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• Nineteen Days on Provo

  • From: miranda13
  • Description:

    My mom died three days before my birthday last July.  Two weeks later I lost my job.  My younger brother died four weeks after that, leaving me family-less.  When I wasn't studying for four classes that fall, I was cleaning out the home they shared, selling everything they owned, including presents I'd given them for birthdays and holidays.  By semester's end, I needed a vacation.  A long one.

     

    Lengthy vacations aren't cheap.  Particularly when you're hell-bent on Hawaii.  Thus, I spent nights and weekends pouring over classifieds advertising condos and timeshares in Budget Travel magazine.  I exhausted every available moment between classes in the library computer lab, manipulating Expedia and Travelocity dropdown boxes, trying to prove to my boyfriend that Hawaii was not too expensive.  Ultimately, it was. 

     

    That being decided, we e-mailed alternate destinations back and forth, constantly disappointing one another.  "I just went to the Bahamas three years ago.  I'd rather go someplace new."  "I’m not spending 19 days in friggin' Florida."  "Bermuda's too cold in December."  Deane even called the resort I wanted to stay at to have them tell me Bermuda was too cold in December to rent their overwater bungalows.  Incredibly, they did. 

     

    I pouted; he sulked.  We each daydreamed of our own separate paradise, where I could swim with great white sharks, and he could golf alongside topless beaches. 

     

    Eventually I discovered the Turks and Caicos on CheapCaribbean.com.  Having never heard of the islands, I googled them.  Wikipedia, turksandcaicostourism.com and Provo.net told me that the Turks are an archipelago comprised of 40 islands and cays – eight of which are inhabited – an hour and twenty minutes southeast of Miami.  During winter, the temperature averages 84 degrees; the turquoise water simmers between 74 and 78.  The sun shines 350 days a year.  I glowered at the fat, gray clouds looming over Chester Avenue and emailed Deane.

     

    I sent him links to the championship golf course and various seafood restaurants.  I told him that only 22,500 people live on Provo.  "It'll be like our own deserted island," I added, nudging him to fantasize about sandy sex beneath palm trees.                  

     

    Then, the pièce de résistance:  "A great many of the tourists who visit the Turks and Caicos Islands are Canadian."  Deane and his father venture up to Lions Head every year.  Deane loves Canada.  The clean air, the bacon, the transparent Georgian Bay, the cliffs that turn red at night, the French-speaking strippers. . . 

     

    He was sold.  He called the Comfort Suites and talked them down to $102 per night -- at the start of high season.  He cashed in OnePass frequent flyer miles.  He printed everything ever written about the islands, which was just enough to annoy me for weeks by planning what he would eat at what restaurant.  As it turns out, I should have paid more attention to the menus he'd printed. 

     

    - - -

     

    Circling Provo as our pilot waited for clearance to land, Deane and I leaned close to the oblong window of our tiny plane.  "Wowwwwww," we said.  Drinking in the pools of royal blue and the patches of emerald created by the coral reef, I was grateful not to be in Cleveland, surrounded by Christmas lights, trees and carols goading me to have a holly, jolly Christmas while my mom and brother lay six feet under ground.

     

    Armed with a month's worth of clothing, golf clubs, two rafts and a cumbersome 6' tube of fishing poles, we barreled out of customs and bombarded our taxi driver with questions:  "Are there any Indian restaurants here?"  "Where can I watch the Bears game Monday night?"  "How far is the golf course from the hotel?"  "Where's the best place to go fishing?"  "Where're the casinos?" 

     

    Within days, that excitement tapered into contentment for Deane and resentment for me.

     

    - - -

     

    Our first night on Provo, we left our screenless window open, preferring the warm tropical breeze and rustling palm leaves to air-conditioning.  We assumed none of the rooms had screens; the prospect of mosquitoes never occurring to either of us until we woke with dozens of itchy, red, fingertip-sized welts.  I had welts on top of welts. 

     

    Predictably, ours was the only room without a screen.  Though the hotel quickly sent someone up Sunday morning to put one on, each time we opened a drawer or moved aside clothes in the closet for the next two days, mosquitoes ascended in search of a new hiding place.  They continued to devour us as we slept huddled beneath blankets until Deane killed each one with a damp washcloth, leaving the blood-soaked rag on the bathroom floor for housekeeping. 

     

    To ask us about the remaining 18 days, one would think we took separate vacations.  While we agree that Grace Bay merits its reputation as one of the world's top 10 beaches, beauty only entertains me for so long.  Every day it was the same thing:  blue sky, white sand, turquoise water, blue sky, white sand, turquoise water.  Even the single stream of clouds looked the same from day to day, resembling a pale relative of the smoke monster from "Lost."  Deane, on the other hand, daydreamed about moving there as we sipped rum punch and peach margaritas from Slurpee-sized Styrofoam cups, watching the sun set at 5 p.m.        

     

    He still gets an erection talking about the golf course.  To me, $550 for five rounds of golf is ludicrous, but it got him out of the room once I'd grown tired of slathering on sunscreen, clogging my pores.  His 8 a.m. tee time allowed me to watch "Tom & Jerry" on Boomerang, the BBC version of "Kitchen Nightmares" and the "Twilight Zone" marathon on New Year's Day.  He'd return shaking his head, unable to understand how I could watch the Travel Channel while vacationing on such a beautiful island when I rarely watch TV at home. 

     

    "I'm bored," I said.  "If we'd gone to Hawaii, I could have gone to the zoo, the botanical garden, the Dole plantation.  I could have gone shopping.  Here, there's nothing."  Really, I had too much time to sit around and think.  To mourn.  To feel sorry for myself.  Aside from that, I'd visited every store and cultural market on Provo in one afternoon, returning with a $70 dress, a $40 shirt, postcards and a handful of souvenirs that were nowhere near as cool as the shark tooth I'd found at the northwest point of the beach or the paint bucket full of conchs we stashed beneath a bush at Leeward Marina.

     

    After working with attorneys for nine years, being on a nearly deserted island had seemed like a great idea.  But then one day I wanted a chocolate chip granola bar.  I walked to Grace Bay Pharmacy.  Nothing.  Deane walked further up the road to the gas station.  Nothing.  We took the Gecko – the red shuttle bus named for the little creatures running rampant on the island – to the IGA Graceway.  Nothing.  That was my Eureka-moment.  Everything on an island is imported.  If the handful of places that should have something don't, you're screwed.  There is no driving to Giant Eagle, to Rite-Aid, to Walgreen's.  Thank God I wasn't PMS-ing.  People would've died. 

     

    Throughout our vacation, Deane dined on grouper, salmon and seafood pasta; his only disappointment being the restaurant he'd looked forward to most:  Da Conch Shack.  I was constantly disappointed.  Expensive international cuisine is not my thing.  One would think that with 43 restaurants on Provo, I'd have found something, but as a vegetarian who doesn't eat fruit or vegetables, my options were even more limited than they are in the U.S.  I tried pizza but nearly vomited when I bit into a long, thin chicken bone.  More often than not, I fed my dinner to stray cats and birds, settling instead for fresh coconut cake, Key Lime pie and three-scoop hot fudge brownie sundaes at the ice cream parlor near our hotel. 

     

    Providenciales is as much a study in contradiction as our contrasting vacation tales.  On one half of the island – the pretty half facing the coral reef – multi-million dollar condos and luxury hotels pepper the road running parallel with Grace Bay.  Romantic beachfront restaurants dot the shoreline with expansive decks, canvas umbrellas, torches and palm trees decorated with white lights.  Cranes, scaffolds and temporary construction fences reminiscent of Euclid Avenue line Grace Bay Drive as more multi-million dollar condos are erected. 

     

    Meanwhile, stray dogs called potcakes roam the island.  It's not uncommon to see two or three at a time.  The impoverished locals – many of whom fled Haiti – run the lavish resorts and live in ridiculously small ramshackle homes on the other side of Provo near the desalinization plant.  They collect rainwater in cisterns rather than pay $4 a gallon for drinking water as Deane and I did. 

     

    In light of the Turks being pummeled recently by both Hurricane Hanna and Ike, Deane feels we should vacation there again this Christmas "to stimulate their economy."  Unfortunately, the few thousand dollars we would spend wouldn't benefit those who need it, and I can't think of any other reason to return.

    miranda-s-miller.com

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  • 9 months ago
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• Rediscovering Rome

  • From: antfern
  • Description:

    Rome, September 12-18, 2008

    After four earlier trips to Rome, we decided to use the opportunity of a Mediterranean cruise that departed and returned from and to Civitavecchia, to stay in Rome after the cruise for about six days.  For the purpose of this journal, we will arrange our experiences around five topics: Churches, Plazas, Fountains, Ruins, Outside Rome.  At the end of this writing I will offer you some points about lodging, transportation and security.

    Churches:  Don’t miss St. Peter Basilica in the Vatican City.  As you walk through Bernini’s colonnade you will be leaving Italy and entering in another country: The Vatican.  Normally everyone enters the great basilica and takes a couple of pictures in the Plaza.  However, I would recommend two other things to do here: 1. Climb the 320 steps to the top of the cupola for the best views of the Gardens of the Vatican and the whole city of Rome.  Once you reach the top you are in the highest point of the city. 2. You may visit the Scavii (Excavations under the main altar of St. Peter).  This will require that you made a reservation; it can be done by e-mail.  St. Peter’s Basilica web site offers information about these two areas as well as other points of interest in St. Peter: http://saintpeterbasilica.org

    The list of churches in Rome could be like a telephone directory of a small city.  It is impossible to mention all of them here.  Keep in mind that there is a dress code requirement for entering them and you must preclude from taking pictures while a religious ceremony is taking place.  Also they are quite dark and provide you a cool refuge from the Roman heat as well as a place to sit down and relax for a while.  Catholics have a saying that whenever you enter a church for the first time and you do a prayer you can ask for a favor….Your wish list in Rome could be quite lengthy. 

    Plazas: Rome give the impression of grow and live around plazas.  As you walk around you will not be able to avoid them: regular shaped or without any designs, small or big, old or new, crowded or strangely deserted.  The list here, like the churches, is large.  Almost every church has a plaza in front, or around it somewhere.  I would mention only about a dozen of them: Piazza de Spagna, San Pietro, Venezia, Navona, del Popolo, della Boca della Verita, del Quirinale, della Repubblica, di Santa Maria in Trastevere, del Campidoglio, dell’Esquilino, and Campo de Fiore.

    In the plazas you could find a place to eat or drink a cappuccino.  I would recommend to look for a gelateria (ice cream shop) mainly in Piazza Navona.  Also most of the plazas aside from one or more churches you will find also one or more fountains.  To sit around a fountain is one of the Romans preferred outings in the middle of the afternoon or early evenings.  Don’t forget the saying: “If in Rome do like the Romans”   

    Fountains: The fountains of Rome have been the subject of classical musical pieces or well known-movies.  Many of the fountains you will find in Rome were like public works constructed by the Popes for the benefit of the various sectors of the city. Likewise the list of plazas, I will offer only the names of few fountains that should be in any visitors' lists:  Starting, probably with the most worldwide famous fountain: The Fontana de Trevi.  This fountain together with the Triton Fountain in Barberini Square are the subject of two of the symphonic poems of Respighi, Fontane di Rome.

    We should mention also the three fountains in Piazza Navona: Four Rivers, the Moor and Neptune. There are beautiful and worth mentioning fountains in Piazza del Popolo and Nicosia.  There are numerous fountains in many of the plazas that are worth the visit and to enjoy their cool environment.

    One of my favorites is the small fountain at Santa Maria Cosmedin in the Forum Boarium, see picture of the fountain as well as the Temple of Hercules in the back.

    Ruins and Monuments:  Aside from churches, plazas and fountains the other ever present element of Rome are its ruins and classical monuments.  From the countless Egyptian obelysks to the classic roman buildings and monuments, your selection is overwhelming. They are everywhere!  The most famous probably is the Colisseum, followed by the Roman Forum.  I would recommend that you buy a combined ticket of admission covering these two points of interest plus the Palatine.  The Palatine is a place that most turists pass or simple ignore. 

    I strongly recommend that your itinerary includes these three attractions.  This time we tried to visit the Domus Aurea, the old ruins of Nero's palace next to the Colisseum, but unfortunately it was was closed that day.  Also among the recommended ruins you should visit are the Forum Imperiali and the Forum Boarium.  There is a beautiful old Roman monument well preserved in a modern museum: Ara Pacis Augustana.  Is an altar built by the Senate and People of Rome (SPQR) to conmemorate the peaceful era of Emperor Cesar Augusto.

    Outside Rome: Rome is a place that must be visited by everyone… but also visitors of Rome should adventure outside the City and go to places such as Tivoli, Amalfi Coast, or even Florence and Assissi.  

    The pictured attached is from Positano, the jewel of the Costiera Amalfitana.  To drive the Amalfi Coast that runs south of Sorrento, until the area around Salerno, will take a full day.  But it may be shortened by returning a short while after visiting Amalfi turning toward Naples through the interior highway and thus avoiding the slow traffic of the coastal winding road.

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     Practical Guidelines: 

     Let me end with some general guidelines: During this last trip we avoided the museums due to the long lines and by the fact that we have visited the major ones during earlier visits.  However, the Vatican Museums should be a priority for everyone visiting Rome.  

    Lodging: In our first visit to Rome in 1975, we stayed at D’Inghilterra, great location but we couldn’t afford it now.  We have stayed in far out places and in the middle of the city.  During our last trip we stayed at the Alimandi Tunisi about two blocks from the Vatican Museums.  This was a great experience and we highly recommend it.  However, the most important thing we would recommend about a hotel or pension in Rome is to find one that is close to a Metro station, this will provide you with the necessary mobility in this magnificent city. 

    Transportation: As we were planning to stay for six days we purchased at the Metro station a Carta Integrata Settimanale for Euro 16.  This allowed us free access to the Metro and all city trams and buses for our complete stay.  One of our best purchases ever!  We recommend that you obtain this pass as well as a Roma Metro-Bus map for Euro 6, in any newsstand as a companion guide to the pass.  That’s all you need to move around besides your own two feet wearing the most comfortable shoes you may have.  Try to stay away from flip flops or high heels.  The streets and pavement in Rome are quite uneven without considering the ancient cobbled streets and water running from a myriad of fountains around the city.

    Security: In Rome, like any other large city, you may run the risk of being pick pocked if the basic security steps are not observed.  Never carry valuables in your back pockets, carry your bags closely held next to your body, leave what you don’t need in a safe deposit in your hotel, carry copies of your passport, never put a bag in the floor or in an empty chair while you dine (regardless of the type of restaurant).  Avoid strangers that approach you with a map or a book or any article trying to show or ask you something.  Stay always alert.  We never have had a problem in Rome regarding our security!

    Accept the fact that you are going to be surrounded by hundred of thousand people living and visiting Rome at the same time that you are there.  If you don’t like people in your pictures of buildings, plazas, parks, etc. you need patience and creativeness.

    Enjoy the food and don't be afraid to drink water from any of the running fountains in Rome.  The water is fresh and safe, unless there is a post indicating that it is not good for drinking.

    Also, be prepared for the fact that Rome is not a  cheap place to visit.

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    Each of the pictures appearing on this journal is individually explained in detail under the "My Photos" section. As an alternative you may click the photos appearing here for expanded information.

     

     

     

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  • 1 year ago
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