Segway, Snorkel and Museum

This was my second time to visit Grand Turk - this time on the Carnival Sunshine

If all you want to do is shop or lie on the beach you might never leave the Cruise Center. Or you might just stay on the ship and not get off at all. I try not to judge those people, but it is difficult.

Turks head cactus at dock

At least look at the Turks Head Cactus at the entrance to the Duty Free shop - that's what gives the Turks part of Turks and Caicos their name. If you went out in town you might spot the cruise ship company building which has a Turks Head on top of it

Turks Head building

Today we got a 6:30 wake up call and we got room service again. Lynde helped me into my bathing suit and then left on her Segway tour. I was to meet her on the dock at 11 for the Snuba. I had never done Snuba and would like to try it. I did not plan go back out to the lighthouse, but I did want to visit the museum which was not open right after Hurricane Ike. I thought I would do this after we did the Snuba.

Quieter beach south of the dock

Looking down on the dock

I went ashore to see what there was in the cruise center and stopped by the booth where the Snuba and the Segway people were,

and the lady there told me that Snuba had just been canceled as it was too rough and we wouldn't see anything. I think it was probably really because not enough people signed up as they were snorkeling in the morning. Lynde has been wanting to snorkel this whole trip and has not been able to, so I really wanted to give her a chance to do that. So I went over to the snorkel booth and they said all their tours were leaving by 9 and there were no afternoon tours. Then I went to where the guy who dispatches the taxis was and asked him and he said we could go to Pillory Beach and rent equipment there. I went down to the Carnival beach (right at the port and free to get to) and saw that they rented snorkel equipment there too.

Since I wasn't going to Snuba, I went back to the ship - I double checked with them to see whether Snuba was canceled (and it was). I and took off my bathing suit and re-organized my bag (took out the towel) and got my big camera (I had just taken the underwater camera and my cell phone), and also took my cane. The first building you come to after you walk down the pier is the duty free shops. This inside area is air conditioned. You will have to show an ID to get back to out on the dock to get back to the ship.

Entrance to duty free shops

I went back out and looked around in the port area a bit. In the air-conditioned building you can buy rum, watches, and Doufry pocketbooks. In 2008, Bob and I bought hats here because I had lost mine, and he forgot his.

Tax and Duty Free sunglasses and watches

Useful cloth bags

water for sale

You can also buy water (sarcasm mode on) at the bargain price of 2 bottles for $3.00. (sarcasm mode off ) I guess some people don't mind spending their money on water even though most of it isn't really any better than what they get from the tap (unless you live in Michigan). The ship usually has RO water (reverse osmosis) which is very clean and free from chemicals and you can fill a bottle from the tap in the bathroom for free.

Liquor - 50% off - $51/bottle

Baileys at the Welcome Center which you can buy anywhere

There is rum for sale in the Welcome Center, but if you buy rum there you are missing the best rum buy on your cruise. Bambarra Rum. You can't find it in the United States This rum takes its name from a slave ship that washed up in the 1800s. Its products are blends of sugarcane rum that come in several options ranging from black and gold to coconut — and many are award-winning. Go out in town and buy the locally made Bambarra Rum. The rum can be found at shops throughout the island, or swing by the Grand Turk Liquor store on Pond Street in Cockburn Town.

There are also individual shops -Harley Davidson, Star Wars andothers

Star Wars shirts

Harley Davidson

I looked around in those shops too. I thought of buying Jim my son-in-law a shirt from Piranha Joes'

Pirana Joe T-shirts

but his name isn't Joe so I didn't. Grand Turk is really not a big shopping port.

I also asked how much it would be to rent a car ($65) You will need a valid driver's license.

Map of port - Taxis marked T. The car rental center is location 23 on the map of the cruise center

I asked where the Segway people would come back to and it was where the taxis were dispatched from. So I went there and waited. (And took a photo of the taxi map and rates)
There are four zones. The rates are one way per person
Zone A - where the cruise center is at the southern end of the island. $4
Zone B - Cockburn Town $5
Zone C - Pillory Beach (one of the premier snorkeling and diving beaches) $8
Zone D - The Lighthouse $9

Most of the time the taxi dispatcher will try to get you into a group of people all going the same place or to take a pre-set tour of the island in one of the big vans for $25 apiece. Or they will want you to go to Cockburn Town in a group ($5 each to go and $5 each to come back)

Taxi zone map

Taxi rates

When Lynde came back I told her the news, and asked whether she wanted to snorkel here, ($16 rental), go to Pillory Beach ($8 taxi each way plus unknown rental but she would probably see more interesting stuff), or just go and have a tour with me. She opted to go and snorkel right here.

She went back and changed into a two piece suit and when she got back, I gave her the underwater camera and some minimal snorkeling instruction, and left her to it. She actually saw some fish, and apparently the swim area goes out past the drop-off and she could see the top part of the 'wall' there.

Photo taken on the beach

Sand under the water and Fish

Bigger fish

Meanwhile, I went to try to get a cab out to town. They wanted me to take a tour, in one of the big vans for $25. But the lady who was dispatching the vans eventually gave in. She said I could not use the scooter in the cemeteries (which was partly wrong) and I knew I could not use it in the museum which was not handicapped accessible at all.

She called a lady named Rosemary and told her what I wanted.

And Rosemary actually gave me a tour of town (pretty much what Lynde had on the Segway tour I think). The airport is right by the cruise ship terminal

Low flying aircraft sign

Entrance to the airport from the road

Airport sign

Although it is an International Airport, most planes go first to Providenciales. A domestic flight from there to Grand Turk will probably be about $150 per round-trip. Ironically, the airport was named for James Alexander George Smith McCartney who was was the island territory's first Chief Minister until 9 May 1980, when he died in a plane crash over New Jersey.

John Glenn capsule at the entrance to the airport from the road

In 1962, John Glenn splashed down just a mile or two off the coast of Grand Turk, and spent his first couple of days here. He is quoted as saying that he spotted the 40 coral islands from space. There was a reconstruction of John Glenn's capsule out by the airport.

Rosemary drove me up past where we could see the salt pond that was in the middle of the island.

Sign pointing to Governor's Beach

Grand Turk has some excellent beaches on it's western coast. Most notable is Governor's Beach, located a short distance from the Grand Turk Cruise Center. Within Columbus Landfall National Park, it has wonderful snorkeling opportunities and great picnic spots underneath shady pines. It's also located near the Grand Turk Cruise Center, which makes it a popular day destination for passengers. All accesses to the beach are free. You may need to bring your own snorkeling equipment, but a dive shop can supply diving equipment. All beaches are public, including beaches in front of resorts and private residences. Be extremely careful of boat traffic. Some banana boat and other wake ride operators, some of which are unlicensed and uninsured are reckless. Being hit by a boat will most likely kill you. Fishing without a license or in National Parks is illegal and carries significant fines and possible jail time. This includes collecting conch and lobster.

North of Governor's Beach is Cockburn Town Beach

Cockburn Beach outside the sea wall

The Cockburn Town Beach offers beautiful white sand, clear water, and a British Colonial Architecture backdrop.
The beach is quite narrow, and there can be a bit of surf when the ocean swell is high. Due to seawalls, jetties and docks, Cockburn Beach is broken into many small beaches. Front Street and Queen’s Street which run right along the ocean allow for easy access and parking on the northern section of the beach. On the southern end, Duke Street follows the ocean one small block back from the beach
The access near the Sandbar Restaurant on Duke Street offers convenient parking and what is probably the best snorkelling in the area.

Pillory Beach is north of Cockburn town. The Bohio Dive Resort is located on Grand Turk's Pillory Beach, one of the most celebrated diving beaches in the world The eastern coast, Long Beach, is a 3.7 mile (6 km) sandy beach. However, due to it's location it has seaweed and other debris scattered across it, and the water is usually choppy. It's nice for walking and excellent for beach combing, but not good for swimming. On the southern tip of the island are Boaby Rock Point and White Sands Beach.

Waterfront-Sea Wall

Queen or Front Street

National Museum sign

Rosemary then took me to the museum and waited while I went inside.
Admission: General $7 – Cruise Ship Visitors $5 – Hotel Guests $5. Children (under 12 accompanied by an adult) Free

There were two floors - upstairs were the displays on human history in the Turks and Caicos, from Indian occupations starting at 700 AD right up to modern times, the arrival of John Glenn after his historic three-orbit space flight in 1962. They also have a Natural History gallery with displays on the Geology of the Turks and Caicos and Reef and Island Ecology.. I did not go up there as I did not want to try the stairs. The museum is not handicapped accessible. Even on the ground floor, there are thresholds to step over

I concentrated on the ground floor which was about the Molasses Reef shipwreck. A man gave me a talk about the history of the island, and then there was a 15 minute film about the shipwreck - who discovered it and what it was.

One estimate is that there are over 1000 shipwrecks in the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Only two shipwrecks in the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands have been properly recorded. These are the Molasses Reef Shipwreck and HMS Endymion.

The Museum’s first floor is dedicated to what archaeologists, scientists, and historians of the National Museum have found out about the Molasses Reef Shipwreck. Since I can't climb stairs very well, this was the part of the museum that I explored.

About 1513, on a reef located on the southern fringe of the Caicos Bank some 20 miles south of the island of Providenciales, a ship sank. This ship, known only as the Molasses Reef Wreck, is the oldest European shipwreck excavated in the Western Hemisphere.

For over 450 years, the wreck sat on the reef apparently undisturbed after its loss. In the mid-1970s, a pair of treasure hunters discovered it. Through their rudimentary knowledge of ordnance, they concluded that the wreck was not the usual galleon wreck sought by treasure hunters, but an earlier vessel from the late 1490s or early 1500s.

Based on this information, they leaped to the conclusion they had discovered the wreck of Columbus’ ship Nina, a wreck whose fame was worth more than any treasure cargo. This unfounded claim, however, backfired on the treasure hunters. The Turks & Caicos National Government recognized that the wreck, Nina or not, was one of the oldest wrecks ever found in the Western Hemisphere and took over management of the site on the basis of legislation passed in 1974.

After several false starts, Government finally contracted with underwater archaeologists from Texas A&M University to excavate the wreck in 1980. The Texas team, led by Dr. Donald H. Keith, began work in 1981, but not before a team of rogue treasure seekers dynamited the wreck on the assumption that old shipwrecks must carry treasure. In addition to damaging the site, the looters stole a number of artifacts. Recently, a verso (a type of wrought-iron ordnance) came to light in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; it had been stolen from the wreck site at the time of the bombing.

Dr. Keith’s team excavated the Molasses Reef Wreck between 1981 and 1986. This careful excavation comprised only about only one tenth of the total project time. The job of conserving and identifying all the objects recovered from the wreck were the major tasks.The Museum houses the complete assembly of conserved artifacts from this famous wreck, the earliest European shipwreck yet excavated in the New World. The collection includes:
•cannons and shot
•wooden hull pieces
•surgical implements
•bowls and storage jars
•carpentry tools
•metal portions of the rigging
•tailoring tools

There is an interesting video tape of about 15 minutes.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Government, along with the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources, The National Trust and the National Museum are given the task to protect the wrecks and to prohibit any work that will ruin or corrupt the site and that would limit the potential scientific recovery of the information from the wrecks at a later date.

There is speculation that this was the wreck of the Pinta - Columbus lost a ship on every expedition to the New World and the Pinta was one of them. But all that they could say for certain was that it was a ship like the Pinta and from that time in history.



They had an exhibit showing the sea floor as it was when the wreck was discovered. If you pressed a button labeled (for example) canon, the place where the canon were would light up.

Lights on the diorama

Diorama of The Wreck Of The Pinta?

Excavating the site

Conservation explained

There was also a viewing port in the floor to look at the structure of Guinep House which was the building that houses the museum.

It is named after the large Guinep tree that dominates the front of the building. It is unclear when the building was constructed but recently part of the Guinep tree fell down. Museum staff have counted the rings in the trunk and have identified signs of it being around 180 years old. It is probable that the house was built first and then the tree was encouraged to grow. The timber for the beams and roof support most likely came from shipwrecks, or ships broken up here, and this is clearly indicated by one of the major structural supports, which is an old ships mast.

It is free to go to the museum shop (as is the case with most shops for attractions with an admission fee). This is a very nice little shop with local crafts

The craft of weaving baskets using local wild palms and grasses has been passed down from one generation to another in Grand Turk. Today, baskets (as well as miniature sailboats and hats) are for sale at the Middle Caicos Coop, but also at the National Museum. So one of the best things to buy here are these woven grass items.There are also, note cards, post cards, dive helmet paperweight, and TCI patches


There is even a 'Kids Corner' with children's books and stuffed animals. There is one about a donkey called "Where is Simon Sandy? The story of the little donkey that wouldn't quit" ( local story that has been passed down through the generations)

Simon Sandy model outside the museum

Old style phone booth outside the National Museum

After I finished in the museum, Rosemary showed me around Cockburn Town