Turks and Caicos

Club Med Turkoise; Turks and Caicos, end of week one

Here I sit in my temporary office. Today it’s in front of the restaurant. I’m torn between writing and people watching, so I chose to blog… a form of people watching J I find people to be fascinating. Even the most cool-calm blasé person is interesting if you watch them long enough. People watching is where all character development occurs. The writer is obsessed with observing scenes, so keep an eye out for your cameo role in my books.

Night before last was “White Night.” Ninety percent of the guests and all the employees dressed in white. It was really pretty to see so many people wearing white. After dinner they always have a show put on by the crazy GO’s (gentile organizers). These people work harder than anyone on the planet, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day! And when I say work, I mean work. They even play hard. I get tired watching them, it looks like a continuous aerobics class.

This club med has a circus workshop. Our friend, Larry, did it! He climbed up the ladder and jumped off a perfectly good platform. He swung his feet up over the bar while swinging and then let go with his hands! Then he did this crazy back-flip dismount into the net!

The diving has been good. We saw a reef shark, who saw us first. It was swimming alongside us checking out our big weird fins J We saw a spotted eel and a giant moray eel too. Every dive is a lobster dive, but we also saw a really cool crusty old crab. A large nurse shark was dozing under a ledge. Nurse sharks are funny because they act like if they hide their head, then no one can see them. This big huge body is hanging in the open where everyone can see it. It’s super cute in a giant shark kinda-of-way.

Last night was a big local event in our little corner of the world. For two days a stage has been slowly rising out of the sand next to the Club Med property. Workers have shuffled back and forth erecting awnings on the beach and burying electrical cords. Finally the square tables came out and then the beach became a traffic jam of families with blankets and ice chests. Of course Joe and I couldn’t resist. We joined the party. They had tons of local food, mostly various ways to prepare conch and fish. Giant beach balls were tethered by strings to the stage. This turned out to be a great way to keep the little ones busy.

I was impressed with how seriously the men took the domino games at the square tables. Each table had a score keeper. It was like watching a fast paced poker game. I think a fight broke out at one of the tables… It’s hard to tell because the slightest disagreement is quite loud. Actually any animated discussion is loud, but they looked mad about the game. It was quickly settled and they returned to the serious business of dominos. I’m positive that scene will make it into my pirate novel.