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Pura Vida!


"Pura Vida" is the official saying of Costa Rica and basically means "It's all good". We spent two weeks touring the country from the city of San Jose traveling to rain forests, dry forests, cloud forests, transitional forests, with hiking, zip lining, rafting, wildlife viewing and collecting bug bites!

This was  a different trip for us in that it was more about the nature and wildlife than the archeological sites or UNESCO sites we are typically drawn to. We wanted to do a short trip overseas this year and 10 days in Costa Rica was perfect!

I was eaten alive by bugs, I would say mosquitos but I am not entirely sure the bites I received were solely from mosquitos.  I think there were chigger bites mixed in with mosquitos and maybe some other flying biters.  I think I got the bulk of them in Sarapiqui when we took that evening hike to the burial grounds.  Yeah, I used bug spray, but I guess I am just too tasty.

Shot with my iPhone. I am sure this is where I got the bulk of my bug bites

I took the Fuji XT3 with the 18-135 mm and the brand spanking new 55-200 mm - that's it, no mas.  I was on the fence about taking the 16 mm, I like it for low light, but wanted to keep the lens count down.  I have to say I really miss my Tamron 18-300 mm Nikon lens, so versatile when traveling. I left the 16 mm home and didn't miss it.  I also took the little waterproof Fuji FinePix XP120.  It rains a lot in Costa Rica!  The XP120 was handy for the rainy days and the outrigger canoing when I didn't want to destroy the XT3.  Photos were ok, not great, I did play around with some of the creative settings for fun.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country with fantastic jungles, great beaches and tons of wildlife!

Fuji XP120 with a in-camera color pop filter at Arenal Volcano

Fuji XP120 - Outrigger canoe trip on the Pacific in Aguirre, Costa Rica




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Location: Costa Rica

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