

A few months later, Mike was diagnosed with cancer.  When the doctors finished removing all the cancerous tissue, we knew that this would also be a trip to celebrate overcoming that obstacle.  Needless to say, we were both looking forward to our long weekend away for many reasons.  But Mike had an additional reason that he was keeping from me.

Our first night there we had crummy weather, which I thought was making Mike antsy.  After all, we had been on a plane for the better part of the day.  He was pacing around the room, trying to find any reason to go outside. Once the rain let up, I agreed to go for a walk around the resort.

In the middle of our resort was this very cool pool that had a waterfall and many little bridges that you could walk across.  Mike told me to look for a place for us to sit. While I was looking for a dry chair, I suddenly hear Bruno Mars' "Marry You"  starting to play.  I spin around and see Mike down on one knee, holding out a ring, asking me to marry him.  Needless to say, my answer was yes.  I was so overcome with emotion that it took me a couple minutes to actually take the ring from him.  And as you can see, Mike did a great job picking it out.

As of right now, we don't have much of anything in the way of wedding plans.  It will probably be awhile before we do.  But we want to thank everyone for all your warm wishes. It really means a lot to us.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know I did :)

The bridge where he proposed.

A Little Bit About Provo

Our last two days in Turks and Caicos were spent on the beach, which I now miss terribly having landed in Hartford on Tuesday night. We didn't really do anything of note, so I wanted to use this post to talk about the island we were on.

Mike and I were on the island Providenciales, or Provo as most people call it. In talking to the hotel staff, we discovered that a lot of them were originally from Haiti. There were also some people from Jamaica. It was very interesting walking to the Haitians and hearing about life over there. Most of them had not been back in years.

I can understand why they would want to come to Provo. We were able to safely walk on the beach at night, which was so nice. You couldn't do that in Jamaica, and I'm guessing Haiti as well. We also walked down the main road at night and felt completely safe.
Provo is in the process of being developed. They didn't have any cars on the island before 1964.  A lot of nice, new shopping centers have gone in but thanks to what happened in 2008 a lot of the storefronts remain empty.

Since I'm typing on my phone, I'm going to cut this post short. But stay tuned!  I still have one post left that you definitely won't want to miss...

Snorkeling, Diving for Conch, and Hanging with Iguanas

Yesterday Mike and I were handed a brochure for various excursions you can take from our resort.  While we lounged on the beach, we flipped through it and saw one for snorkeling.  We had heard good things about it from multiple people, so we decided to sign up.  This morning at 9 AM, the boat came and got us for our adventure.

To quote Andy Samberg, "I'm on a boat!"

Mike and I, along with three other couples, set off on the incredibly choppy waters of the Atlantic to the reef that lies just beyond the island.  There were a couple moments when the current was getting so rough that I was getting nervous, but arriving at the reef made it all worth it.

Each person was given a pair of flippers and snorkeling goggles and was told to head out.  We set off from the side of the boat and began to explore.  The fish were all sorts of magnificent colors, ranging from white to purple to black and yellow.  I even saw one that was yellow and purple and thought it would be the perfect mascot for the Minnesota Vikings because its colors were exactly the same.  Since the water was so choppy, it pushed the fish in all sorts of directions that they didn't want to head into.  They were trying so hard to eat off of the coral but kept getting swept away.  Even I was getting swept away.  But it was a great time, especially since the last time I went snorkeling I kept getting water in my goggles, making it very hard to see anything.

After our group was done taking a peek at the ocean life, we left the Atlantic and headed towards the Caribbean Sea to go dive for conch.  While the water was much less choppy, the current was very strong.  I managed to find a conch within five minutes, but me being me, I went to pick it up and the seaweed freaked me out so I dropped it like a spaz.  A few minutes later, I found another one that was face up and got really excited, but manged to drop that one too.  After another fifteen minutes of searching, I found one, picked it up, and started to head back to our boat.  I was so proud of myself for finally finding one that I willed my tired legs to get me to the boat.  I arrived, beaming with pride, only to be told that the conch I found was too small and that I had to throw it back.  Needless to say, I was bummed.  And then to add insult to injury, Mike one- (or should I say three-) upped me by coming back to the boat with three conch.  Only one of them was big enough to keep, so we had to throw the rest back.  He was the only person that managed to find one big enough to hold on to, so that was pretty cool.

This is what the conch looked like in the water.

Our next stop was the uninhabited Iguana Island.  The first thing we did at Iguana Island was watch one of the crew members get the conch ready to eat.  First they hammered the shell, and then pulled the conch out of the shell and cut it up so that the meat could be prepared.  Fun fact: the conch spine is an aphrodisiac.  I tried it and I have to say that a.) it tasted like a salty spaghetti noodle and b.) it didn't really work.  Keep that in mind in case anyone ever tries to offer it to you.

A female iguana.

The iguanas on the island were only about a foot long.  One of our tour guides had a bag full of chopped up veggies that he would throw out so that the iguanas would come out.  They weren't really scared of us and they were really fun to watch scurry around.

On the other side of the island, there was a beautiful beach with amazing water where we went for a quick swim.  When we got back to the boat, conch salad was waiting for us.  It was a lot like ceviche, meaning it was absolutely delicious.  Now, the last time I went on a maritime excursion in the Caribbean, it did not end well for me.  So I really had to work on not eating a whole lot to prevent reliving the St. Martin's Boat Trip of '06 nightmare.  It was not easy, but I made it back to the resort without my lunch making a reappearance.  Overall, it was a success.

Conch salad.  Super yummy.

I'm really glad that we decided to go on this trip.  Usually I have reservations about excursions like this, but the guides were a lot of fun, as were the other couples, and I didn't feel like it was super kitschy.  It made for a great day.  Plus, we got to keep the conch shell that Mike found.  In my opinion, it is one of the coolest souvenirs that we have ever gotten.

TCI: First Full Day

We are finally here!  Thank goodness.  Our trip here wasn't too eventful, unless you count the last 45 minutes of our flight that had just enough turbulence to make me feel like I was going to lose my lunch.  It was not fun.  But we arrived in one piece and that's all that really mattered.

Our resort is really awesome.  We have a view of the ocean from our room and were welcomed with complementary rum punch, so it's fair to say that we're pretty happy with the place we picked.

This is where we lounged this morning.

When we arrived it was raining quite a bit, which I gathered is pretty unusual.  Mike and I ended up hanging out at our beachfront restaurant/bar that's at our resort and then went to sleep relatively early last night because there wasn't much to do.  But we made up for our lack of activity today.  We spent a good part of our day hanging out on the beach.  Since our resort is beachfront, we had to walk a grand total of five minutes to get where we were going.  We picked out an umbrella, put our stuff down, and headed out into the water.  An hour and a half later, we decided we needed a change of scenery.  There is also an area that has a couple of hammocks in it that we ended up hanging out in during the afternoon.  Today was a lazy day for sure.

The water here is the bluest I have ever seen.  I don't remember it being this blue in Jamaica, nor do I remember it being this blue in Corsica or St. Martin.  When you first get in it, the water is kind of cold but then your body gets used to it and it's absolutely lovely.  We made it through the day without a sunburn, so that's a plus.

We've been eating pretty well here.  I had conch pizza for lunch today and Mike had conch wantons at a resort close to ours, and last night we had conch fritters.  Sensing a theme here?  Tonight we went to a pretty fancy-pants restaurant down the street and had an amazing meal.  You can tell that the restaurants here are struggling a little because they aren't super full and they are offering all sorts of deals.

Conch pizza.  Complete with rum punch.  Yum!

As far as being in a foreign country goes, there really isn't too much that is different here.  The biggest difference I've seen is that people drive on the other side of the road and speed limits are posted in kilometers.  The cars here aren't consistent with which side the steering wheel is placed on, so sometimes you view them placed on the left and sometimes you see them placed on the right.  The cars are also pretty large.  I remember St. Martin having everything ranging from SmartCars to SUVs, but here I've seen more of the bigger cars.  Another interesting thing that I've noticed here is that the poverty isn't as stark as it was when we were in Jamaica.  Don't get me wrong, it is still present here but nothing like it was when we were on that island.

Our view during lunch.

Tomorrow morning we are getting up early to go on a glass bottom boat/snorkeling tour.  We also get to go to Iguana Island to check out some of the wildlife.  Needless to say, we're both pretty excited.  Stay tuned for my next post on that!

The Good and the Bad: 2012 Edition

I know we still have about a month and a half left in the year, but I'm ready to call 2012 one of the most up-and-down years of my life.  There's been the good: Carnaval in Rio, many beautiful weddings of dear friends, a new, absolutely adorable addition to Mike's family, a trip to Fenway to see the Sox beat the Yankees, my sister graduating and landing a job in a theatre in Florida, IU Basketball being ranked No. 1, and so much more.

But there has also been the bad.  Like the NHL lock-out (seriously guys, get it together), stressful moments at work, the Nats losing in the playoffs, IU Football (but who am I kidding?  They've always sucked), and on a more serious note, the day I found out that my lovely boyfriend had cancer.  Now before you all start freaking out, he's totally fine and has been a rock star through everything.  Two surgeries later, they got everything out and there is no need for chemo or radiation, so we are thanking our lucky stars that we were given the best possible scenario.  I also want to take a second and give a shout-out to our friends and family because all of you were super supportive during all this.  Honestly, I don't think we could have gotten through the past couple months without you guys.  Thank you.

Needless to say, our summer was not the best.  Between surgeries and doctor's appointments, there was not much time for an extended vacation anywhere.  But now that things have temporarily slowed down, Mike and I have decided to get one more stamp in our passports before the year ends.  On Friday we are off to Turks and Caicos to get some much needed relaxation before heading up north to New England for Turkey Day.

via

For those of you going "Turks and wha?" the Turks and Caicos islands are an overseas British Territory that is made up of eight main islands.  We are staying on the Providenciales island.  The country is about 620 miles from Miami, which means that the flight isn't super long.  There is supposed to be amazing snorkeling and some of the bluest waters you can imagine.  I'm getting excited to go exploring!  Throughout the trip, I'll be updating every once in awhile to let you in on our island-life experience! 

Words and Travel

I know that I'm not currently abroad, but I had to share this.  Today while going through my Google Reader, I came across a post spotlighting some fun words from otherwordly, a beautiful tumblr run by an English major who also likes to dabble in lingusitcs.  She posts words from many different languages, which I love because there are times when English just doesn't do a very good job of capturing every aspect of something in a single word.  Anyway, I found the following words relating to travel while browsing and I feel as though they hit the nail on the head. 







via sho & tell

Lookin Like Lobsters

The past few days around here have been pretty mellow.  Carnaval really takes a lot out of you, so we spent a day sleeping and hanging around the house.  Our bodies were grateful for the rest and the lack of alcohol in our systems.

Yesterday, Mike and I decided to hit the beach again.  The last time we went was during Carnaval and it was packed.  And when I say packed, I mean sardines-in-a-can packed.  So around noon we hopped on the Metro and went to hang out on Copacabana.  Even though we knew that it is a tourist spot, we figured that we needed to go there because we're in Rio and, well, why not?

Mike hanging out on Copacabana, pre-sunburn.

So we rented some chairs and an umbrella from one of the stands that line the beach and decided to hang out in the sun for a little.  After about 15 minutes, we slathered on some sunscreen, jumped in the water, and hung out in the shade.  Despite taking the necessary precautions against the sun, we both ended up looking like lobsters.  It looks like we sat out there for two and a half hours with no sunscreen on.  Luckily we didn't burn our backs (that would have made for a truly miserable plane ride) and the burns don't hurt all that much.  I'm thankful that I threw some aloe in my bag at the last minute.

In the evening yesterday, we went on a walk around the bay in Rio with Fabiano and some of his friends (one of which is an American woman visiting from St. Michaels, MD).  We took in the sights as the sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful.  There were lots of yachts and small boats hanging around.

The yacht club.

When we got back, Fabiano cooked us this amazing Brazilian meal (the name of which is escaping me right now).  It was our last night with him because he had to go out to the country to organize a friend's wedding.  It was a nice night.  And it rained, which cooled everything down (thank God).  As one of Fabiano's friends said, "We only have two seasons in Brazil.  Hell and summer.  Right now it is hell." I cannot tell you how much I agree with that statement.  Especially because we have no AC.

Today Mike and I hit up some of the shops in Rio.  Fabiano introduced me to this bag designer, Gilson Martins.  Now I'm obsessed.  As soon as we walked in, we were offered cold beers (stores in America, take note).  While browsing, they kept topping us off.  I still can't decide if they were trying to be nice or trying to get us drunk so that we'd buy more.  If Mike hadn't stopped me, I probably would have bought everything in the store.  We also hit up the Havianas store in one of the malls.  Sadly, they didn't have my size in the really funky-do sandals that they don't sell in the States.  I'm holding out hope for the airport tomorrow.

Tonight the house is just about empty.  It's just me, Mike, and Lautaro.  It's probably a good thing because we need to pack but I cannot remember the house being this quiet.  Then tomorrow it's off to the airport.  I'm sad that we're leaving but it will be nice to be at home.  I'm going to turn on the AC when we walk in just because I can.  It's going to be amazing.  And probably really cold.

A Taste of the Action

Here's a video from the bloco right outside Fabiano's.

Carnaval

Since quite a few people have been asking me about my Carnaval experience, I thought I'd write a quick update.

Like I said last time, we go to blocos (or block parties) to celebrate Carnaval.  I heard somewhere that there are about 400 all over the city of Rio, which I can believe.  Some of them stay in place but some of them move around like a parade.  The ones that we have been to have been super crowded.  A friend here said that there are smaller ones around the city, but I think Fabiano likes to go to the big ones so that's what we have hit up thus far.

This is just the entrance to one bloco!

Each bloco has a specific start and end time.  Some of them start as early as 9 AM and as late as 10 PM but really it goes 24 hours.  People will dress up for them.  There have been lots of guys in drag, which are hilarious, but I've seen other costumes as well.  And it's not just adults that join in on the fun.  I've seen very small babies with their parents dancing around to the music.  Anyway, the fun thing about the blocos is once one ends, you wander until you find another.  You usually don't end up walking more than 10 minutes before you find the next party.  And since there are no open container laws in this country (!!!), you can roam around with a beer in hand.  

The itty, bitty baby was dressed up as Snow White.

Some of the blocos are sponsored by a beer called Antartica, so there are offical vendors selling them for cheap.  You find other types of vendors selling food or my new personal favorite, alcoholic push pops.  I'm pretty sure that at the ones that aren't sponsored there are just random vendors walking around.

The bloco in front of where we are staying.
This wasn't as big as some of them that we've been to.

The blocos also have bands playing at them.  But it isn't just random music.  There are Carnaval songs that the play.  Everyone knows all the words and starts jumping up and down and dancing to them.  The songs can date back as far as the 1920s.  I've started to pick up on some of the words because Fabiano has been playing them on repeat pretty much since we got here.

Some of the floats we saw on the way home.

At night is when the samba parade starts.  We're not going to that because the tickets are ungodly expensive, but you can get a little taste of what it's like here.  They go all night.  You have 90 minutes to get from one end of the sambadrom to the other with making as few mistakes as possible.  We watch some of it on TV when we get home.  When Mike and I were making our way home from one of the blocos, we saw some of the floats on the side of the road.  They were pretty impressive.

Well, that's about all I've got for now.  I'll keep the pictures coming, I promise.  Mike has taken over 700 pictures (wow!) which I promise to share with everyone when we get back.

Gardens and Cristo Redentor

Alright.  Post dois.  Here we go.

Yesterday, Fabiano, Lautaro, Mike, and I headed over to the Jardim Botânico (Botanical Gardens) to spend the day photographing all sorts of different plants. Traffic getting over there was pretty bad, but Fabiano informed us that the Botanical Garden neighborhood is infamous for that.  It also didn't help that our cab couldn't go over 20 km/h because it was a piece of crap.

Anyway, the gardens were beautiful and there was no shortage of things to see.  There were plants from all over the world there but Fabiano made sure that he took us to see the things that grow in the Amazon.  We saw these beautiful, massive water lilies (where I proceeded to take a wrong step and end up mid calf deep in mud.  Not so much fun).  We also saw these little monkeys that couldn't have been bigger than the size of my hand.  From what I understand, these little guys are the squirrels of Rio.  They'll throw half eaten fruit at you while you're walking (I know because I watched Fabiano get clocked in the head with one.  He was not amused).  Because traffic was so bad on our way back home, we ended up taking a short walk around the lake in the middle of the city.  The view was absolutely beautiful.

When we got back, Mike and I went to a restaurant down the street to get dinner.  Since neither one of us speak Portuguese, we knew this was going to be an adventure.  We ended up playing a game of food roulette (point to something random on the menu and hope that it's good).  Luckily, we chose correctly.  Mike got a steak and I got Rabata (very similar to Ox Tail Soup).  It was all good.

Today Mike and I headed over to see the most famous landmark of Rio, the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer).  The entrance is about 20 minutes on foot from where we're staying.  Once we got there (about 1 o'clock) we were informed that the next avaliable tram you can take up the hill and through the jungle to the statue was going to be coming at 4:40.  We were not too amused about that because it would have pretty much messed up our day if we had to wait around for close to four hours. But there were the guys standing at the bottom of the entrance selling bus tickets for about the same price. So we hopped on a bus about five minutes after we got our tickets and started on our way to the top.  There were lots and lots of hairpin turns involved getting up there. It got a little exciting but we made it one piece.

We had to make a pit stop and buy our tickets on the way up.  As soon as we got them, we took another bus to the base of the statue.  We took the stairs up instead of waiting for the escalator because it was a super long line.  Once we got to the top, it was very crowded.  Despite the crowds and the haze, we managed to get some great pictures.  While I was walking around the base of the statue, I noticed that there was a small chapel located in the back that looked like it could only fit 20 or so people.  Then after about 30 minutes of walking around, we decided to head back.

Now we're killing time until a bloco (a carnival block party) starts in Ipanema.  It should be fun.  It will be my first one so I'm excited to see what's in store.  I'll post more later!

First Days in Rio

I just woke up from a power nap and have some time before we head out to go dancing, so I figured that I'd write a quick update.  So far, our trip has been pretty laid back.  Our flights were pretty smooth, thank goodness, and we landed in Rio at 10 o'clock yesterday morning.  We grabbed a cab at the airport and had it take us to our friend Fabiano's on the south side of town.  The house that he lives in is also an art gallery, a hostel, and a cafe.  The cafe is closed for carnival but the rest of it is very much open.  The building is close to 100 years old and is just beautiful.  We are also very close to a lot of restaurants and bars at the bottom of the street which is really nice.

Yesterday we took it pretty easy.  We hung around the house because we were so exhausted.  Around three we ended up crashing for about four and a half hours.  That night we went out.  Fabiano ordered us all sorts of wonderful Brazilian food and drinks.  (Side note: Rio is not as cheap as the rest of South America from what I gather.  Food and drink prices are pretty close to what they are in DC).  We stayed out until about three in the morning.  It was a lot of fun.  

Today we got up and hit the beach.  The water was really cold, but that was nice because it is so hot here.  We were at Ipanema beach (see left).  Fabiano explained to us that Copacabana is full of tourists and if we want to go to a "real" Brazilian beach that this is the place.  There are little kiosks on the beach that rent out chairs and umbrellas, as well as making drinks.  We set up about 100 feet from the one that Fabiano uses a lot so that we wouldn't have to go far to get anything.  It was wonderful.  I love the beach so much so this was pretty much paradise for me.

I'm getting flack from everyone for being on the computer so I better run.  I'll be back with a longer update later!

Boo Cold. Yay Sun!

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I hate the cold.  A lot.  Which is weird because I went to school in cold places and absolutely love hockey.  I know that DC has been having a rather mild winter comparatively (Snowmageddon anyone?) but I want out.  No more biting winds, promises of snow, boots, hats, coats, or spirithoods (what the hell is with those anyway?).  I’ve hit my limit.

So taking a page out of last year’s book, Mike and I have decided to fly south for the winter again.  Well, for two weeks of it anyway.  We’re off to Rio de Janeiro on Monday for Carnival!  Both of us are excited to experience what is supposed to be one of the biggest parties of the year.  We will be staying in a hostel owned by a friend of my family’s in the Laranjeiras neighborhood.  Needless to say, I’m pumped!  I’ve even been learning some Portuguese with the help of Rosetta Stone (thanks Mom!) and let me tell you, the pronunciation is some kind of strange.  Every time I think I have it down, something wacky comes up and I feel like I’m back at square one.  But I’ve learned how to say “drinking,” so I think I’m good to go.

As you can probably guess, I’m going to start posting here again while we’re in Brazil.  I might be able to post pictures this time as well so you all can get a taste of our trip.  But we're not quite there yet and I still have work to do.  It's so hard to focus with so little time left before we leave!  For now though, it's back to the grind...