TCI Real Estate

The Gansevoort hotel that opened here last year is not only a great place to stay, eat or relax but to also to experience Exhale.  As you enter their sanctuary spa you are immediately transported to an urban spa oasis merging mind and body to support you on your path to overall wellbeing.  Experience exhale’s active and multi-disciplinary approach that combines fitness and movement with spa and healing therapies in a modern, tranquil day spa setting.  I myself enjoy the core fusion class (well I have done one that about killed me) but to experience Exhale is really magical as you will see for yourself someday I hope.

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While revamping our image and look, if you are following our blog you know by now we came across many, many old photos of what Turks and Caicos Islands looked like then and now (some of them will be featured in our new museum).  I thought I would share this shot of what Grace Bay beach looked like in 1966 when the airplane that was to bring some of the original future developers flew over.

Karen Shaw

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Imagine planning your dinner party from appetizers to desert and you can head to any of the several grocery stores we have in Turks and Caicos Islands to get everything on the list for a successful delicious evening….now imagine that same dinner party and going to the ONLY general store in 1967 (shown pictured here)…would be quite different right?

I have been here fourteen and a half short years but remember when we had no IGA or Price Club or gourmet shops and had one choice of Island Pride (which still exists by the way) and I learned to make the most interesting and creative menus with frozen chicken and limited frozen veggies.  We had one more stop called Provo Eats (that no longer exists and shared space with one of the few mechanic/car repairs shops that were here) where you could walk into the freezer and hand pick your food and might get lucky enough to find some fresh produce out front if you got there the same time as the one delivery we got a week.

I wouldn’t want to trade the ease of shopping now as we can get everything and anything including ready made meals, but often wonder if that simpler time made planning more fun (you had to have a plan a, b and sometimes c) and less complicated.

In the end it’s all about the people sitting at your table and enjoying paradise after a long walk on Grace Bay Beach or watching a sunset with them before dinner that matters most, so let me go back and search for those chicken recipes!

Karen Shaw

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Well, as I wait for my favourite historian and boss to return from watching the last space shuttle launch (by invitation) to continue sharing his old stories and photos from way back when, it occured to me that I should point out these Turks and Caicos Islands had a history long before he arrived in the mid 60’s.

And quite a rich history it was filled with Taino Indians, Lucayans, pirates (whose stones carved with dates from the 1720’s are still here to enjoy), and ruins of old plantation homes from the Carolina loyalists who tried unsuccessful to grow cotton and sisal in 1790.

You can read about the facinating history of our islands in Where When How magazine’s informative historical section featuring more in depth insights.

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The 14 acre Grand Turk cruise center has helped tens of thousands of visitors debark to enjoy our history and heritage as well as the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean.  Carnival Cruise ships are our most frequent visitors as well as many others.

Home to the latest Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, which inlcudes 45,000 sf of duty free shopping high end jewellry stores and locally crafted souvenirs and gifts.  And if that isn’t enough, the Flow Rider (surfing and body board simulator) bekons for all.

If you want to stay dry, you can take a carriage ride into town and visit our museum and Conch World (we have the world’s only conch farm where ocean harvested eggs are raised onshore and then after several years of moving from tank to tank while maturing, they are returned to the shallow banks to repopulate as well as being sold here and abroad as a food source.

Come for a day, return for a lifestyle!

Karen Shaw

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What a difference a few years make!  Below is a photo of one of the first planes, a DC 3, that used to arrive in our little Caribbean piece of paradise better known as the Turks and Caicos Islands.

My boss tells me that this was the only way to get cargo (plus a few passengers at a time) down here from Lantana, Florida in the stripped down inside of the plane.  He remembers sitting on top bundles of plywood (no seatbelts required) on the ride down here in 1967 and through the early 70’s.  Of course when I asked how often it was scheduled to come in he laughed and said “it came back when we got down to having nothing left to eat but lobster we caught cooked in tomato paste left from the last plane that came down”.

Of course a short 30 years later and having been discovered by many tourists (and more every day) you can travel on American Airlines scheduled flights several times a day out of many hubs, British American, West Jet, and US Air to name a few.

DC3 circa 1967

Karen Shaw

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Alexander Graham Bell has nothing on Turks and Caicos Islands!  In my boss’ early years here (circa 1966) they were without all of the modern conveniences that we enjoy, so can you imagine what it must have been like when the first phone showed up?  It was a one of a kind party line that eveyone shared…mind you there were only a small handful of folks using the novelty item so there was no line up at the phone booth!

Today we have land lines, cell phones, high speed internet, HDTV and more.  You can contact LIME to get all the latest gadgets they have in their inventory but I must admit, it would have been kind of neat to have experienced what they did back then.

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On the southwest tip of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos is a long peninsula seperating an inland waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Come enjoy unparalled sunsets from the newest listing LaLazerdiere in the upscale residential neighbourhood where you can still moor your boat at the back door in Sapodilla Bay.

The many decks and courtyard make this the ideal tropical location to call home.

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Our shallow reefs offer excellent snorkelling relatively close to your front door. Some favourite sites are easily accessible from the beach including the Bight Reef always popular with visitors located yards away from our new listing “The Reef Residences”.

Here you will see and swim among the most interesting creatures over coral heads and identify the various colourful fishes, turtles, rays, corals, sponges, and sea shells.

If snorkelling isn’t enough and SCUBA is too  much, how about SNUBA?  You’ll be one of a group exploring Provo’s fascinating fringing reef teeming with sea life.  Introduction takes place on the beach in front the resort where you’ll be set up and escorted into the waters of the Bight Reef for a burst of excitement on a personalized guided tour at a maximum depth of twenty feet!

See you underwater!

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So I have been hearing and enjoying all the “old” stories from Bengt (the co-owner of our company who arrived in Turks and Caicos in 1966) for many years, but lately he has been digging up photos that tell their own stories, not to mention all the “new” stories he is remembering and sharing as he stares at them with a faraway look and a smile on his face.  What fun they must have had as the pioneers of building back then.

One of my current favourite stories is the cost of construction materials.  Of course there was no type of concrete company on island, but, being surrounded by water and sand the last piece of the puzzle was  aggregate so that they could make their own.  They decided to use the limestone and rocks that make up a large part of our islands to fill that need.  In the photo below you will see the first aggregate crushers available to them.  Seriously…very resourceful right?  Problem now was how to figure out a unit of measurement to pay for the raw material.  Since the women were filling lard cans as the only convenient things they could find, the builders thought why complicate things?  We’ll just buy it by the can!!!!  I wonder how many cans of aggregate it would take to make up a yard of concrete today and how many it must have taken to make enough concrete for that old hotel????

Nowadays of course we are much more sophisticated and have three large concrete companies to keep up with construction needs and they import their aggregate (which costs a whole lot more than a measure of a lard can) so I am glad he has found his “old” photos so we can share his memories of simpler times with you!

Karen Shaw

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