It isn’t difficult to imagine the words “wish you were here” inscribed across the cloudless skyline of the Turks and Caicos – nearly every part of this archipelago screams picture-perfect. The sand is white and the water crystal clear. And in a world where it seems there’s nothing left to discover, out of the Turks and Caicos’ 40 islands, only eight have seen the first rumblings of development.

Named after the islands’ earliest resident, the stubby Turk’s head cactus, the Turks and Caicos were discovered by Christopher Columbus during his famous 1492 journey to the new world. At the time, they were inhabited by Taino and Lucayan Indians, whose salt raking and farming served as their main economy.