1. Get a good case for around the camera. It's great protection from drops, bumps and even light rain. It also protects your camera when it is traveling or in a bag.2. Strap that doesn't say cannon or nikon, etc. This helps deter others from noticing your camera...sure they might see that you have a nice camera but labeling it as Nikon or Cannon says you have the best of the best. (Picture below!) 3. Good travel bag that doesn't look like a camera bag. I took a purse that worked well as a camera, bought it on Amazon. Most women carry some type of purse, so there is always a risk with carrying a purse, but I think having a separate camera bag and purse is asking for more trouble. (Picture below!) 4. Lens covers with attachment. There is nothing more annoying that having to hold your lens cap while taking pictures of monkeys! If you haven't spent the few extra dollars to get a lens cap that attached to your camera yet...do it. 5. Figure out what kind of pictures you want to take then choose the lenses to pack. I tried to pack light for my first trip and thought by leaving home my zoom lens it would save some space and that I wouldn't really need it. WRONG! I completely forgot about the birds in the trees, or monkeys far away, etc and I really wish I had it with me. So make sure to think about what you plan to do on your vacation and then pack your lenses. 6. Keep it out of the heat. Everyone knows the sun is bad for electronics so try to plan ahead when going to the beach or leaving the camera in a hot car. 7. If taking pictures near the ocean bring lens cleaner. I found that if it was windy at all the salt sprayed up from the ocean and got on my lens....make sure you bring lens cleaner with you if you plan to walk along the beach or take beach pictures! 8. Insurance. It is possible to find insurance for your camera with a personal item policy...I got insurance through State Farm so that if I accidentally damage my camera or it gets stolen I will still get something towards a replacement....this relieves a lot of stress. Hope you get some awesome pictures!
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On May 1, Steve and I made our way from the Lodge to Corcovado. We knew it wasn't going to be a simple trip but it ended up being even more exhausting than we imagined. The trip was supposed to go as follows: Scott drops us off at the bus stop, bus takes us to Sierpe, Catch the 3:30 boat in Sierpe to Drake Bay. Well the first thing to go wrong was that Scott, one of the Lodge owners was supposed to be back from Florida to see us off but had to push his flight back. This meant he wouldn't be back in time to give me the camera lens my mom mailed him & it left only one person to drive us to meet a taxi; a new volunteer who showed up a few days earlier. This volunteer had never driven a stick shift before, so Steve spent some time teaching him. Not only would he have to learn to drive a stick shift but he had to do it on hilly, rocky, rainy road up the mountain in a car that was falling apart at the seams. So our day started with saying goodbye to all of the locals we built relationships with including the Lodge cat Julieta who I fell in love with. Then we headed down the mountain with the new volunteer to meet our taxi...Steve drove us down the mountain & we still haven't heard how the new volunteers drive back up the mountain went. Our taxi then took us to the bank to get money and then dropped us at the bus stop to wait for our 11:30 bus. We got to the bus stop an hour early just in case it showed up early...you never know in Costa Rica....we've been told the buses will show up early and just leave, so we didn't want to take the chance. This bus stop was in the middle of no where on the side of a road. So stood and we waited. 11:30 rolled around and we continued to wait...we waited until 2:30 for our bus when it finally arrived...THREE HOURS LATE!! While waiting for the bus was stressful and exhausting because we had no idea what was going on or if it was even going to show up, we did get lots of time to chat with others waiting for their buses. We met some girls our age from Germany, a local cook from Quepos who's family owned a restaraunt, a bunch of trail guides who were off on an adventure together and an old man from Boston who fell in love with a Costa Rican girl and had been living here ever since. It was nice to connect with all of these people and hear their stories and share ours and of course get local tips. The connections happen so quickly and we exchanged contact info with many of those people! When our bus arrived and we boarded we were lucky to have the last two seats. Others had to stand. No air conditioning though, but the open windows felt nice. We were starving at this point so we were thankful when the bus stopped in less than an hour and gave us a 30 minute food break. Steve and I had some chicken and rice with baked fish and then got back on the bus to continue our journey to Sierpe. The bus stopped maybe 50 times to drop off random locals and pick up others so the ride took longer than expected. We were supposed to catch the 3:30 boat in Sierpe to Drake Bay...but our bus didn't even pick us up until 2:30 and with all the stops we missed our boat by hours. When we finally arrived in Sierpe it was 6pm. We tried asking around and we were told no more boats were going out...we would have to stay in Sierpe. Luckily we were able to get some local advice and talk to some locals in English in order to figure out our plans. We ended up staying at a small cabin called Hotel Margarita (30$/night) and paid to upgrade to have air condiitioning (4$ extra). It was easy to get a room and the owner was SO sweet and welcoming. We didn't even care that we missed our boat, we were happy to lay down and have air conditioning after such a long day. That night we explored Sierpe, which a town about the size of a baseball feild. It was very small, but it felt safe, the people were welcoming and it was fun to relax and walk around the town and river. We asked around about the boat ride and figured out where to meet Captain Dago at Oleja Restarunt at 11:30am the next day. So we settled in for the night, fell asleep QUICKY, who knows if it was the air conditioning or the long day of travel but we slept like babies. The next day we loaded up our way over stuffed bags and went to the dock to meet captain Dago. There were lots of other people waiting for different captains...our boat ended up being one of the larger, more comfortable boats but it was still tiny compared to what you would take in the US. The boat ride was beautiful...for an hour we sped down a beautiful river lined with green trees and palms...it was wonderful! Once we got to the end of the river we had to go into the ocean to get to Drake Bay. I saw the ocean ahead and immediately wanted to go back to Sierpe. The waves were about 15 feet high valley to crest, many were breaking and there were lots of large rocks jutting out of the water. I had a sinking feeling that I just might die. But then I told myself, people go to Drake Bay everyday, Captain Dago does this everyday, just hold on and enjoy the ride, this is normal. I kept telling myself it was normal, but my intuition told me it wasn't. Captain Dago kept looking around, dodging waves, trying to find the path in between the large waves. He was pulling out his phone, making phone calls. I thought he was going to turn us around. But then he kept zig zagging through the waves and I kept telling myself, he does this everyday. He would find an opening and speed as quickly as he could and then come to a stop and we would go over on the the waves and the front of the boat would fly in the air almost 8 feet high and smack back down. I started thinking about what would happen if I went overboard...were there sharks in this water, could I swim to shore, what would i do with my passport at the bottom of the ocean, etc. We saw another boat doing the same thing and when the waves would come it would disappear and we weren't sure if we would see it again. But I told myself again, this is normal. After about 30 minutes of dodging waves and looking for an opening we made it through...there we still really big waves but I no longer thought I would die. We headed towards Drake Bay...when we arrived, there was no dock. The men started grabbing our bags and told us to take off our shoes, that we were getting out in the water. Luckily they carried our bags to shore but the waves were still huge...it took about 10 minutes to get 15 people off the boat because we would have to wait until the wave went up to shore and hurry off so we didn't get knocked off the boat while trying to exit. Finally on shore I thanked my lucky stars and ran up to the lady with the sign for Martina's Place (our hostel) and grabbed our bags. The first thing she said to me is, "Wow, you guys are so lucky!! It was really bad out there...it only gets that bad maybe once a year and usually boats can't make it!!" We made it. We were alive. We found out later than one boat didn't make it, it capsized 300 meters off shore...luckily everyone survived and made it to shore safely but the boat and their luggage was never found. All ocean activities were canceled for the next day because of the conditions. What a long, exhausting trip....but now we've got a great story for our family, friends and future children. And of course, we're alive.
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