Welcome to Turks & Caicos, my 21st Territory out of a global total of 71 and the last Territory I will visit in the Caribbean. I stopped over here on my way to Haiti but visited it properly in this post. After this blog and photos below are the key statistics, brief history and interesting facts about Turks & Caicos.
I was glad to leave Haiti. I was also glad that I went. It is one of those places and experiences that resets your whole perspective of life. How lucky we are to live in a safe, clean, prosperous country such as Australia. My exit from Haiti on the morning of Sunday 15 February was smoother and more orderly than a Sunday Church Service back at my beloved St George. Flight was on-time and I landed at 1:10pm. The Brazilian-built InterCaribbean Embraer 120 is a spritely twin prop 33-seater. The view from my window was first class as you will see. Several 737s and A320s were there from Canada, USA and UK with hundreds of tourists, mainly families lined up with me at Immigration. I even got a “welcome back” greeting from my immigration officer !!! Collected my AVIS car in record time and before I could say “Turks and Caicos” I was in my favourite supermarket stocking up for the next two nights. Then a glitch. The cordoned-off alcohol section was closed – no grog selling on Sundays !!! What ??? I remembered the little mum and dad shop near my Airbnb had booze from my first visit here, so I headed there and lucky for me the young girl at the counter sold me my precious wine. I had the same room as before and rated this the best accommodation to date given how well equipped the kitchen was, aircon and the fastest ever internet. Given the whole day tomorrow I spent the rest of the afternoon washing and posting Haiti.
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TURKS & CAICOS IN A NUTSHELL:
• GDP (2024): $USD1.75 billion.
• GDP Per Capita (2024): $USD37,506.
• GDP Growth (2024): 5.6%.
• Inflation CPI (2024): 3%.
• Unemployment (2024): 5.5%.
• Trade (2024): $USD884.7 million in imports, $USD2.7 million.
• 2024 Visitors: 1,959 million (81% from USA).
• Population (2024): 46,535.
• Life Expectancy (2024): 78.2 years.
• Urbanization: 94.2%.
• Ethnicity: 88% Afro-Caribbean, 8% Euro-Caribbean and 4% mixed or Indo-Caribbean.
• Poverty: 21.6% of the population lived below the national poverty line in recent years.
• Land Area: 948 sq km (approx. 366 sq mi) across 40 islands and cays.
The history of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) spans from early indigenous settlements to its current status as a premier global tourist destination and British Overseas Territory.
• The islands were first inhabited by the Arawakan-speaking Taíno and Lucayan peoples around 500–800 AD.
• Christopher Columbus made his first New World landfall on Grand Turk in 1492.
• By 1513, the indigenous population was entirely decimated due to Spanish slave raids and European diseases, leaving the islands virtually uninhabited for over a century.
• In the 1660s, Bermudian "wreckers" began visiting to rake salt from natural ponds, establishing the islands' first permanent European settlements by 1681.
• Between 1690 and 1720, the islands' cays served as a notorious base for pirates like Anne Bonny and Calico Jack to ambush Spanish treasure galleons.
• After shifting between Spanish, French, and British claims, the islands were formally confirmed as a British colony by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
• Following the American Revolution (1775–1783), British Loyalists fled to the islands with enslaved Africans, establishing cotton and sisal plantations that eventually failed due to pests and hurricanes.
• Slavery was officially abolished throughout the British Empire in 1834, fundamentally shifting the islands' social and economic structure.
• TCI was governed as part of the Bahamas (1799–1848) and then Jamaica (1873–1962).
• In 1841, the Spanish slave ship Trouvadore wrecked off East Caicos; the 192 survivors were freed by British authorities and settled on the islands, becoming ancestors to much of the modern population.
• In 1962, American astronaut John Glenn splashed down near Grand Turk, the first American to orbit the Earth.
• When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, TCI became a separate Crown Colony. It later received its own governor in 1973 when the Bahamas gained independence.
• The opening of the Third Turtle Inn (1970) and Club Med Turkoise (1984) marked the transition from a salt-based economy to a high-end luxury tourism and offshore finance hub.
• British direct rule was briefly imposed twice (1986–1988 and 2009–2012) due to government corruption and drug trafficking allegations before home rule was restored.
• First Female Leader: In 2016, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson was elected as the islands' first female Premier.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TURKS & CAICOS:
1. "Caicos" means "string of islands and "Turks" is a type of cactus resembling a Turkish hat.
2. Part of the world's third-largest barrier reef system, stretching over 230 miles.
3. In 1962, astronaut John Glenn made his first landfall on Grand Turk after orbiting the Earth in the Friendship 7 mission. A replica of his space capsule remains at the Grand Turk airport.
4. For nearly 100 years, the territory’s flag featured what looked like igloos. This was actually a mistake by a British mapmaker who confused the islands' famous white salt mounds for ice dwellings and added doors to them.
5. Every year from January to April, North Atlantic humpback whales migrate through the deep Turks Island Passage on their way to breeding.
6. Home to the “Middle Caicos Ocean Hole”, which is the widest blue hole in the world after the “Great Blue Hole” in Belize.
7. George Washington reportedly requested high-quality salt from TCI to help preserve meat for his troops.
8. Home to the Caicos Pygmy Boa, the smallest constricting snake in the world at only 30cm.
9. Home to the “Molasses Reef Wreck”, the oldest excavated European shipwreck (1518) in the Americas.
10. Geographically, the islands are the tips of two large underwater plateaus that rise nearly 8,000 to 10,000 feet (2,400–3,000 meters) from the Atlantic Ocean floor.
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