In addition to all of the photos from Speyside and Glasgow, I also put together a short little video of our trip. It was my second time filming video footage with the DJI Mavic Pro! (Other clips are from the GoPro and my point-and-shoot.) Hope you like it!
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Chris and I spent last weekend soaking up as much time out of the house as we could, enjoying the spectacular display of fall colors that Virginia puts on every year. I snapped this photo with my Mavic Pro after finding this spot on a drive out west.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus
Back on August 28, 2017, my sister and I finalized our plans for a week-long trip to St. John in June 2018 by putting a deposit down on a beautiful two-bedroom Coral Bay villa. I was thrilled that I would finally get to show my beach-loving sister and brother-in-law one of my favorite little island spots in the world! We all had a wonderful time on Vieques together and it was high time we took another trip.
Two days after our booking, a tropical storm started to form that would later evolve into Category 5 Hurricane Irma on track to bring catastrophic devastation to several of the Virgin Islands. We watched helplessly from our homes on the mainland as satellite images and news footage showed Irma pummeling down on one of my favorite spots in paradise.
After the storm settled and details of the destruction began to spread across our news sources, my sister and I wondered if we might not be able to keep our travel plans to visit St. John, even as far out as our trip was scheduled. Ideally we still wanted to visit, especially if it helped in any way by putting tourism dollars back into St. John’s economy, but we also wondered if the island’s infrastructure would be ready for tourists and/or if we would be a burden at that point.
We decided to wait and see, and as it turned out we received news in October that our rental villa was completely unscathed and as the trip approached, our flight itineraries stayed the same even though many travelers even up through late spring were facing canceled flights. With everything luckily in place for us, off to Love City we went!
As per usual, a rental Jeep provided our transportation around the island for the week. First things first, we headed to our villa to get settled. We didn’t encounter any issues at all driving around the island. Roads were clear, even on the quieter Coral Bay side, and we only noticed a pile of cable in the street closer to the villa. Downed trees and debris have been completely cleared. Of course, that’s not to say we didn’t see other signs of destruction, but a little more on that in the next post.
You can see a small sample of Irma’s aftermath in the photo below. The foliage surrounding the villa and on the hillside is quite bare. Some trees fared well, but a large percentage on the island were completely stripped during the high winds of the storm. It buoyed my spirits, though, to see new leaves growing and baby trees here and there already popping up. Nature has been hard at work over the last several months healing itself.
Somehow this villa managed to come out of the hurricane untouched by Irma. We noticed the home next door undergoing some repairs, but our villa didn’t seem to have even a shutter out of place. The beautiful landscaping looked healthy, and we even spotted a critter or two scurrying around outside. (And a spider or two inside, but thankfully I had three other people to help remove them when needed.)
The villa is named All About the View, and you can see why. This side of the island provides an unparalleled view of Caribbean islands (including the BVIs!) as far as the eye can see.
Somehow I completely missed taking any images of the villa’s interior, so the four images below are courtesy of the listing on vrbo.com. The perfect size for two couples, this villa has two master bedrooms and two bathrooms – one of each on the main level and the lower level. The kitchen provided everything we needed (well, except a can opener so no huevos rancheros for us, womp womp) to prepare a few meals at home and sandwiches for the beach. The cozy living room area was a good hang-out spot for the four of us even though we didn’t have use of the TV. This house is not hooked up for cable or satellite yet, but we were perfectly happy without it.
So that’s where we stayed for the week! If you’re a couple, two couples, or small family looking for a place to stay on St. John, I definitely recommend All About the View. It’s not always easy to find a smaller villa that also has a pool, so thankfully this fit the bill for us. And I think they’ve probably replaced the can opener by now.
In the next post, we explore the island, head to the beaches, and eat/drink at as many restaurants as possible. Stay tuned!
Speaking of flying a drone in Honduras, I also took some video with the DJI Mavic Pro! (And also the GoPro and my point-and-shoot.) Granted, I’m still learning about video filming and editing, and I’m definitely still learning to shoot video with a drone, but I’m pretty excited about how this little video turned out.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!
Our trip to Honduras in April was my first opportunity to travel with the DJI Mavic Pro since I purchased it, so I thought I’d write a little bit about the process of traveling with a drone and share some of the images I took with it. (All photos in this post are from my trusty little Mavic.)
I actually bought the drone before we left for our trip to Peru last summer, but I didn’t yet feel confident about flying it at home let alone in another country, so I decided not to bring it despite all of the amazing photo opportunities we would have had with it. And then our next trip after that was to New York, where my understanding is that drones are pretty much a no-no in the entire city. The whole reason I settled on the DJI Mavic Pro, though, was for its highly portable design, so I’ve been itching to take it somewhere scenic. Enter Roatan, Honduras!
So my first order of business before packing the drone was to research the country-specific guidelines and laws for entering the country with a drone and for flying an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. I have no interest in breaking any rules and ending up starring in an episode of Locked Up Abroad. I’m a very law-abiding traveler.
Simply doing a search on “drone laws Honduras” provided enough sources to verify their general drone laws, such as not flying over people or large crowds, respecting people’s privacy, and stay out of areas like airports and military facilities. We follow their same guidelines here in the United States plus some additional laws, so after some thorough reading I felt comfortable packing the Mavic in my carry-on camera bag and heading off to Honduras.
Law review, check. Next up: general safety. The Mavic operates on Lithium-ion Polymer batteries and since they can (very rarely!) be hazardous, I purchased a LiPo safety bag and port covers for extra safe transport of the batteries. For anyone wanting to travel with a drone, keep in mind that LiPo batteries are not allowed to be packed in your checked baggage, so you’ll need to plan to carry them on with you. The fire resistant safety bag keeps the batteries contained if they should short-circuit and spark. I also read that the batteries travel best if they’re partially or mostly discharged, so I let them drain before the trip.
Going through security at our airport, Dulles International, was a breeze, or at least as much as it can be these days. I took my Mavic out of my bag along with my other electronics that are larger than a cell phone, and everything cleared the security process with no issues. And just a quick note on going through security, Chris and I have been using CLEAR for almost two years and we absolutely love it. We’ve never had to wait in line, and that gives me plenty of extra time to unload my electronics for the x-ray and re-pack afterward. If you sign up through my link, you’ll receive two months free (and I will, too)!
When we arrived on Roatan, we didn’t have to do any paperwork or processing on the drone like I’ve heard some other countries require. For instance, in Peru you need to apply in advance to receive approval and there is a tax assessed and charged that gets refunded as you exit the country. Bringing the Mavic to Roatan was easy breezy! But since drone laws are constantly evolving, we’ll check the laws again if/when we return to Honduras someday in case anything has changed.
Our rental villa in Camp Bay was the perfect spot to practice flying without disturbing a soul. The last thing I want (besides breaking laws) is to make anyone feel like I’m being a creepy spy, or to bother people with the noise. Once the Mavic is up in the air you can’t hear it, but the take-off is a little loud.
We even had plenty of time and resources to get a little creative with the aerial photos. I had a version of the image below in my head ever since we planned this trip and I had a blast executing my vision! Now I just need to learn how to take images with the Mavic on a self timer so I don’t have to be holding the controls.
This area just down the beach from our rental home was also a fantastic spot to fly. We had the beach all to ourselves one afternoon! I’ll never get over how gorgeous it was from all angles – on the ground and from the air up above, Camp Bay is simply stunning.
I’m really looking forward to traveling with the Mavic more in the future! I also brought it with me on a recent trip to St. John, USVI, with no issues at all and those posts are coming soon. If you are a drone pilot and have any good travel tips or recommendations, please let me know in the comments or send me an email!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!