Things are becoming easier as time passes, and we now accept alot of the earlier frustrations. Work, however, is easy, the sun always shines.
work front: we have fitted in well at the dive centre, the learning curve was pretty short for me and Jo has really got to grips with teaching (and got employee of the month in January), i have even got used to the slow pace and the ammount of free time we have each day - I now fill the time by sailing the hobbycats, snorkelling or pleasure diving (so can't complain). I have accepted that most of the divers we have are shocking and that dives are often shallow and short. It makes you appreciate the good divers all the more. We finally managed to get a bank account which means we no longer have to queue at the bank for 2 hours each time to cash our pay cheques. It is the local T&C bank which only has one cashpoint at the branch (and often does not work), however no other banks will let you signup without a work permit (which are slow to arrive). Getting too and from work is easier, we quite often get free lifts from locals that recognise us which is nice.
diving front: Its not a bad place to dive, there is evidence of coral bleaching and marine life is not a prolific as I expected, the wall diving is however, very impressive. The main places we dive are called Grace Bay (reef in front of the dive centre), which has about 10 moorings. The reef starts at about 12m and drops to about 30m. We also dive NorthWest Point (also about 10 moorings), this is visually more dramatic as it is a sheer wall, starting at 18m and dropping to about 1000m ! There are other locations that are amazing, but we dive them less due to their locations - West Caicos (similar to NW Point), Sandborn Channel (a sand bar, good for sharks and schooling eagle rays) & French Cay (probably the best in T&C).Generally though there is plenty to point out and we have regular sightings of sharks (mainly reef & nurse), Eagle Rays and Hawksbill turtles. The highlight was the migration of the humpback whales in February and having the opportunity to snorkel with 2 humpbacks - now that was amazing.
island front: the main area is ugly and very much not what I thought a Caribbean island would be (I am told it is not typical). This is due to the amount of construction going on, vegetation is mailny scrub. Everything is very spread out and there is little to do outside of diving - we hired a car to look around, attractions include: the conch farm, a sink hole and some old shipwreck carvings. Further afield though, ther are some very nice, secluded beaches, and also some nice bars on the beachfront.
social front: we have begun to make some good friends, they are mainly amongst the people we work with, they have made us welcome and also been very forthcoming in helping us getting around. Although we are quite isolated with the location of our house, we usually go out to a bar called 'Sharkbite' on a Friday night for beers & food and either Lynne or Eric give us a lift home. Our nearest 'entertainment' is the mini golf, we obviously don't play golf, however, they serve an excellent rum and pretty good jerk chicken - it also means we can walk the 10 minutes home rather than having to rely on others. There are a couple of really nice bars on the beachfront, 'Horse Eyed Jacks', and the 'Conch Shack' where it is good to chill on an afternoon off. The only other place we frequent is 'hey jose', which is a mexican restaurant that makes excellent margaritas. On our half day (Sunday), Lynne & Eric are also off, so they usually pick us up and we have a BBQ on the beach or chill in a bar.
So generally we have settled in and are content to stay for the forseable future, as with anywhere, there are good points and bad points, but the former easily outweigh the latter.
