Tag: Belize

AKASO EK7000 Action Camera Review

On June 3, 2019

While our recent cruise wasn’t a photography-centric trip, I can’t travel without taking pictures. If I don’t have pictures, I don’t have content to share with you! Since we were planning on snorkeling and river tubing, I knew I wanted a camera that I could get wet. I considered getting one of those underwater cases for my iPhone, but those don’t protect against dropping it underwater and I really didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars replacing my phone, I began searching for inexpensive waterproof cameras.

After hours of searching Amazon and technology review sites, I found the AKASO EK7000. It is a small, GoPro sized, action camera that came with more accessories than I know what to do with! I think one of them is supposed to be a helmet clip but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to put it together. It has wifi so it can connect to your phone to share your pictures/videos on social media and supposedly it shoots 4K video. This camera is ridiculously highly rated on Amazon so for less than $50 I decided to pull the trigger.

Once the camera arrived, I understood all of the 5 star reviews, and its not because of quality. In the box with the camera was a sheet with several accessory packages you can get for free if you show proof of a 5 star rating on Amazon. Right there, that made me incredibly skeptical of this tiny camera’s performance. I played with it in the house for a little bit before we left, but I wish I would’ve messed around with it a little more (this is a lesson for purchasing any new camera gear, really). While snorkeling, I couldn’t figure out how to put it in photo mode as opposed to video mode. Afterwards, I realized it had date stamped all of my photos with the factory date of June 2000, which really messed up Lightroom when I imported the photos when I got home. After getting back to the room, I was able to figure all of that out, but it would’ve been nice to focus on taking pictures while snorkeling as opposed to just working the camera.

Once I stopped panicking about getting out of video mode, I realized that I could pull still images out of the videos so I was able to get some usable shots. This camera did perform pretty well underwater (top), but when it came to taking daylight shots (above), it didn’t do so hot. And lets not even mention the photos that I took inside the cave. My iPhone 7 takes MUCH better pictures than this. The videos did seem to come out better, though. AKASO claims that with the waterproof housing, it doesn’t record sound, but if you watch these, you’ll see that that’s not exactly true. Is that sound 100% clear and articulate? No, but it is nice to capture some of ambient sound. Watch the videos below to see how this camera handles video. And just a reminder, I’m a photographer, not a videographer!

Overall, I think this camera is worth its $50 price tag. Does it perform like the GoPros that are priced 6x+ higher? Of course not! But for capturing vacation memories and not having to worry about accidentally damaging your phone, I think its worth it! Click here for more information about this camera.

Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.

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Wordless Wednesday: Belize Sign

By Ashleigh

On May 8, 2019

In Cruise, Travel, Wordless Wednesday

Harvest Caye: A Day at the Beach

By Ashleigh

On May 6, 2019

In Cruise, Travel

With 4 port days in a row on this cruise, we knew we were going to need a day to just sit back and relax. Harvest Caye, Norwegian’s new private island off the coast of Belize, was the perfect port for that!

Like many private islands, Harvest Caye is full of beach chairs. They also rent kayaks, paddle boards, and small boats that you can take around the lagoon. They also have a zip line that is housed in a lighthouse (above). You can see Macaws and Toucans as well as butterflies and Belizean flora in the nature center. I had never seen a Toucan before so that was pretty cool. They also offer a ferry to mainland Belize (Placencia) for guests to do excursions on their own or arranged through the ship. One way that Harvest Caye is different from Great Stirrup Caye, Norwegian’s other private island in the Bahamas, is that the ship docks at the island so you don’t have to take a tender in. Because of this, you can go back to the ship to get food and drinks. Your ship card does not work on Harvest Caye.

One thing I had heard about Harvest Caye before sailing is to be careful in the beach because jellyfish are prevalent. The purple flag in the photo on the right means dangerous marine life is present, so I stayed out of the water. If you want to avoid jellyfish, Harvest Caye also has a pool. The chairs fill up fast though, so if you want a spot around the pool, get there early. Since we had a $50 per port shore excursion credit, on Harvest Caye we were able to rent a clamshell on the beach for free. It was a nice way to have a designated, shady spot on the beach.

Harvest Caye was very much like what a Caribbean cruise port would look like if it was designed by Americans. Everything was very clean. There were no pushy salespeople. The restaurants are all a part of the Margaritaville brand. There’s nothing wrong with this. Its just very inauthentic. Would I seek out another cruise with a stop at Harvest Caye? Probably not. But, I enjoyed our day here as a way to relax and spend time in the tropical sunshine!

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Wordless Wednesday: River Rocks

By Ashleigh

On May 1, 2019

In Cruise, Travel, Wordless Wednesday

Cave Tubing in Belize

By Ashleigh

On April 29, 2019

In Cruise, Travel

While planning our cruise, I was really torn with what to do with our stop in Belize City. All of the options were very outdoorsy or consisted of laying on the beach. I knew we were planning to relax the next day when we were at Harvest Caye, so I really wanted to get out there and explore the Belizean jungle. Cave tubing seemed like the perfect way to do that, so we booked it through ShoreExcursioneer.com to save a little money.

Belize City is a tender port, meaning there is no dock so to get ashore, people have to take smaller boats, called tenders, to take them from the ship to the cruise terminal. For whatever reason, it took a while to get the tenders started but we followed the directions on our ticket and took the first tender off the ship. Once we made it to land we went inside the shopping area, called the tourism village, to meet our tour. We were only the second group in line for our tour when we headed out to the buses.

After a little bit of drama with broken seats and another bus filling up and heading out, we made the hour long drive to the Nohech Che’en Archeological Preserve. During the drive our guide, Barry, told us a lot about the Belizean culture and the economy.

Once we made it, we got our life jackets and helmets and began a short walk through the jungle with many stops along the way to check out the local flora. I was excited to finally get in the water and begin our journey through the caves. Our other guide, Carlos, was handy with the flashlight, pointing out formations in the caves and telling us about the history. The water was moving very slow and frequently our guides had to get out of their tubes and pull us or swim to keep the group moving. It was kind of a strange experience, almost like being pulled by a human horse.

The ancient Mayans believed that the caves were the entrance to the underworld, called Xibalba or Place of Fright (MyBelizeExperience) and after floating through them, it is understandable why they thought that. It was a little eerie! I was glad I had my headlamp to see the cave formations and several bats.

After we got out of the water, they took us back to their office area where they had lunch of beans and rice, a Belizean specialty, waiting for us. Af this point, we were cutting it close to making it back to the port for the last tender. In the end, we made it back 15 minutes early. We didn’t have time to shop like some people were hoping, but I was just glad we didn’t miss the ship!

Overall, I am very glad we did this excursion. It was unlike anything else I’ve ever done! If you are cruising to Belize City, I highly recommend you check it out! To read more about our cruise, click here. Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.

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