The Turks and Caicos

 I have always heard of Turks and Caicos Islands but never had an interest in visiting as I also heard they are so small that they are like our beach towns eg. Negril or Ochie.

Well for my continued 80th celebration, we  took a mini cruise and the first stop was Grand Turk.

This is the second largest of the 8 habitable islands that make up the archipelago.  The largest is   Providenciales and it's the only one with an international airport whereas Grand Turk is the only one with a cruise ship pier. 

Tourism is their main source of income.

These islands remain British colonies so like us, they drive on the left.

Grand Turk has the look and feel of our own Negril, but it is smaller and less developed. 

It's only is 7 square miles and imports virtually everything including Jamaican patties. Things are therefore quite expensive.  For example, gas is US$8 per gallon today.

Our tour bus was a converted school with manual transmission and all.

It has no traffic lights but I hear the accident rate is very low.

The biggest danger they say, is the hundreds of wild donkeys on the island that operate as if they own the roads! There are many Jamaicans here so I am surprised no one has come up with the idea of capturing them and taking them home to sell, as our farmers are always  complaining about the chronic shortage of these valuable, expensive and necessary animals!😉.

Astronaut John Glenn

Their tourism authorities have been smart enough to capitalize on the fact that the late astronaut John Glenn had splashed down a few miles off their coast in 1962,  so they have a small exhibit of the event at their cruise ship pier. 

I am happy we made a stop in Grand Turk as I learned a lot.

Suffering in Cuba

 I was really touched by the recent Observer story "Mexico to send food aid to Cuba while seeking end to oil siege — Sheinbaum." 

I must say President Claudia Sheinbaum has gone up 100% in my book, for not only her humanity but also her courage.

We all know life is not fair, but what is particularly despicable about politics is the fact that all over the world,  millions of people consistently suffer and die because of the actions of a few people.

Nowhere is this being played played out more before our eyes than in our nearest neighbor, Cuba.

I am no Cuban apologist, for I despise communism and for a few years in the 70's I even assumed an activist role when the Cubans, under their patron Michael Manley, appeared to be close to introducing their alien ideology and attempted influence into Jamaica. 

 (This is all recorded in my best seller, Looking Back, the struggle to preserve our freedoms. See Jamaica Observer review at: https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2017/12/joan-williams-former-local-host-looks.html).

But the reality is, the vast majority of ordinary Cuban people have suffered immensely for decades, first under the dictator Batista, then under successive dictators from the Castro family and their successors. And I like so many Jamaicans have close relatives there.

More than a century ago,  Cuba provided an escape valve for many of our ancestors and some of us remain in touch with our kit and kin living in penury there.

For in case you forgot, when slavery was abolished and thousands of "freed" slaves had no means of survival, it was to Cuba they fled  to seek employment. For as that beautiful big island is only 90 miles away at its closest point, Jamaicans could escape there in crude vessels that were barely sea worthy. So when you go to areas in Santiago, Holguin and Guantanamo Bay, there are hundreds of thousands of Cubans there of Jamaican ancestry.

 I  still remember well the old man I met in Guantanamo Bay (The Cuban side), decades ago. He had never been to Jamaica or even met or been in touch with his family here, but he listened to Jamaican radio everyday, spoke a fair amount of patois, knew everything about us, including the price of a lot of basic products and longed to meet his Jamaican family.

Our history with the Cuban government has not always been cordial, but many family ties have remained close. 

When I think of the plight of our families and others there who are today without viable incomes, light, power, basic foods, medicine etc, since the latest threat of increased sanctions from the Americans on any country that provides them with fuel, my heart goes out to them. 

This is after sections were devastated by hurricane Melissa and a recent 5.5 earthquake. 

Worse, tourism, which had remained fairly vibrant with guests coming every winter from Canada and Europe,  came to a virtual halt in late 2025, due to the power cuts and increasing shortages.

So you know that with increased sanctions to deprive them of even fuel,  things can only get worse each day.

After the Manley government era, the Cubans went from interfering in our internal affairs to assisting in many areas, especially education and health.

The reality is that neither Mexico nor Jamaica can defy the Americans as far as these threats are concerned. 

However, President Sheinbaum was not prepared to just walk away and do nothing, hence her determination to use diplomacy while sending food aid to the beleaguered people.

What is the Jamaican government doing?

 

Hollywood revisited

 It's not often that I go on the monthly trips organized by the Tamarac senior center, as most are to shopping centers or casinos and I have no interest in those activities.

However today's outing was to Hollywood beach, so I tagged along. 

And it was great camaraderie and lots of free vitamin D.🙂

And we had to do quite a bit of walking as the Tamarac driver Shawn, for some strange reason, refused to let us off at our destination, Margaritaville.

Eric consulting the girls?

Carol striking a pose

A group of us stayed together and as Meredith and I were starving, we headed straight to lunch at Margaritaville. 

It was quite good and the prices were not as exorbitant as one had expected.

Ivy strikes a pose too

Meredith and I 

It was a pleasant day as we only had limited time to do anything else before having to catch the bus back home.

There wasn't much else to do anyway and I don't know if it was because school was back in session or because Trump had scared off the tourists, but the beach was really empty.

Some pics below tell the sad tale about the current tourism situation today at Hollywood beach.

Bikes begging to be rented

We virtually had the beach all to ourselves!👍

Many fun experiencess 👍

Sri Lanka is quite a well developed/progressive country which appears to be  doing very good now, after the economic/political upheaval in 2022.

Damith took me to visit what he calls the "bush" where he grew up. 

Having been born in real "bush" in Malvern, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, where we only had 2 shops, one gas pump a police station and a post office, I was shocked at what he called a bush in Sri Lanka 😂.

From information gleaned since my visit, while the country has no precious minerals, it has developed vibrant manufacturing, tourism, export and agricultural industries.

It is well suited for agriculture as it is so huge and has more than enough rainfall, rivers etc. It exports tea, rubber, foods, spices, palm oil and of course does large-scale rice production/processing. 

That is well-needed here as according to Professor Damith, most Sri Lankans eat rice for breakfast, dinner and supper.🫢.

To get to the 'bush,' we took a long- distance bus from Colombo to the huge town of Matugama, overnighted at the Diya Ulpatha Tea Garden resort and moved around on tuk tuk or bike. (Damith owns his own bike and leaves it in Matugama with a friend. (Gama means town in Sinhalese, so whenever you see a name ending in that, it's self descriptive.)

His so-called 'bush' areas also fall between the villages of Welipenia and Ittapana.

We stayed overnight at the small, nice, rustic hotel in Mahgama and could see sections of the UNESCO recognized Sinharaja Forest Reserve
from our hotel room.

Below are pics of our little hotel and it's grounds.

Just posing. Haven't ridden a bike for almost 40 years😊.

I first met Damith and Sharlene decades ago in Jamaica when we were all members of the Fun and Thrills Adventure Club. We toured my country extensively, hiking, cycling and swimming in every river we saw. So I knew him to be a strong cyclist, but he surprised me by being a competent motorcycle rider as well!

So in the 'bush', he would tow Sharlene and I separately, leave the first towee

 at a central spot, then return to pick up the other.

On other occasions, he and Sharlene would travel in front on their bike while I would follow behind in a royal carriage aka tuk tuk😊.

Among the places he took us was the Welipenia River. It separates the Western Province of Sri Lanka from the Southern and is is supposedly crocodile infested. 

Damith says his father gave him a bitch-beating for swimming in it.😂

In the olden days, people crossed in small row boats but modern technology has taken over. 

Local people now use a manually pulled rope ferry to traverse it. 

The cost to take a bike or tuk tuk across is a mere 11 cent US and it runs regularly.🫢.

Wonderful memories in pictures.

'Ferry' carrying people and their transportation across the Welipenia River.

This is the famous Ceylon tea.  The young leaves at the top are reaped weekly. It is a major, cherished sector in Sri Lankan export industry.

While Damith and Sharlene rode around on their bike, I often followed behind in this tuk tuk "carriage". The owner says this one is a jaguar😊.

Inside the 'jaguar'.

We were introduced to many childhood friends in his home town.

Anjani is a professional Dancer. She dances in the Buddhist temple as well as with her university group. Her mom (in the back in above picture) also danced at the Buddhist temple in her youth.

I sometimes followed Damit in a tuk tuk while he and Sharlene rode around on the bike in front of us.

Damith's childhood friend Ajanta, brought me from the bus stop in Matugama to the hotel on his bike.

He is a kind of eccentric and an electronics genius. For example I saw satellite dishes on his neighbor's houses but he built the antenna below from beer cans and it appears to work well.😊.

Ajanta's antenna made from beer cans. It seems to work well.

This symbol has been vilified because Hitler adopted it. However it has been used for centuries by ancient cultures like the Etruscans. Adjanta, a dedicated Buddhist, has one over his front door.

The pyramid contraption that Adjanta 

built. He meditates inside it for hours and says it's so hot that if you put coconut milk inside it for 24 hours, it turns to oil! Don't know if that is really possible, but suh mi get it so mi gi it!😊

Section of the so-called 'bush' town of Matugama, near our bus stop.

Sharlene and Damit on their bike.

Damit visits his friend Anusha at her store in his village. 

I still can't get over how well maintained the roads and drainage are all over Sri Lanka, for during monsoon season, it rains on and off every day. In my country, it doesn't rain half as much but they can't keep up with road maintenance. Something stinks😡.

( I have only seen one potholed-filled road so far after travelling hundreds of miles both in towns and off the main roads. That made me feel at home, but in a bad way.)

I must say, May 20th 2025 was a fantastic day, only surpassed by my surprise birthday celebration that night. 

(https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2025/05/my-birthday-sri-lankan-style.html)