Travel Missteps: Memorializing Everything

Tourists are criticized for having their camera plastered to their face for their entire trip instead of interacting to the world around them like a normal person. I can attest I’ve been on both sides of this argument, there has been trips I haven’t taken many photos, and other times I’ve returned home with thousands of similar images.

But sometimes the dangers of over-photographing a trip has little to do with missed moments vs lasting visual memories. Sometimes the dangers are very real, from tripping on things you aren’t aware of, stepping out into traffic, or in my case: getting a fractured nose from my own camera.

I had decided to get out of my comfort zone and randomly picked Costa Rica for a trip in 2012. This would be an “Adventure Travel” tour: whitewater rafting, hiking a volcano, kayaking a lake, and zip-lining. It was zip-lining that scared me the most, since I’m afraid of heights. But I knew I couldn’t go to Costa Rica and not do zip-lining so I pushed myself not to chicken out, how bad could it be?

Me, terrified while on a Zipeline

I was terrified. I had this look of extreme horror, wide eyed, lips pressed, jaw locked terror. (I know this now from the many photos and videos the kind people of the zip-lining company provided.) After the first line where you literally jump off a cliff over a river and then through the canopy, I looked around on our little platform for a ladder down just in case if I suddenly decided I was to chicken and found…there wasn’t one. I was in this for the duration of the next 10 zip-lines. I had to remind myself to look around and enjoy the experience. Mentally I know it was amazing to soar above the trees, rivers, and multiple waterfalls, with views of the ocean nearby. But psychologically I was trying to remind myself that I couldn’t cover my eyes with my hands, for this particular zip-line my hands were my breaks.

You see I was wearing leather gloves and you held down on the line to slow/stop yourself (very sketchy). Things were going (terrifyingly) well until it started to pour, making the lines so much slicker. The last line is the longest and the fastest, going through the canopy, over a river, and over two waterfalls. We were told when you see water to use both hands to break, instead of the one we were using before. What I didn’t consider was I had been filming the zip-lines by tethering my camera to left hand since I was breaking with my right. I had been filming the zip-lines because I wanted to prove that I did it, and also have time to enjoy it later when I was on firm ground.

So while on the last zip-line I’m going much faster than before due to the slicked up, I can see the rain fall off in strange patterns as I zip along it. When I see the river I grab the line with my right hand, and then bring up my left hand, the momentum bring along the camera that hits me right on the nose, 1, 2, 3, 4 times. I feel the impact of the speed hit me in the helmet too, and I knock myself out for a moment, completely letting go and hurdling towards the platform…and the tree the line is tied to. I think “I’m going to die, the tree is coming closer and closer…” and then I grab with both hands again, hitting me one final time in the head before I see the guide step out and stop me with his body. He goes flying but I am saved. I unhook the line and his wide eyes tell me something is wrong. I then see massive amounts of blood streaming down my face and note that my camera has gone “black” to do extreme shock. But then we hear the whirling of another soul coming down the line too quickly, so the guide goes to work while I walk up to the office.

Shocks sets in, and I cannot breath or talk, and I look horrible. At this point I’m just glad I’ve lived through zip-lining. After what seemed like an eternity I’m cleaned up, and breathing normally. I have a few nasty cuts on the nose (thank god it didn’t hit my eye), a concision, and possibly fractured nose. And amazingly enough my “tough” camera not only survived, but filmed most of the encounter. Enjoy the views, see the terror in my eyes and experience the accident first hand.

So while both me and my camera survived this with just a few scars, I learned a valuable lesson about not photographing or filming the entirety of my vacations.

Travel Missteps