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Twenty minutes later, we arrive in Grace Bay. Paradise Scooters is located in the Ports of Call shopping complex and is easy to find. We exit the car and Chase goes in to inquire about the tour.
I’ve never ridden on a Vespa before, but it doesn’t look too complicated. Like riding a bike with a motor. Easy.
Chase exits the store with a guide in tow, holding two helmets. Handing me one, he puts the other one on. I follow his lead and the guide points us to two scooters on the end.
“Good morning. My name is Drake, and I’ll be your tour guide. On this tour, you will be able to see Chalk Sound, the coastal settlement of Blue Hills, the Sapodilla Bay Hill Rock Carvings, the Caicos Conch Farm, and some of our incredible beaches. Follow me, but not too closely. Pay attention to the roads and we’ll have a good time.”
“I opted out of the lunch. I thought we could do our own beach lunch.”
“That’s fine,” I say, smiling. Chase and I get on our scooters and follow Drake.
Ten minutes into our tour, he stops near a beautiful turquoise lagoon. We get off our scooters and walk toward the water.
“Be careful,” Drake warns. “The Coral Sumac, also known as Poisonwood, is a poisonous tree very common here. Touching it can cause rashes, and any contact with the sap of this tree will result in serious blisters and skin issues.”
Avoiding anything green, I walk closer to the edge of the lagoon. “Chase, look at the huge lizard!” I say, pointing at the green dragon-looking thing swimming near the rocks.
He chuckles as he says, “That’s an iguana.”
“Well, isn’t an iguana a lizard?” I ask, affronted.
“Nearly all the islands with a decent amount of vegetation have Turks and Caicos Rock Iguanas. These large lizards exist by foraging for fruits, plants, prickly pear cactuses, and the occasional insect. Unlike the iguanas found on the other islands in the country, which burrow in the sand, the iguanas on the Chalk Sound make their homes by cleaning out the existing holes and crevices in the rock,” Drake says, jumping in.
“That’s so cool!” I exclaim. Chase smiles and shakes his head.
“Look over there, Olivia. Do you see the long, scary looking fish?”
“Yes, there are two of them.”
“They’re barracuda.”
“Barracudas are common in the water. Stingrays and small lemon sharks can occasionally be sighted as well,” Drake tells us.
“There aren’t many trees, and I don’t see any birds either,” I mutter aloud.
“Bird life isn’t as abundant here as some of the other wetland areas in the country, but the far western side of the lagoon can have a large number of gulls, terns, and some herons at times.”
“The water is so clear,” I say, amazed.
“The water is extremely shallow here, under five feet. If you look toward the center of the lagoon, you’ll see a dark spot. That is the wreck of a twin engine plane.”
After a few minutes, Chase comes up behind me. “Do you want to look some more, or are you ready to move on?”
“No, I’m ready.”
We drive down the road a bit further and make a left, then wind up on a dirt road. Drake stops at a small beach across from Chalk Sound. Reminds me of a very small version of Fire island, with water on both sides.
“This is Sapodilla Bay. It’s a nine-hundred-foot stretch of sheltered beach. The water here is very shallow, calm, and clear. The sand is a bit more silt-like and finer than many of the other beaches on the island. Just up this hill is the Sapodilla Bay Hill Rock Carvings.”
We follow Drake up a small hill, revealing a bunch of grey boulders with writing all over them. “This is so cool,” I whisper.
“These rocks represent sentiments left by shipwrecked sailors and travelers as they waited for their ships. The inscriptions found here include names, dates, symbols, and simple depictions of ships and buildings. The age of these carvings range from somewhere around the mid-seventeen-hundreds and well into the eighteen-hundreds. There were more, but due to theft and vandalism, some stones were unfortunately removed during a preservation project.”
“That’s terrible,” I say to Drake. “Who would want to ruin history like this?”
“Some tourists don’t know any better.”
We take a quick tour of what’s left and make our way back down the hill. I look out over the water once again, and murmur, “I wish the water was this blue back home,” to Chase, who’s standing right behind me.
