Gear-Up!

Doesn't the Queen of England look a bit younger on the local currency? Or is it just me?

I'm almost ready to gear-up and board the helicopter for Hewanorra Airport near the town of Vieux Fort. From there you can look south and see St. Vincent Island and the Grenadines. The roads take a lot of time to traverse because they're narrow, filled with potholes and everyone drives as if they've got a lady in the back seat and the baby is crowning. 

Taking a helicopter removes those concerns and it's a nice way to hop from place to place in the Caribbean. It doesn't have the elegance of a schooner or as mentioned, the hair-raising adventure of a ride down narrow volcanic mountain switch-backs, but it's better. (nice work if you can get it)

Bandwidth (the thing I'm blogging on) is one of those things that is new to the developing world - but it's here and it makes things a lot easier and less expensive than your Irridium or Inmarsat satphone. The Caribbean uses the GSM telephone band and most of the rest of the planet uses CDMA. They're mutually exclusive so if you want to take a trip down here and remain in contact (but why would you?), you'll need to opt for a dual band telephone or rent a GSM band cell phone.  -- Or use a satphone and bounce your voice off a bird in geosync orbit.