Turks and Caicos 2023 Days 1 - 3

It has been a few years since we have gone on a family scuba diving vacation. Last year, we went on two dives in the Mediterranean Sea while we were vacationing in France. Our last real dive vacation was in Bonaire in 2018. Turks and Caicos is above Haiti/DR and below the Bahamas. It is known as a diving destination.

This year, on Saturday June 3rd, we flew from Austin to Miami and then Miami to Providenciales. Our final destination was Manta House on Grand Turk. The plane from Providenciales to Grand Turk only had 30 seats in it. 

You could not take pictures of the planes while you were on the tarmac. I took this pic of our plane as we were leaving the airport. See how small that plane was. 

We made it to our bungalow at Manta House in time for the sunset.

Boogs found a great spot on our front patio to hang out while we waited for our golf cart rental to arrive.

 This was the view across from our bungalow and it was incredible at sunset.

Manta House was a great place to stay. It was comfortable and close to the dive shop and grocery store. The beach was right across the road. 

We spent our first full day on the island getting groceries, doing a little sightseeing, walking on the beach, and enjoying the peacefulness of the island. The island dogs were very friendly and joined us on our beach walks. This is Goggles, she is fed by the people who own the inn next door to Manta House.

Nigel was a cute little dog. He liked to chase the birds into the water.

We had a three dive day on Monday. The Blue Water Divers dive shop was about a block away from Manta House. It is the longest continuously running dive shop on Grand Turk.

Most of our dives were on their larger boat. There were 7 of us diving plus the dive master. The other divers were from Oregon and Tennessee. There was a storm the day before we arrived so the water visibility was about 50 feet.

My husband found a really great case, DiveVolk, and used my iPhone for taking underwater pictures and videos.

For our first diving day, the dive sites we dove were The Tunnels, Chief Minister, and Connie's Reef. My husband mostly took videos while diving so I don't have a lot of good pictures. During our trip he took 160 short videos.

The ladies from Tennessee doing their safety stop before swimming to the surface. They have been dive buddies for the past 30 years. They leave their husbands and kids at home to go on dive adventures. D, we need to start doing this!

I love looking inside of these.

The sunset Monday night was stunning.

Look at all the colors in the sky. It was impossible to capture the true beauty of this sunset.

Goggles joined us for sunset watching.