So the week of August 18 found me in Costa Rica… a business trip to train some new team members. It was quite exciting for two reasons: 1) it was my first time to Costa Rica (or anywhere south of the Rio Grande); 2) it was my first business trip.

Guess what? The second first largely cancelled out the first first, but it was still very enjoyable.

The weather? Beautiful. It’s winter in Costa Rica, their rainy season. It rained just before I got there, then was upper 60s to lower 80s, then rained a tiny bit high in the mountains on the way to see the volcano and the waterfall park on our last day.

The food? Magnificent. I went off my vegetarian diet for the entirety of the trip, and feasted on seafood: salmon, sea bass, tilapia, mussels, oysters, clams, lobster, shrimp, octopus, and maybe more. And that in addition to mountains of fresh, tropical fruits and delicious vegetables. One of my favorites: stewed sweet plantains from the Equifax cafeteria, and tamarind refrescos naturales (aka ‘aguas frescas’ in Mexican Spanish) (and pardon my spelling, por favor).

The people? Friendly, cheerful, helpful, and considerate, and the new team members are smart and eager.

Alas, I was busy working and didn’t get out much to shoot, so most of the 7/52 this week is from the airplane or at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, a sort of zoo/nature park thing. We did take the last half day off, and Willis (the team leader down there) drove us up to see the La Poás volcano and aforementioned waterfall park. I ran the camera and the phone out of batteries before really getting to the end of the hike, and got very little worth sharing.

Sadly, for some reason, the LX7 decided to overexpose everything by about 3 stops, despite being set to -1 EV. I’m not sure what went wrong… probably my failure to adjust the aperture or turn on the ND filter…

And I have to say, my heart wasn’t really in it… I’m getting married this coming Thursday (!!!!!!!),* trying to find a place to live for the fiancé/wife and I, trying to get the new work process set and all the people trained, and I’m sure I’m forgetting about 57 things… Life is so wonderfully busy right now that I really don’t have much time for or interest in shooting. In fact, given all the stuff going on at work, I should be working or at least cleaing the apartment right now instead of blathering on…

Everything was shot with the LX7 or iPhone. I did shoot some Hipstamatic down there, but those are in separate posts. Most of the LX7 shots got some amount of post work; most of the iPhone pics didn’t. EXIF is in the lightbox, if you care.

*You’re probably asking yourself why I waited so long to mention it… Well. I don’t really have an answer at present. I’m working on a short story or book about the whole thing, so maybe an answer will come out there… maybe I’ll blog it in episodes or something.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your congratulations! Pics of the wedding and bride and more details will be forthcoming.

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