GoPro session

I like making films.

Making movies has always been one of my dreams, and something I still strive to do (if you couldn’t tell by looking at the site).

I got the bug when I bought a GoPro for one of my ex girlfriends. I was more interested in the camera than she was I think. We took it on a trip and I started using it more than she did. Ultimately though, I ended up losing access to it and the dream stalled for a while.

For my birthday last year, Nova got me a new GoPro Hero 3 White for our trip to the Dominican Republic and the fire to make more movies got stoked again.  While we didn’t have too much footage from that trip, I was able to use it down the road when I went on a body boarding trip to Cabo.

I really liked the little rugged camera, I took it on all the trips I went on.  I attached to #KuteKimber my step-dog when we went to the dog park.

 

But the craving didn’t stop.  I wanted more cameras.  I wanted higher resolution cameras, and I wanted a deal.

Then GoPro came out with the GoPro HERO Session.

 

This little camera was so cool and forward thinking it seemed like to me.  I really wanted to get it, but it cost waaaaaaaay too much.  Eventually, the camera dropped in price, I had some coupons from shopkick (get gift cards and free stuff for just going into stores and scanning bar codes), ibotta (easy online coupons), and Best Buy reward zone points and I got the price down to about $150 before tax.  With a trip coming up, I figured this would be as good a time as any to add to my camera collection.

I’m very glad I did.  This little camera is definitely the future of action cameras.  The little cube can attach to all the old GoPro mounts and harnesses that I had for the old camera, but is much smaller and lighter.  When ziplining and repelling, I would have forgotten that it was there if I hadn’t been so worried about trying to get some good shots.

The video quality is pretty great as well.  The camera has a feature called ProTune that I wasn’t really all that knowledgable about at the time.  ProTune actually kind of mutes the colors so that Pros can go in and apply filters better.  The idea here is that Pros can get the kind of shot they want and alter it without worrying too much about destroying the colors and other things.

For me, turning Pro Tune off for now made things much more vibrant.  The image looks really good, the Session can record up 1080p at 60 frames a second, which is what I default the camera on my iPhone too.  The video from my iPhone 6S plus is better and can even be bumped up to 4k video, but I don’t want to take my phone on a zip line.    It would be much easier to part with the $200 GoPro if I were to break it or lose it than my phone.

The Camera seems to be very rugged.  I know the front lens is replaceable if something were to scratch, but I haven’t had any issues to-date.  I have dropped it, taken it repelling, ziplining, cave diving, body surfing, and bike riding so far and no damage.

One of the things I really like about this camera over other GoPros is that it has sound!  Most of the other GoPros are confined to a hard plastic case which also covers the microphones.  This causes the audio in those recordings to be muffled and have to really crank the volume up in post production to understand anything.  The Session though, doesn’t need a case.  The entire thing is rugged and waterproof as is.  The microphones don’t get covered up and you can actually hear things.  Sometimes, that can cause itself, like the buzzing of the cable when ziplining, or the water flowing in and out of the speak when diving.  I’m not sure these are problems that can be solved, but the people at these companies are much smarter than me.

My only real complaint about the Session is another thing I’m not sure they can solve.  A few videos we took at the beach or in the pool were sometimes ruined by drops of water on the lens when transitioning from underwater to above water.  Again, this is not something I think can be really solved, but there definitely people smarter than me that probably know for sure.

As far as taking this little guy on vacation, I think it’s perfect.  It’s very small and rugged (as I’ve mentioned a lot) so it will travel well.  It has mounts so you can attach anywhere for any activity.  I attached mine to a floaty handle for most of its use.  It lets you hold it up and it will float if you lose it in water.

One drawback people might have with the GoPro cameras in general is that it doesn’t have a viewfinder.  I actually like that aspect somewhat.  While I have lost a cool shot or too, I’d rather have the compact size than the screen.  If you are not in a rush or in a situation where damage be a possibility, you can connect your smart phone to the camera through wifi and bluetooth to see what the camera is seeing, or even start the recording from a distance.

The iPhone app is pretty useful if not slow, because it allows you to see through the camera lens, watch recorded video, or even trim the videos up.  Trimming a video down can take a while though, so be prepared to wait.  The best way to edit the video you’ve taken would probably be to upload the footage to a computer through the SD card and edit it on there.

Overall

I think the GoPro Hero 4 session is a great travel camera.  Its small and can fit in some tighter spots.  The quality is pretty good for such a small camera.  For the price it is currently sitting at, I think it’s cheap enough where you wont have to worry about it breaking, even though it is rugged enough to take a beating.

If you already have a GoPro hero 4 silver or black, I think you are set unless you want something smaller that can record better sound.

I really enjoy mine, and I hope to keep using it to make more videos on our travels.

Here is a link to my latest video: Jarrva in the jungle

 

 

 

 

 

Valentin Review

I am not an expert traveler by any means. Not yet.  I’m working on that.  However, I have been to a few resorts around Central America. So far out of the seven resorts I have been too, The Valentin Imperial Maya so far has been my favorite. Everything about the place exuded class and charm. In fact, this is the first place I’ve been to that I really want to go back to. 

The grounds

The first thing anyone would notice about the resort would be the grounds. The resort was just off the main highway from the airport. It was a short little drive, maybe 35 minutes from airport to front desk, so that wasn’t all that bad.  As soon as the van we were in turned into the resort, there was an audible “oh wow,” from the others.

The grounds look amazing.  There are beautiful flowers, well taken care of paths, and the beach was swept and taken care of.  All in all, it was top notch.

I would highly recommend taking one of the bike tours around the resort.  While you are riding a bike, it wasn’t too taxing and it allows you to see parts of the grounds that you wouldn’t normally see.  With the grounds comes the wildlife as well. 

The wildlife never got in our way, I want to get that out of the way first.  On the bike tour, we got to see an alligator on the grounds.  Apparently there are two.  For a second I was afraid they had set a trap for us (Clever Girl), but we were in a large group on the driveway up to the lobby when we found it down in revine, so there wasn’t any reason to be scared.  Plus, the alligator was only 2-3 feet long, and just a baby.   

The Coat

The coolest animal to me was the coati.  It is a cross between a raccoon and an dog.  They would come out at night on the paths around the resort.  Again, I never felt like I was in danger or anything.  The Coati were freakin’ cute anyway.  They were like a cool little treat at night to see. 

Please remember that the animals are wild.  Be smart, and don’t try to touch them or chase them. 

The area the resort covers is very vast.  Luckily, there are paved paths that connect all the buildings, and plenty of signs and shade all over.  The paths were well taken care of, and pass by some cool things to look at like the pool, or a marsh. 

If walking isn’t your thing, and who would really want to on vacation?  They have carts that you can request come pick you up and take you places on the grounds.  Or as we called it: El Ubero

All told, they grounds were awesome.  It definitely felt tropical, and cool, and upper class but not snooty. 

Rooms

While we only saw one type of room, it was one of the up-sell rooms with a beach view, the room was pretty amazing.  The bed was big and spacious, there was a large flat screen TV for at night while we were going to bed.  Our room also had a couch, which didn’t really get much use, and there was minibar that got stocked daily.  The all inclusive part of it let us get things out for free as much as we wanted. 

The bath room was all tile and it was gorgeous.  When entering the restroom part, you enter to a double sink and mirror section.  The resort provided soaps, shampoos, and lotions and they all smelled really good.  To the left was a closed off section for the toilet and bidet.  To the right of the sink were the shower and bath.  The shower was a dual head system.  One head had some pressure, while the other was rain shower that trickled down.  

I want to make a couple of notes here.  We assumed that every room would have a hairdryer so Nova didn’t pack one.  Our room did not have one though, and we requested one, but it took a very long time (45 minutes to an hour) to get it.  Another night, we had an investation of ants, but we called about it when we saw it, and they came and took care of it while we were gone.

The bath was more of a jacuzzi.  While we did try to use it once, it took forever to fill.  Around the bathtub, the wall turned into a one way window.  There was plenty of privacy looking in, and looking out you could see the beach.  It was very romantic.  The windows also opened if that’s your thing as well. 

Outside the room on our balcony were two comfortable outdoor chairs, a side table, and a hammock.  This was probably the best part of the room.  The view of our room (because of the upgrade) looked right out onto the beach and the ocean, but it still felt very secluded. 

The Beach

A quick walk down to the beach, and it was a little bit of a disappointment.  While the area was well taken care of, and there were cabana and chairs for the people that upgraded to the beach view room, the beach itself was rocky in this area.  There wouldn’t be a way to get into the water really here.  A short 5 minute walk down the beach however, afforded the beach goer a pretty nice beach.  But the view from the room more than made up for the section of beach there.

View from our room

The sand was never too hot, and there were plenty of cabana’s but most were a walk away if you didn’t get there early enough.  They had a sand volleyball pit roped off, and daily organized games.  The sand merged into the beach after a ways, and it can be a bit steep to get to the water, however it isn’t bad, or difficult to get to it.  The water was very clear and blue, with a pretty heavy riptide. 

Strong swimmers wouldn’t have any problem, but weak swimmers would want to use caution.  The waves weren’t large or clean enough to really surf on either, but fun to jump into and try to body surf a little.  The swimming area is also roped off so that no one goes too far out. 

The resort did have vendors walking up and down the beach, but they very rarely came and interacted with you.  A quick shake of the head, usually kept them off for a while.  The waiters on the other hand were very welcomed.  There were a handful of guys that would walk up and down the rows of cabana’s cleaning up and taking drink orders.  They were always friendly and delivered drinks.  The only problem was with how much area they had to cover and the time between order and deliver that would cause.  Again, it was only a minor headache.

The Pools

If the beach isn’t your cup of tea, (why would you come to a beach resort?) there were also a few pool options.  The main pool was giant, with plenty going on.  This pool had two swim up bars a good distance from each other, a water volleyball area, some lounge in the pool areas, and some water features.  The entertainment team would often have dancing and music going on here, and some lunch options were provided. 

There was a smaller pool that was quieter and close to the main pool, and there was also a pool that had a lazy river attached.  We didn’t spend much time at either of these pools, but the time we did spend was pleasant.  The lazy river was close to one of the snack bars, which allowed you to order food when you wanted, and the sm

The Foam party

aller pool was nice for relaxing away from the beating heart of the main pool.

 

The only complaint I had about the pool, and this seems to be a common complaint at resorts:  the seating would go fast.  That being said, there was still lots of seating provided, it just went quickly.

Food

Breakfast and lunch were handled mostly by a buffet.  The food on the buffet was really good quality food, and you could have as many trips as you’d like.  At breakfast, everything was laid out in a way that kept like things together, like waffles and pancakes were next to each other, etc.  There was also someone making omelets, and fresh egg dishes like scrambled or fried. 

At the lunch buffet though, the buffet was a little more confusing.  I had to hit three different tables in three different zones to make a hamburger.  I wasn’t really sure why things were separated so much, however, it didn’t impact the overall quality of the food.  We only ate at the lunch buffet once during the week as well, so I’m not sure if it was just the day or what. 

The lunch buffet was not the only option though.  Every day there was an outdoor location, by one of the bars that served food.  There was also the snack bar.  All resort food, but it was some of the best resort food I’ve tasted before. 

Dinner was different though, and I liked the difference.  This resort had multiple restaurants which to choose from at night.  During our stay we ate at the Mexican, Thai, Japanese, and French, and there were at least two others that we didn’t get to eat at.  I know there was a steak house, but I don’t remember what the others would be. 

Sunset at the Mexican restaurant

These dinner restaurants have an a la carte menu, but being an all inclusive, you can order all you want.  The menus are all divided by starters, salads and soups, main courses, and dessert.  While the portions seem same, they were enough to fill me up (and I’m a pretty big guy). 

The French place was actually my favorite of all that we went too.  I got a fillet mignon that was one of the best cuts of steak I’ve ever had before, but really nothing disappointed.  Every place had a great selection of proteins (fish, steak, or chicken) and sides.  It all seemed expertly made, and was a very fresh change from the prepackaged and warmed up food that we see in the USA all the time.

The food

One note I want to make that I never saw in all my research: Men are expected to wear pants to the restaurants.  I had no idea, and luckily I packed away a pair of khaki pants that got worn ever night.  So men, bring some nice dress up clothes if you are eating here.

The drinks at the resort were also great.  They didn’t confine those on the all inclusive plan to the cheap stuff.  I was able to order top shelf drinks and watch them be prepared right in front of me.  The cups that were used were also bigger than most of the other resorts I’ve been too as well.  While I didn’t notice any resort special drinks, they had a great selection of stuff.  We never stumped a bartender with our order.  I’d like to recommend a Dirty Monkey if you’ve never had one.  Every resort seems to make it a little different, and this was one of my favorite versions ever.  Wine and drink didn’t stop at dinner either. 

Entertainment

Finally, I want to highlight the entertainment at the resort.  I’ve already mentioned the entertainment team earlier in the review.  For those that have never been to a resort with an entertainment team, these are the guys that are out at the resort from sun up to sun down making sure that you have the chance to be entertained.  They would do this by running games, playing music, pulling people up to dance, etc.

There seemed to be four or five members of the team during our stay.  They were all very nice and active.  Marco was our tour guide on our bike tour.  He was humorous, and very talkative.  He genuinely wanted everyone to have fun.  He answered every question that was thrown at him.  He was the one we interacted with the most, but there were others.  The ladies of the squad were very good about grabbing people that seemed to want to interact and leaving those that didn’t alone. 

We witnessed a belly dancer, belly dancing lessons, and a belly dancing competition one of the days we were there.  They did a really good job of making sure that everyone was comfortable and having fun and not just being made fun of. 

At the end of the day, the entertainment team would pass the torch so to say to the entertainment of the night.  Every night the resort would put on some sort of show.  We got to witness a great variety of shows from acrobatics to musical.  Most were great.  The acrobatics we saw during the first night were incredible and highly entertaining, as well as the Mexican night with the mariachi bend.  The leader of the band put on a show pretty much by himself by interacting with the audience, starting a conga line, and the like.  We also caught the end of a fire show which was pretty cool, since they were playing with fire.  We sadly finished up our trip on a sour note though.  The Elvis show they had was pretty bad.  We stayed for maybe ten minutes and then had to leave it was so bad.  I’m not sure if it was an off night, or what, but “Elvis” was just mumbling words and stroking the chins of the older ladies in the crowd.  Not a fan.

The shows

Before the nightly shows and after, the resort had bands in the main square of the resort playing music.  All the bands were very different, there was a blues band, a reggae band, and some pop music played.  All the bands were very good, and really got the (sometimes too rowdy) crowd going. 

There was always something going at this resort, and there was never a dull moment.

Other Stuff

There really isn’t much else to say.  Sometimes in the square there would be local vendors trying to sell knick knacks.  They weren’t harassing anyone that I could see, and they didn’t really approach us. 

I will say that this was an adults only resort, and it definitely felt like it.  We were one of the youngest couples there it felt like.  The resort definitely was filled with folks 50+ years of age at the time (March and Spring break time), however we never felt too out of place, just part of the minority.

All told, this was my favorite place that I’ve ever been too.  The place was beautiful and had a great mix of active and relaxing.  The beach had some waves and a beautiful place to relax.  There was always something going on.  And the food was great.  I’d definitely come back here; but I’d probably bring more friends to experience it with.

The end

Thank you

Thanks to all who have visited the site so far. I hope you’ve enjoyed our world travel. There is more to come, and if you have any ideas that you’d like to see, please let me know. 

Just a little sneak peak at things to come though: I’m going to do a full review of the resort we stayed at during our last Mexico trip, I’m going to review my GoPro hero session and how it can help you on your trips, and I’m going to be giving some insight into some of the things in this great city of Houston, where I currently live. 

I’m also hoping that Nova will start writing about her travels soon. She recently went on a cruise with her friends, and I’m sure they have some stories to tell. 

We also have a couple of trips coming up in the next few months. We are going to travel to East Texas for a family reunion this coming weekend, as well a Austin/Gruene trip at the end of May, and then we head to Seattle for a week the first of summer. 

My real job, for those that don’t know me is a tennis coach/ teacher. I’ve been pretty tied up with tennis all semester, but our season is over, so I’m hoping I can start committing to writing and traveling more now. 
Thanks for reading, and see you soon. 

Day 5

Well this is it.

The trip is over. 

We slowly woke up, and started to stir.  Neither of us wanting to face what was coming.  We started to gather the last of the things we had out, things we hadn’t packed away.  We scoured the room to make sure that we didn’t leave anything of importance.  Satisfied that we had everything packed and ready, we called reluctantly for El Ubero.  It came rather quickly, and the bellboy grabbed our suitcases and drove us up to the front where we were given a ticket.  They would hold our bags until we left.

With that accomplished, we headed off to our last breakfast.  I stuffed myself full of waffles and sugary delights, since I would be trying to get back on the healthy kick when we got back.  With breakfast consumed, we walked the grounds heading for the beach for one last  time. 

We wandered down the beach, hand in hand, until we got to about the same spots as yesterday.  We put our stuff on our chairs and walked across to the water for one last time.  We stuck our feet in the sand. 

The water was cool as always.  We wrote our names in the sand, and took a bunch of photos as if we didn’t want the experience to end.  We made our way back to the cabana where our stuff was and sat down.  I stared out at the water for a while, Nova grabbed the last bit of caribbean sun she could.  Eventually she fell asleep, and I started to work on thing on my phone.   

The entire time, I was sure that our shuttle to the airport was scheduled for 10:40 AM.  I had the number in my head since the rep had given us our ticket and told us when it was supposed to pick us up.  So I let Nova sleep until about 10 and then we started to make our way back to check out.  I wanted to give us time to get a last minute drink, check out, and not feel rushed.

We ordered a final dirty monkey and took the last pictures.  We checked out without a problem in just minutes and headed to the driveway.  Nova needed to stop for a minute, but I went on ahead. 

Once there, I found out that I had been dumb.  Our shuttle had just left without us.  I checked the ticket we had and sure enough the scheduled time had been for 10:20.  They had waited for ten minutes for us and left.  We had missed the shuttle by 3 minutes.  I was ashamed and upset.  Now we were going to have to take a taxi to the airport and that would cost $40.  I will say that the bellboy that told me all this was a bit sassy about it, but it could have just been that my pride was hurt. 

At least in the taxi, we wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to sit next to each other.  We rode got in the taxi and headed for the airport.  It was a pretty silent drive, neither of us wanting to leave things behind. 

We got to and through the airport with no problem.  The flight home was pretty easy, not nearly as much turbulence as the way there.  I took a little nap for a moment.  The only little bit of an issue was that Nova had packed her headphones in her checked bag so we had to figure out a way to watch a movie on the iPad. 

Customs was a breeze as well.  It all took about 20 minutes and then we were on our shuttle back to the Spot parking. 

This was by far one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.  I enjoyed every bit of it.  The only  thing I would change is extend the length of the trip (which I almost did on accident since we missed the shuttle), and I would go explore more.  Maybe we should have taken the shuttle to Playa del Carmen or Cancun.  Next trip, I want to explore more, and I’m going to make a point to do it. 

Valentin was a great hotel, the location was awesome, the food and drink were great, I’d highly recommend it to anyone!

Getting started

We are getting off to a slower start than anticipated.  I’m hoping to have some stuff going everyday starting next week.  Check back often, but until then you have our movie trailer to tide you over!  Check it out below

Jarrva In Paradise: Part Deux

Hello world!

Hello world! 

It’s time to introduce this place to the world. 
Jarrva World Wide is going to be the center for all our traveling adventures!  I’m Jarrett and along with my beautiful and amazing travel partner and girlfriend I love to travel the world. Mostly to beautiful beaches, but all experiences are good right?

Here we’ll tell about our adventures on our trips, give advice for people trying to travel more, and other things as they pop up. 
Check back frequently and please feel free to share our work here and give any tips you guys have!