Shorewoods Photography-Boarding Group 2 Travel Blog

Art and I are off on another adventure! This opportunity came to us one evening while we were editing photos. Our desks are side by side in our study, and an email chimed into our inbox. We read the email announcing that Backcountry Gallery had 2 cancellations for their Costa Rica Wildlife Photography Workshop. We looked at each other and within a few minutes had our email sent saying yes please!

For us, part of the fun and adventure in our travel and photography is being spontaneous, flexible, and willing to say yes! Equally fun for us is the planning and preparation for the trip.

What we are packing: Having just returned from Cuba where we enjoyed mighty warm temps and high humidity, we are all set for clothing! We are traveling light again, packing all our clothes into our compact carry-on roller bag. We have opted for quick dry long pants for times under the canopy. Long sleeve quick dry sun shirts or short sleeves with sun sleeves for sun protection, and of course our sun hats.

Camera Gear: Our 180-600mm lenses are a definite; 105mm macro lenses are also recommended, so they are going in the bag. We also wanted something to finish covering the range, so our 24-200mm’s are coming along as they are lightweight, and travelled well with us in the Grand Canyon. The only gap in our coverage is that the 600mm doesn’t quite give us the reach we wish we had for birds and other far away things. We purchased the Nikon Z 1.4 teleconverter to give us that added reach. (Our trials with it were amazing! we had to back off our zoom, we were so much closer!) Our Peak Design Travel Tripods are also making the journey with us.

We originally planned to take our large Think Tank Camera Bags, easily holding all three lenses, however we were concerned with their size. We were able to fit everything into our peak design day bag, and that would make it easier to carry when we are out and about. Every bit of space is utilized, and this makes everything carryon for our flights and so much easier. The advantage to having everything carryon is that there is no wait time at baggage claim. The camera backpack fits under the seat in front of us on the plane, and the carry on bag in the overhead bin. Ta Da!

We made our travel arrangements to Costa Rica; we fly from Reagan airport to Houston, and then onto San Jose. We travel out a day early to give some added time for any possible delays or weather cancellations. We arrived in San Jose in the early evening, after watching the sunset from the plane.

We are staying in the Fairfield Inn near the airport, and easily catch the shuttle from the airport for a 10 minute ride to our stay for the night. We have stayed in many Fairfield Inns on our travels: during our Route 66 trip, New York trip, and weekend getaways. Art and I both agreed that this was the nicest, friendliest Fairfield Inn we ever stayed at! The Restaurant was open until 11PM, and we were able to enjoy some really good food- with local ingredients- and a welcome drink!

We settle in for a sleep, and get ready to transfer to the Hilton Downtown tomorrow. Our tour is organized through Coast Rica Fishing and Adventures at Crocodile Bay and Botanika Resort. In the morning, the tour picks us up and transfers us to the Hilton San Jose Downtown. The Hilton is the tallest building in San Jose, and the view from our room is spectacular.

The next morning we embark on our journey to the Osa Peninsula. Our transportation to the airport has been arranged by Crocodile Bay. They gather our luggage and we meet our fellow adventurers for the next week.

We fly Sansa Airlines to the Puerto Jimenez airport: an airstrip with the town on one side, and Botanica Resort and the bay on the other, where we will be staying. We are met by the resort, they collect our gear, and we make the 5 minute drive around the airstrip to Botanica.

Driving into Botanica has a bit of the feel of Jurassic Park! Lush greenery and tropical flowers everywhere. We are greeted by Dennis Valverde, our guide and workshop leader. We all meet together for an overview of the activities ahead, and get to know each other and our photography interests and objectives.

Art and I really have only one objective, make photos of what presents itself to us, and learn from Dennis who grew up on the Osa Peninsula, and is very familiar with the wilfdlife and where to find it, in addition to his extensive wildlife photography experience. After our getting to know each other, we receive our room keys. Our bags have already been delivered to our room: we quickly unpack and head to our meeting and departure location to go to and visit some sloths!

We head out on the local roads to La Perica Sloth Gardens. The family which runs the farm ( Dennis’s Family) and cares for the land where the sloths live, welcome us with a wonderful food and delicious cold drinks. The sloths have always lived on this land, and the family invites visitors to come and see the sloths in their natural setting. We also learned about the palm oil harvest.

We have our first walk through the jungle and spot our first sloths!

We also have the opportunity to capture some birds and insects, including one very shy humming bird!

We return to Botanica and enjoy a group dinner together outside on the patio. We walked back to our room, ready for a good nights sleep and to prepare for tomorrow. Today was a great beginning to our adventure!