TURKS & CAICOS: Sometimes it seems like it’s easier to fly down to Providenciales than it is to get across town during rush hour. Which is perhaps why the islands of Turks & Caicos are so popular with the Northeast crowd. And me, too. There’s almost nothing to do on Provo, as the island capital is known, so there’s no residual guilt to be had about not seeing the sights; you can thoroughly unwind, soaking up the sun on Grace Bay, one of the world’s great sandy beaches.
A trip down here in January is a tonic for the the harsh New York winter and this trip had the added benefit of a stay at the new Seven Stars. As a New Yorker, it’s a particularly bittersweet pleasure to find a hotel room larger than your apartment. At the oversized Seven Stars, the bedroom alone was larger than my apartment. Naturally, I had to be dragged out kicking and screaming – least of all because the beach was right outside my sliding glass doors.
There’s a curiosity that made this trip memorable as well. A culinary delicacy I’d heretofore been ignorant of despite my many trips to the Caribbean. Never one to shy away from the local fare, I stepped up and swallowed it raw and whole, according to local tradition. And what was this sublime aphrodisiac, you ask? Conch penis.
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