North and Middle Caicos

Hi All,
With the weather coming in John and I decided to take a trip to North and Middle Caicos. We boarded the water taxi which gets you from dock to dock in 1/2 hour. We had made arrangements to rent a car from Mark Mclane who ironically, comes from Maine. After filling up with $7 a gallon fuel, we set off on our adventure. First, we went all the way to the far end of Middle Caicos where there had been plans for a development. After a 40 minute trip (the length of No. Caicos and Middle Caicos),

view from our room

Mudjin Harbour

 we drove10 bumpy miles off the paved road to the Casurina forest where we left our car and walked through the trees to the longest abandoned beach you can imagine. As we entered the forest, I noticed a nest up in one of the Casurina trees. Shortly there after, the Cuban Crows started shrieking at us and following us flying from branch to branch just over our heads!! Cuban crows are like our crows but they make a sort of gobbling noise much like a turkey! They followed us all the way to the beach and sat on branches about twenty feet away and continued to shriek their displeasure at our presence. Apparently the gobbling noise is used for friendly exchanges and the shrieking is used to tell us to leave! Perhaps that nest had some babies in it or they just didn't want their remote forest disturbed by humans!
After a walk down the beach where the wind was blowing a gale, we returned to our car without further incident with the Cuban crows!!
Our next stop was Daniels Cafe which sits right on the water. Daniel remembered us from our past visits and we had a nice chat before he served us the most amazingly yummy meal.The really fresh fish comes out whole and you have to be careful about the bones as you eat it. It comes with home made bread which is to die for and salad with the produce locally grown. We then went off to a new restaurant that has just been built that overlooks Mudjin Harbor, perhaps the most photographed view in the Islands. We wanted to see how the restaurant turned out. It was in the process of being built on our last visit. It was spectacular and the ice-cream was awesome!
When we got back on North Caicos we went right to The Pelican Beach Hotel, where we have stayed on previous visits.  There were a few people at the Baracuda Bar so we wondered over. Clifford and his wife own the hotel. Clifford was talking to a strikingly pretty lady who was working on her computer. She asked us if we were coming to the great celebration on Friday and Saturday. She said the Pelican was celebrating their 30th year in business. There would be two days of festivities including live entertainment. Maggie our new friend not only sings but runs the drama center on North Caicos. She then told us she's also a teacher of literature grades 1-9 at the school on North Caicos. I showed her my children's book to see if she could use it. She was very interested so, I planned to send Maggie more books on the water taxi when we got back to Provo.
Clifford's wife cooked us a great meal before we retired to our room which was about 50 feet from the ocean. We could hear the surf pounding all night. I couldn't wait to get up and step out for a swim at first light.
We had planned on a beautiful walk on the nature trail on Middle Caicos. However, due to all the rain there was a colony of  blood sucking mosquitoes that attacked the moment we got out of the car!! We ran back totally covered, swatting like mad with welts appearing all over. Apparently, they thrive on "OFF". We returned to the water taxi a bit ahead of schedule and I got a chance to talk to Ashton who oversees the dock. John and Ashton then sat down to a rousing game of dominoes which is set up under a gazebo and played regularly by many of the islanders.
The water taxi appeared and we boarded for the fast trip home and a chance to check out how the seas were for future boating.