We were going to try the North Shore, but Pam read too many scary stories, so we headed back to Smith’s Reef. The water was super calm, almost glassy, so we thought we’d have a great snorkel. And we did, but wow, there was a current so strong, if you stopped swimming against it, you’d be moved twenty to thirty feet in mere seconds! Not for the poor swimmer that’s for sure!

It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work too. We immediately saw a turtle, and we knew he was different than the last turtles we’d seen, because he had a tag on only one flipper. Yesterday the two turtles we saw had none, and two tags respectively. This was a smaller turtle and all he did was hang around the bottom, eating sea grass.

It’s a great spot to see fish, and we saw tons. One grouper was nestled in a little hole, and just watched us warily as we approached as close as eighteen inches. So long as we didn’t make any quick moves, he let us snap pictures. Pam loves this fish – and we’ve seen a lot of them here in Providenciales.

We got a bit tired fighting the current, so we only stayed in for a couple of hours. After a quick lunch, of left over pizza, courtesy of Baci’s, we went back the Coral Gardens. The current was sharp there too, but we went in anyway. And what a swim that was! Within about two minutes of being in the water I saw a little stingray, about three feet across, with a short tail – I guess from some predator biting it off.

The reef was just alive with fish, and lots of HUGE schools of horse-eyed jacks. We thought we’d seen a big school the other day, but wow, this one was twice that size. There was a big school barracuda, mostly under two feet, but there were a couple larger ones. There was a school of ceros, a kind of racing car like fish, speedy and sleek.

We saw a couple of moray eels. We hadn’t really seen any, and today we saw two. We also saw two flounder, after not having seen any the whole week. Funny how that goes – see none, then get them in pairs!

We managed to spot a lionfish, out in the open mostly, and we managed to get a couple of good shots of him. That’s a first – usually the lionfish is under a shelf, hiding, and our pictures are not good. This one, is pretty good!

I saw a big stingray laying in the sand and called Pam over to see him. She took one look at him and turned away, and I’m calling her – Do you SEE this HUGE stingray?? And she just points… under a shelf was the biggest fish we’ve ever seen. About six feet long, and weighing about four hundred pounds was a HUGE Cubera Snapper. Unfortunately, our pictures are dark and unclear, since he refused to come out from under the shelf. But holy cow, that was one big fish!

We had dinner at the Tiki Hut. It was so packed for the Wednesday night dinner deal, we went to Baci’s, but we decided to give them a whirl tonight. The setting is nice, on the water, surrounded by big boats. It was a little breezy, so a light sweater might have been a good idea. The waitress, Raissa, was friendly and efficient. We ordered some conch fritters to start ($8.00). They were served with a tangy sauce and Pam pronounced them better than the ones we had at Shark Bites.

The Tiki Hut is famous for BBQ ribs and chicken, so Pam ordered the ribs ($18). They were a full rack, served with your choice of sides, and she chose onion rings and vegetables. They were fall off the bone good, and much better than the Shark Bite ribs. I had the West Indie Chicken ($21) which was a boneless breast of chicken pounded thin, then stuffed with tiger prawns, served with a rum cream sauce, fresh vegetables, and rice and peas. The vegetables were broccoli and carrots and they were cooked very well – not mushy and gross, but just perfectly done. The chicken was great. I’d order it again. For desert we ordered the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream ($8). It was a disappointment. It was not bread pudding, just some boring muffin with some store bought ice cream. Don’t order it. Total bill was $73, not including tip. A lot of places in the Caribbean put a service charge of 15%, but not here. It was a nice dinner, and I’d eat here again.

For some reason, there were fireworks when we returned to the condo. They were launched right beside our building, so we got a bird’s eye view! Not sure what it was all about, but a cool way to end the evening.