Peak experience – snorkeling in Turks and Caicos

Last week I had the pleasure of heading to Turks and Caicos (TCI) for work. Last weekend I was with my family and when I told anyone that I was heading from chilly Baltimore to TCI literally everyone started laughing uproariously. Hard to argue with that logic. I flew from Baltimore to Providenciales, usually called Provo, and the distance between those two places in December seemed a lot more than 3 hours of flight time.

TCI certainly delivered, the entire time there I kept thinking that it lived up to its up market brand. It all starts with the ocean, which somehow is even more clear than the waters off the Bahamas. I didn't even think that was possible. And to make the azure water even better there is a reef right off Gracie Bay. The water is complemented by impossibly fine white sand that is velvety to the touch and goes for miles.

My dad used the phrase peak experience to talk about travel moments that become transcendent moments in your life. He wrote peak experience in the context of returning back to Kenya 38 years after serving in the Peace Corps - http://livingthekoroldream.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html.

While we have been traveling Mu and I co-opted the phrase.

I had a peak experience while snorkeling in TCI in those perfect waters. First I was enveloped in a school of brilliant blue and yellow fish, at least a hundred, to more swimming lazily but keeping their shape as a group. After moving on from that school of fish I saw a turtle about the size of a coffee table book zooming around near the reef. Nice!

The turtle was so nice that I dove down to see it a bit closer and then to my surprise the entire floor of the reef moved. Whoa, there is another turtle here and it is seriously large! I had not noticed and would have missed it entirely with the shell blending perfectly in to the reef. The turtle was riveting, kind of hanging out on the ocean floor and not doing much. The baby turtle kept heading out and then coming back to momma. It was super cute and time kind of stopped.

Once the big turtle decided it had enough of this weirdo at the surface just watching, it headed towards deeper water. I followed the turtle as it swam away, and it took a moment to register there was something else on the ocean floor. Momma turtle swam over two black forms, which it took me awhile to realize were sting rays. These two organisms were the same as the turtle, one pretty large one and then an enormous one. A baby and its mom just hanging out on the sandy bottom. I would have NEVER noticed the Manta Rays without following the turtle.

The big ray was even more captivating than the turtles. It was seriously large, probably about 10 feet across and with a stinger as tall as a person. I have never seen any rays this size ever, nothing even close. It was so large as to be a bit unnerving, and reinforced that the water is a medium where people are out of place. How long has this Ray been alive? How much does it weigh? Could it hurt me? It could definitely hurt me, right?

Time stood still again and I kept talking and laughing to myself into the snorkeling gear. Amazed at this transcendent beauty just a few minutes swim from the beach. Wow.