Grand Turk & Caicos

Grand Turk & Caicos. Population 3,720. Grand Turk is such a beautiful island. Caicos means string of islands. They look like they are the last string of islands in the Bahamas but they are actually an independent archipelago. Grand Turk had the clearest water yet we’ve seen & so many fish to snorkel & see. The salt content of the ocean is so high here that you float without even trying! The buoyancy you feel when trying to dive under the water to see more fish was so high it literally felt like someone was trying to push you back up. We’ve never felt that before when swimming in the ocean. We also learned that the island was originally inhabited by Taino & Lucayan tribes before the first European to sight the island was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512. During the next 3 centuries the islands passed from Spanish to France to British control. We snorkeled & swam for several hours & saw lots of colorful Caribbean fish. We also learned more about John Glenn the astronaut who made history by orbiting the earth 3 times in friendship 7 a space capsule that held only 1 astronaut. It splashed down here on February 20, 1962 in the waters near grand Turk. John Glenn went on to make more history later when he returned to space in 1998 on the space shuttle discovery as the oldest astronaut to go into space at 77. Pretty cool to see the monument here.