Turks & Caicos Diving - Part 2

I just got back from my beloved Beaches Turks & Caicos. Last time I was there was end of August 2012.

Unlike in August, our conditions were not the greatest, so we had to dive from the south side of the island. Minor inconvenience.

These were my 1st dives together with my husband since Belize October 2011, and they even let us do 2 buddy dives where it was just the 2 of us away from the group. I truly enjoyed that.

The conditions and visibility that were not ideal especially how good they can be in Turks, I was just happy to dive. To be back in the water and breathe bubbles is all I need. As most of dive masters say: you'll see water, sand and coral. Everything else is a bonus. So here are few amature photos taken by my disposable camera (or heresy for photography as far as my husband is concerned, but I'm still waiting for some underwater photos from 6 years ago, so I had to take matters into my own hands).

1st one is me, then lion fish, then me again.

But I was lucky to meet Gary Javore of Deep Blue Productions and he was nice enough lo let me use few of his photos:

I absolutely love when I see a turtle. They are so gentle and I consider them a good luck. I heard somewhere that turtle statuetes are supposed to bring financial luck to a household so I never go anywhere tropical without bringing back a carved turtle. Needless to say I have wooden turtles by dozens.

Loved seing the black tip reef sharks. They are such majestic creatures. 

These fishes were HUGE! They travel in groups, and we only saw them when we dove the site called Two Step.

Thank you again, Gary for your beautiful photos.

The dive boats were great (Newton), dive staff especially Noemi, Dejan and Oats were joy to dive with. Thanks guys!

(you didn't think I was going to let a fish have a last photo in this blog?)

Happy Travels and Happy Diving!

Twitter Contest- How much will I weigh?

As in all my years, I have finally started to get more tech savvy.  I was told I must get a Twitter account and I must have lots of followers.

So, I'm taking this opportunity for some fun for the both of us, as I'm leaving to spend a week atBeaches Turks & Caicos:

1. I will tweet a photo of my feet on the scale, yes with the number showing, and then 
2. I will tweet the photos of what I eat and drink  every day for the 7 days that I'm there.
3. I will also tweet if I'm doing activities, you guys know I scuba dive.
4. It will be up to the new followers  (as now I have just 12) to guess how much weight I'm going to gain / or loose (you never know).
5. Whoever is the closest will win an American Express gift card from me worth $1 for every 2 new followers (if I get 100 new followers - gift certificate will be for $50, if I get a 1000 new followers gift certificate will be for $500, etc.). New followers count between now and Tuesday Nov 20 when I will do my post-trip weigh in.

So simple:

• I EAT AND DRINK AND TWEET PHOTOS 

• I HAVE ACTIVITIES AND TWEET WHAT I'M DOING

(yes, massage is an activity)

• AND YOU GUESS HOW MUCH I WILL WEIGH AFTERWARDS.

So Follow me on Twitter and tell your friends to follow me and let's make a fun game out of it!

Happy Travels!

Good luck to everyone!

Turks and Caicos: Diving Part I

I have been very very lucky to get invited to stunning Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean to go diving with some of my fellow travel agents from the East Coast, New England states to be exact. My flight took me from Los Angeles via Miami directly to Providenciales (or Provo, how the locals call it) located on Grand Turk Island. 10 minute drive to Beaches Resort. One word of advice the flight from Miami to Providenciales is beautiful. If you have a nice sunny day, you will fly over Bahamas, so don't sleep or play with your iPad, look out the wndow and see stuff like this:

The upper photo is Bahamas from the air the lower photo is a coral reef as we were landing to PLS airport. The airport is a little small especially crowded on the way back, but it's Caribbean so everything is worth it.

This was my diving gang. The photo is a bit blurry, that's why this is blog part I there will be part II, when I get the underwater photos, there even may be a Part III later on.

The very next day we went 8 am for our first dive. I didn't have a dive since June and diving with all new people I was a bit nervous, but after about 10 minutes, when I got my bearings and relaxed completely, I went to my underwater zen place. First thing we saw was a turtle swimming by us. Visibility - amazing, coral - stunning. And black tip reef sharks were swimming right by!

Diving can be such a calming, sensual experience. I always try to give myself a chance to swim just an inch or so over a white sand bottom and then skim the sand with my fingertips. Once you are bitten by  the dive bug, you just live to breathe the bubbles...

The resort was great, food was excellent, but since diving takes so much energy there is no guilt for the calories. Here is my photo album of the resort:  BEACHES TURKS & CAICOS

Happy Travels!