Yacht Pelican

There are two choices for mobile internet in Grenada. Digicell and Lime (Cable and Wireless).

I went for for Lime. Lime advertise a good deal on roaming charges with other Lime carriers in the Caribbean (St. Vincent is the one I want for our trip up the islands).

Neither seem to have much accurate information online regarding 3G and it seems that this is because it a relatively new thing for the island.

I bought my SIM from the Lime in Spiceland mall (Digicell are right next door). Not a well oiled process but we got there. You need ID and an address thought there are no checks on the address’s validity.

I bought a pre pay SIM for EC28.75, that comes with EC10 credit. I then (once I’d added EC35 as a top up) bought the 1 month valid, 500mb data pack. ( just dial *146*500#).

Simply 500mb of data pre paid for a month. The card is destined for an unlocked 3G dongle and currently sits in my HTC phone no problem…

APN setting for Lime Grenada

Once you have the APN set for the phone, with an APN name of “ppinternet” (no username or pasword) you can connect for mobile networks in android speak or interment to you and me.

3G in Grenada

Problem is while it connects its not at 3G speeds, but at Edge – think 56K modem.

Arse.

Tried it at Spiceland Mall and at the apartment near St.George and no 3G.

I’ll update the post once I find out more but at 56k like speeds this is going to take a long time to devour the 500MB.

Update

This turned out to be a good investment.

Speed stayed the same and although I didn’t know how to check data usage I had no problem either connecting or with data for the twenty days I had it. It wasn’t the fastest but worked well for email, BBC, RSS updates and grib files. I also roamed to St.Vincent with the same sim and deal and again no problem. I only had 0.01 cent credits so the roaming must have been covered by the deal (which I thought it would but it wasn’t crystal clear in the literature).

Chopstix Chinese takeaway

To note, if your in Spiceland Mall check out the food stalls, the Chinese does a great combo meal of chicken and pork with stir friend rice (EC33) and the grill place next door covers the Caribbean choices well ( though I had the falafel meal deal).

After hiring a car we decided to head to Morne Rouge beach known locally as BBC. Some say this is the second best beach after Grand Anse, known to be quieter both in terms of people and surf.

Getting to Mourne Rouge beach

I can image its a fair hike on foot over from Grand Anse beach itself. Its possible heading up via Flamboyant beach side terrace. Over the hill and down into the bay.

Driving by road its not clear which route to take as there are no signs.

Directions to BBC, Morne Rouge beach

Head past the Spiceland Mall, take a left as the road ends up past the police station. Then take a right and follow the road round. Once your up over the hill take a left down a rough paved road.

Once on that road look out for another left hand then down a dirt road by a house which has some huge metal objects outside, they look like large pots.

Follow the road down, on the left is a grave, the road goes down to the right and leads to a relatively clear area for parking.

Morne Rouge facilities

There isn’t much, which is probably a good thing.

Through the gap we found a security guard (which I guess is for the beach) and a guy renting out the sun chairs for EC10 each a day. No hawkers to be found, no hassle at all. The guard – literally – didn’t move the the four hours we were there.

Very nice beach, blue water, calm with a bit of sea life. A couple of boats on their moorings but no other transient craft. Looks like a nice bay to anchor for a cat as its shallow. A great thing about this beach is there is lots of shade from the trees. We had a couple of showers so it was handy to have the chairs and towels under cover.

There where no more that 12 westerns on the beach, plus a few locals spear fishing, and boat fishing. There is quite a bit of building happening mostly villa building, progress looks and judging by the infrequent hammering, sounds slow.

Eating on Morne Rouge beach

There looks like two or three places to eat on the beach itself. We went to the bar at the end (Sur la Mer) and ordered a takeaway (eating in looked good as well). We had two huge and excellent chicken Roti’s (EC20 each), three French fries EC12), three waters and and ice cream pot for just over EC100, friendly place.

I looked around for a comparison of food and drink prices in Grenada before our charter but couldn’t find much online, below is a literal basket of goods from the Andall supermarket in St.George (near the bus station) purchased in April 2013. (A smaller basket of goods from Spice land Mall is below – which also has a couple of takeaways, Caribbean food, Chinese, a bakery and juice bar).

Takeaway option

Above the Andall supermarket is a takeaway place which is good for all sorts of pre cooked food like baked chicken, BBQ chicken, stewed Turkey etc all come with a choice of sides I.e. rice and peas, carrots, macaroni slices.

Good value at around EC18 a plate depending on your selection (meat dishes EC8, sides EC2, and in between).

Grenada Airport ATM

Talking money there is an ATM at Grenada airport, easy reach from the exit from arrivals. Just take a right and walk about 100 yards and you will find an ATM dispensing EC dollars.

Andall supermarket prices

Hunts tomato sauce 14oz EC5.25
Carib beer 6 pack EC17.25
Carib beer single EC 1.70
Due last Gern hot pepper sauce EC4.40
6 eggs, half a dozen EC5.35
Anchor cheddar cheese 250g EC9.25
Maryland chocolate chip cookies 175g EC4.90
Bruns tuna in oil EC3.30
I can’t believe its not butter 250g EC5.50
Dutch lady semi skimmed uht milk, 1 lt EC4.40
Rica juice fruit punch 1lt  EC5.35
Pure heaven apple juice 1lt EC5.25
Tomatoes at EC4.50 a lb
Milanesa Spaghetti 400g EC4.95
Brunswick sardines EC3.15
Lettuce local EC3.29

A better option for shopping (range of items) is the Real Value supermarket at Spice Land Mall, Mourne Rouge (just behind Grand Anse beach).

Prices from the Real Value Supermarket

Westerhall super light Rum, 750cl EC20.85
Luis Felipe Cabernet Sauvignon Red wine EC24.40
Blue water (still water 1.5lt) EC3.80
Carib beer 6 pack EC16.25

Real Value opening hours are 0800-2100, Monday to Thursday, 0800-2200 on Friday and Saturday and 0900-1900 on Sundays.

Below is a quick time lapse video created using my Bushnell HD camera. St.Helier to St.Aubins under power. followed by some next day mooring chain reorganising in the newly dredged harbour.

The pictures were captured at 1 frame a minute intervals – with some editing out.

The Camera was lashed to the foremast.

Using VirtualDub to build a time-lapse Video

I used VirtualDub on the PC to build the video (from the hundred or so stills) then created the AVI with the downloaded DivX Codec (at 2 fps), nice and easy aswell as being free.

VirtualDub will grab all related files (after you select the start image – selecting “Image sequence” as the “Open Video File” type) from a directory on windows as long as the filenames fit the required format.

This didn’t work straight away given the Bushnell file name convention, with just the single start picture being selected. To fix it I just did a select all on the images, rename, adding a 1 to the file name and Windows did the rest, renaming the remaining files in sequence so VirtualDub could recognise the sequence.