Discovering Turks Caicos with Jane Parker: Responsible Tourism and Community Impact

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In today's episode, we're thrilled to introduce Jane, a vibrant resident of the Turks and Caicos Islands, whose passion for island life and animal welfare has led her to remarkable endeavors.

Join us as we delve into Jane's extraordinary journey, from her roots in England to her 27-year adventure in the Caribbean. As the founder of Potcake Place, a renowned dog rescue organization, Jane shares her insights into the unique challenges and rewards of rescuing and rehoming local stray dogs on the islands.

Throughout our conversation, Jane offers a glimpse into the vibrant culture, stunning geography, and captivating wildlife of the Turks and Caicos Islands. With practical travel advice and heartfelt stories, this episode promises to inspire both seasoned travelers and those dreaming of their next tropical escape.

So, sit back, relax, and prepare to be transported to the sun-drenched shores of the Turks and Caicos Islands as we embark on this unforgettable journey with Jane!

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Transcript

Brighde: Hello Jane, thank you so much for joining me on the World Vegan Travel Podcast today. 

Jane: How are you doing? 

Brighde: I am doing just great and I'm so excited today to have you on here and to have you talking about a destination which is the Turks and Caicos Islands, and reasons why people would like to go to this place to visit. I'm sure some people have heard of these sets of islands. But I don't think it's really as popular as some of its neighbors perhaps. But , you don't sound like you are from an island in Central America. 

Would you mind sharing a little bit about sort of your background and what it is that you're doing in the Turks and Caicos? 

Jane: For sure. I came here about 27 years ago, 28 years ago, originally from England. I've lived here more than I've ever lived anywhere else. So, this is my home. Turks and Caicos is a fantastic country. Wonderful people. I originally came here, nothing to do with dogs, although now obviously I'm the founder of the dog rescue here, but I came here just for 12 months on a contract to open a spa and work here. Then I was due to move to New York to do the same thing. And the second day I was here, I met my husband, now ex-husband. I've ended up staying here. The rest is history, as they say. So that's how I got here. 

Brighde: So you founded an organization, Potcake Place. Why did you set this up? What was the need for this kind of organization?  

Jane: In order to be able to work here, when you first come here, you have to have a work permit. You can't just come here and work in a supermarket or a bar. You have to have a work permit and I wasn't working, so there's a big need for volunteers. I used to volunteer to read to kids in the schools. While I was living here, I saw the thousands of dogs that are born here on the streets. If anyone's ever been in any Caribbean country or South America or other places, you'll see that there's a lot of stray dogs. And I started volunteering for an organization here to help with this issue. Every day I'd go out with this organization and try and pick up dogs, and spay and neuter them.  

There's no shelter in the Turks and Caicos Islands for dogs, and so there was nowhere to put these dogs. When we were in the process of going out, and talking to people, and spaying and neutering dogs, we had a lot of puppies. And at the end of the day, there would be 10 to 15 puppies,  

but we had nowhere to put these dogs. And so every day I would do that, and then one day I came across this pup, and I had to take it to the vet to put it down and I'm standing there, and I'm looking at this puppy. It was about six to eight weeks, beautiful little girl. This little black and white puppy. Little white stripe down its nose. Little squiffy ears, little tail that curled all the way over its back. I'm like, I can't, you know what, I can't do this 

anymore. And the vet came back, and I said, you know, I'm gonna take this puppy home. And I took the puppy home and three days later, I get a call from someone living on the island, and they said, "Hey Jane, I understand you're helping out with the dogs. There's no rush, but my wife and I would like to adopt a dog. It's got to be a female, because we have a male dog already, but my wife grew up in England, and her favorite story was a story about a badger. If you come across a black and white puppy with a white stripe down its nose, little tail that crawls over its back with a little white tip at the end of the tail. Can you let us know? We're going to adopt it and we're going to call it Tommy Brockett after the badger." I said, "Funny, you should say that. I have the exact puppy." And at that moment. I said, "You know what? There's a place for every Potcake." I'm like, I'm going to start a Potcake place. Instead of putting these pups down, because there's no way to put them, I'm going to take them in and we're going to adopt them out. And that's why I started this. So instead of putting them down, I took them in and adopted them out. Now we're adopting out over 500 a year. The goal is to not have them being born in the first place. That's what we're trying to do. But when they are, we take them in and we adopt out every single one. My goal is to be run out of business, quite frankly, is what we're trying to do here. But that's how I started it. 

Brighde: Wow, that's, quite a story. Why do you call it Potcake Place? What's the story behind the name? 

Jane: So the Potcake is the dog from the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas. It's been here for a couple of hundred years, so every island has their own version. So in Jamaica they're called "Jam Pops," In Puerto Rico they're called "Satos." So they all have their individual name. Here they're called Potcakes. It's named after what the locals used to feed them. So what's left in the pot at the end of cooking? So when they had peas and rice, and used to add to that as the week went on, what was left burnt on the bottom of the saucepan, they would scrape off, and form into a crab cake type shape, and throw it to the dogs. So it's the cake of the pot. 

 In the Bahamas they're called Royal Bahamian Potcakes. They're very posh over there. But here, they're called Potcakes. 

 I was wondering why you would call it Potcake Place. I thought maybe it was named after one of your first dogs that you rescued or something, but actually, no, it makes perfect sense. 

  

Jane: Potcake is a recognized dog. Obviously, it's not on the American Kennel Association, but it is a recognized type of dog. Genetically, a Potcake, if you're going to break down the DNA, is mainly English Labrador, German Shepherd, and English Foxhound Terrier. 

That's your three main breeds that make up a Potcake. English Labrador Shepherd Terrier. You can have Dobermans, Chihuahuas, Border Collies, all sorts. But predominantly, if you were going to adopt one of these dogs, you need to know that they're going to be basically a Labrador Shepherd Terrier mix. And they average 50 pounds when they're fully grown.  

Brighde: That's so interesting. So can you orient us a little bit in terms of like where it is, what it's made of, maybe the capital city, the climate, those kinds of things, please?  

So, Turks and Caicos, everyone calls it the Caribbean. It is technically not in the Caribbean but in the Atlantic Ocean territory.  

Jane: It is very easy to get to. I'm not exactly sure of the mileage, but on a plane, it is an hour and 20 minutes south of Miami.  

We are between Haiti, and the Bahamas. If you look at a map and see, we are the southern end of the Bahamas chain. A lot of people think that we are the Bahamas. We are cousins of the Bahamas, but we are not in the Bahamas. It's a chain of over 40 islands. The capital is Grand Turk, although most of the tourism industry is on Providenciales. If you were to get a flight, we have direct flights from Canada, the UK, and major cities in the States. It's very easy to get to, it's British overseen, independently governed. We drive on the correct side of the road here. We drive on the left. Which is, you know, as it should be. It's a very safe place to come and vacation. Reasons to come here, it's the best beach in the world. If you don't like the water or the beach, then this is not a place to come. All the beauty of the Turks and Caicos is in the water. It's got the third biggest coral reef in the world. And so coming here to dive is a spectacular destination. I don't dive myself. It's also got one of the best golf courses, I am told, in the Caribbean. If you're into golfing or fishing, which obviously I don't do, snorkeling, scuba diving, this is a wonderful place to be. The islands themselves are not very beautiful. 

It's a very flat, dusty, scrubby island. If you're looking at going to, you know, Costa Rica or somewhere with the mountains and stuff, that's not here. So don't expect that here. All of the beauty of the Turks and Caicos is water. One of the issues here is, it's not cheap. So don't expect to come here on a budget holiday. We only have two all-inclusive hotels, a Club Med, which is adults only, and a Beaches, which is a sandals resort where you can bring your family, but again, it's not cheap. It's a wonderful place to be, easy to get to, and you can come here and do good on your vacation by taking a puppy to the beach. 

  

Brighde: How is it that visitors might be able to contribute in a positive way when they go to visit the Turks and Caicos Islands? 

  

Jane: In the charity we have between 70 and a hundred dogs in our care at any one time. We don't have a local PetSmart or you know, places that we can just go and shop. As I said, things are not cheap here. A lot of people visit and they'll bring us a little suitcase or something of donations. We desperately need help with basic things like Pee Pee Pads, little blankets, toys, collars, puppy milk formula, all these things that we need. A lot of people will bring a suitcase full of supplies that they can donate to us. Everything that comes into the country is charged an import duty. That's part of taxation here. I used to get excited when, you know, a man bought me flowers. Now it's a suitcase of Pee Pee Pads. I get so excited because we don't have any, right? Simple things. Old towels, used towels, newspapers, the charity needs that. Everything. People come down and they bring that for us. So they can help in that way. We also have socialization walks in the morning, which are very important for our dogs. And so every morning at 10 o'clock, we allow our fully vaccinated dogs out for socialization walks. So people can help by just coming along and taking a puppy out. And you can see a pup that's come in to us that has never been touched by a human hand before. You can see them get with the program; like they're getting used to a family and people, so now that pup's going to be adoptable whereas before it wasn't. We don't charge for this. It's not an excursion, but just for two hours every morning, we allow our fully vaccinated puppies out with families. And they can just take them over the road to the beach; even just sitting at the coffee shop, you know, with a pup and, and stroking it. That's a huge help. People also help us by offering to be couriers. So when they're coming down and they're saying, "Look, I'm not adopting a puppy, I've already got three or four, but I'm traveling back to New York, or I'm traveling back to Chicago. How can I help?" We have approved waiting homes in the states. We check people out fully. We don't just send off dogs. So in order to adopt a dog, they fill in an application. They have to get vet references and everything else. And once we've done that, we have to find a way of getting that pup to New Jersey or Philadelphia. And people say, look, I'm traveling back. And so that pup goes with that person, which we pay for; for the pup to be on the flight. Then the new owner meets them at the other end. And that's how we get our pups into the States to new homes. So people can volunteer to do that. There's other charities here, not just Dog Rescue, you know, there's Children's Homes and other things. A lot of people bring us donations.  

Even, I know it sounds ridiculous, but newspapers. We have so many crates here. We have between 70 and 100 dogs, and they all need lining with newspapers, and we don't have them, right? After the pups have had all of their vaccinations, we now want to start getting them socialized. A lot of these pups have been on the streets and they're not used to human kindness, right? Far from it. And so we now want that puppy to start going out with a family. Some days I want them out with a family with kids. Some days I want them out with a big guy with a baseball hat on. You know, we want to start introducing them to different people. 

And so people come every morning and take our pups out for little walks at 10 o'clock. We don't charge for this. A lot of people sign up and come in, in the morning and help to bathe all of our puppies. Every morning our pups need to get bathed. Sounds cute, but it's not very glamorous. I'm going to warn you. There's a lot of poop happening, right? But we have a lot of pups that need to be bathed, and so people sign up for that. Also, people sign up to help courier puppies back into the States, mainly. Fourty percent of our approved homes are to people that are not here in the Turks and Caicos. And so, we need to find a way of getting that puppy to Chicago, or New York, or Seattle, wherever it is, and people sign up and say, look, I'm not adopting, but I'm going back on this flight, and the new owner pays the fee for the pup to go on the flight. 

The pup gets carried on in a little bag, just sits at your feet, and the new owner meets you when you come off the plane.  

  

Brighde: If I understand well, I think the reason why it's good to have a flight volunteer, is because it's much cheaper than just freighting the dogs by themselves. Am I right there? 

Jane: The problem with here, is we cannot send them off without an owner, without a person traveling. There has to be someone on the plane. We don't have freight services here. The only freight service we have here is a company called IBC, which is like FedEx, and they will take dogs just to Miami. We don't actually have a service here where we could send dogs to New York without someone traveling with the dog. So the only way we can get pups off here, is when they're under 20 pounds and they just get carried on, but there has to be a person on the plane. A dog can't travel by itself. The only other way we can send dogs off is with private jets. We have a lot of very lovely people that come here, that have their own private jets. I'm not one of them, unfortunately. I wish I was. But we have a lot of people that come here, and every time they come, they offer to carry dogs back for us on their private jets, and that's how we get the adult dogs off. It was a huge factor during and after the pandemic. We had no way of getting the dogs off the island, because no commercial airlines were flying back and fourth. And so, I had 50, 60 puppies, that in six months turned into dogs, and I had no way of getting them off the island. It was the people with their private jets that saved the day. And so after the pandemic, people volunteered to carry pups off. The first day I sent 17 dogs off on someone's private jet. The man had no seat of his own. He sat on the floor and carried 17 of our dogs off on a private jet into New Hampshire. People with private jets, that is a huge thing that we need. So that's the only way we can get dogs off the island. Under 20 pounds on a commercial flight. If they're bigger than that, then we need, a private jet. So the next time the Kardashians are down, if anyone knows them, if they could let us know. We'll need their services. 

Brighde: That's so interesting. I know from my time in Southeast Asia and having transported my cats overseas before, there was always the choice, and by the sounds of it, you don't have it, of having the dog travel or the cat travel as unaccompanied luggage. But the reason why that was less desirable for the rescue organizations in Thailand, for example, it was because it was much more expensive, but actually in this case, it's just not even a possibility. That's so interesting. 

Jane: We don't have it. That's why tourists, when they come here, if they're not interested in adopting a dog, can save that dog without having to keep it. They just carry that pup on the flight and the new owner meets them at the other end. At least 40 percent of our dogs go off that way. So if you're coming here, please contact us and let us know your flight schedule, and you can save a dog without having to keep it for the next 15 years. 

Brighde: I love it. I love it. Well, definitely. I think everyone that goes to the Turks and Caicos islands could be considering that as an option. For sure. Now you mentioned, that I guess the big reason that draws people to the Turks and Caicos islands in the first place is because of the beautiful beaches. Tell us about those.  

Jane: Grace bay Beach as the main beach here in Providenciales. This country is made up of a lot of islands. The main one that everyone knows and sees is Providenciales or Provo, as people call it here for short. P R O V O, Provo. That's where all of the flights come in. The main beach here is Grace Bay Beach, which is 18 miles long. It's all the photos that you see with the turquoise water and the white sand. That is exactly how it looks. It's not photoshopped. It's a beautiful beach that you can just walk into. It's protected by a coral reef around on the north side. It's really beautiful to swim and snorkel in. The coral reef here in the Turks and Caicos is the third largest coral reef in the world. And so, it's a huge haven for divers to come here. If you don't like the water, or the beach, or boats, this is not the country to visit. It's not a beautiful, tropical Caribbean island. It's very scrubby, but when you open your door in the morning and you look at that water. It's just stunning. It's very easy to swim in and snorkel in.  

 It's a very nice place to come here and do that, and it's great for your first dive. So if you're into diving, this is the place to be. We have Jojo the Dolphin, which is a very famous dolphin here. He's now married with children, and he is, yeah. He loves to appear when people are out snorkeling on the boats, he turns up. We have no dolphinariums here. It's purely beautiful by nature. And so if you want to come and see beautiful stingrays and dolphins where they should be, then this is the place to come.  

Brighde: There are a particular type of iguana, and they have a special island home, and they're also protected there. Tell us about that? 

Jane: There's an island here that everyone calls Iguana Island, but it's Little Water Cay. It's the protected species of iguanas that are there. You're not allowed to feed them or anything like that.  

 Turks and Caicos has done wonderful things with iguanas and the dolphins. Like I was saying, when the dolphinarium closed in England, they brought the dolphins here to rehabilitate them. And so, if you are really into that, that's a wonderful place to be. So, you can get a beautiful little boat trip over to the island, and walk around, and see these iguanas, living wonderfully in their natural habitat, and the fee, you know, that's included, helps to maintain that.  

 There's boat excursions where they'll take you. Go out to the reef and do some snorkeling, and then take you to Little Water Cay and see the iguanas. And it's also a beautiful place to come for sunset cruises. So going out in the afternoon to watch the sunset, it truly is beautiful by nature. It's a beautiful country to be in, but, as is all countries, there are things about it that are not so beautiful. The dogs on the streets are the main thing, and that's what we're trying to do here, by stopping them being born in the first place and taking them in. 

Brighde: A question I have for you, is about safety, because I was talking with a friend of mine, and she recently was offered and accepted a job in Trinidad and Tobago, and throughout the interview process, she learned that Trinidad and Tobago was actually quite a dangerous place. It has quite a high murder rate which surprised me to learn that. So, how is it in Turks and Caicos in relation to crime, specifically directed towards tourists? 

Jane: Turks and Caicos has the lowest crime rate in the area. Does crime exist? Yes. But most of the crime that is here is not towards tourism. It's mainly gang warfares thats kind of happening in the local areas. The police are really cracking down on that actually, and being a British territory, they have the help from the United Kingdom, also from the Bahamas, and Jamaica. So we have a lot of great police officers here from the UK and the Bahamas and Jamaica that are here dealing with that. Crime with tourists is very low. I mean, does it happen? It's mainly petty crime, you know. If you leave your car at the beach it may get taken, but generally not. You can leave your house unlocked at night. As a whole, the Turks and Caicos is a very safe place to be. It's not like going to a lot of places where people book the all-inclusives because they don't want to leave the hotel because they feel unsafe. That is not the Turks and Caicos. I would recommend Club Med for adults, and Beaches, which is a sandal resort. It's very nice. It's very expensive. I recommend when people come here, not to stay at the all-inclusives. There's a lot of beautiful hotels here. There's a lot of great restaurants. It's very safe to walk around. I really can't emphasize enough that it's very safe. Use your common sense. You know, just with anything when traveling, but it's a very safe place to be. We've got some amazing restaurants, and in the last five years, we're getting a lot way more vegan options. Obviously I'm vegan, but now we can actually go out to eat in lovely restaurants, where it was five, six years ago, they never had. You know, it was the french fries or pasta with tomato sauce, right? But now we have a lot of restaurants that have a lot of really nice high-end vegan options here, and that's really increasing . 

Brighde: Oh, wow!  

Jane: Yep.  

Brighde: That's really nice to know. And I guess that leads me to my next question, which is, getting around in the Turks and Caicos Islands. So how is it to get around? Do you have, taxis, Ubers.  

Jane: We have taxis. Taxis are very expensive. I recommend, if you come here and stay here, if you're not going to rent a car, stay in the main area, which is the Grace Bay area, and you can walk to all of the places. And then, I recommend, if you're here for a week or two weeks. You don't need a rental car for the whole time that you're here if you're staying in the Grace Bay area. I really recommend renting a car for a day or two, and then you can go out and see the other areas in the Turks and Caicos. You can rent a car for two days way cheaper than being in a taxi. 

Taxis are very expensive.  

Brighde: Oh.  

Jane: So, yep, but if you're staying in the Grace Bay area, you don't need a taxi, you can walk to all the places. If you're staying in Long Bay, the area on the south of the island is called Long Bay. If you're into kiteboarding, that's kiteboarder's paradise, but, you're gonna need a car. Now, Grand Turk is another island that is beautiful. So if you're into a more rural type of vacation, then look into Grand Turk, or North Caicos.Providenciales is where all the restaurants are and everything else. 

Brighde: So, if people want to go from one island to another, is there a foot passenger, or a car ferry service between...  

Jane: So, going to.. 

Brighde: them?  

Jane: Going to North Cacos and Middle Cacos is a water ferry that goes to North Cacos and then you can drive to Middle Cacos. Going to Grand Turk, you have to take a plane.  

Brighde: Before we say goodbye and everybody goes and books their next vacation to the Turks and Caicos Island, can you tell us again how people can connect with you, can find the forms and the contact page information about becoming a flight volunteer, all of those things; that people can connect with you and your work.  

Jane: For sure. Yeah. So we are Potcake place. So Potcake is P-O-T-C-A-K-E. We have a website, Potcakeplace.com. We're also very active on Instagram and Twitter, so you can find us on all those things, contacting us to come down. Please contact us before you come down, and hopefully we can book you in to help bathe the puppies in the morning, and do all these things, and the puppy walking. We do like these pups to go out for walks, but I do want to emphasize that even though the puppy walks are very cute and wonderful, what we are trying to do here is stop those puppies being born in the first place. And our main thing here at Potcake Place is education, and spaying and neutering. And so donating to us, is what we need. If there's any vets out there, volunteer vets or vet techs that want to come down and help by volunteering their time, then we really want to hear from you. If you contact us, we will find a way for you to help us. 

Brighde: You have this incredible team of volunteers that support you in so many ways. And of course, people that come and help out with the puppies and adopt and donate, and all of these things. Jane, thanks again and have a great weekend.  

Jane: see you later.