Light for trip to Costa Rica

Hey,
My sisters going to Costa Rica for several weeks for an exchange program through her school and I need to get her supplies. I was originally goign to give her a Surefire, but I think the issue of battery availability prevents that from being a choice. What light should I get her. This light needs to be reasonably bright, long output, and waterproof. I'm planning on buying her a bunch of batteries before she leaves, but id like for her to be able to buy them there as well if need be. Thanks

I think a Tec 40 and a Infinity Ultra would do the job.

How about a surge? She can use it with 4AA or 8AA batteries and it's bright as heck. The PT-40 is a nice little light too.

123's will be really hard to come by and expensive if found. She'll do fine with a light that uses AA's (D and C are common too). Where's she headed in Costa Rica? Depending on where she'll be she might need a brighter light than an Infinity. Batteries are cheaper in the US, just ask her to please bring the spent ones back to the US for proper disposal. If she'll be carrying an incan, it might be a good idea to bring spares lamps. PM me and I can provide you with more specific suggestions.

UKE 4AA eLED. Bright enough for most purposes, regulated for very flat output, should run a long time on the worst crap AA batteries. No need for a monster light.

The Infinity Ultra is hard to beat for a light she can always have on her. She can wear it on the lanyard and it's always available. I don't know how her living area will be set up, but people I know like to wear their Infi Ultras while taking showers and for navigation when they get up at night.

The 3xAAA Aurora Headlamps are also used alot for handsfree illumination. For reading at night. For walking along paths and for working in the dark.

That Tec 40 or UK 4AAwould be good for throw and alot of light when she needs it.

4 bottles of DEET. Figure about 2 weeks per bottle to be safe.

if the size is not an issue, you can try the SL TwinTask 3C. It's an all in one, an the led's are a +. It's like having an all in one light.

thanks for all the advice guy s. yeah lol true about the bugspray. i wouldnt want to go. id rather sit in cancun sipping coronas. i think im going to get her a UKE light.

You might consider a solar charger for the AA/AAA batteries. Then she could recharge the batteries instead of getting new ones. They are not that expensive, I've seen them for about $25US.

I believe I have some sources of solar stuff at http://www.geocities.com/csroberts/survival.htm. Look in the Lights section.

Re: bugspray

I went to Belize at the end of June 2003. Being the end of the dry season, the bugs were not really there. The biting ones that is. There were plenty of gnats which flew up your nose or got caught in your eyes, but mosquitos were almost non-existant.

Funny thing was, we were expecting to go swimming in the river at the jungle camp, but it was dry as a bone! Worst dry season in years, they said.

An AA LED light. The Gerber (Infinity) Ultra or the Peak three LED AA would be my choices. The Gerber (Infinity) is cheaper. The Peak LED lights have a removable tail section so they can be removed from a lanyard or keychain easily. The light can be used in candle mode with the end removed.

Also consider a small head lamp, you can usually find a two or three led head lamp at Target. They take AAA batteries but you wouldn't need many extras.

20 or so $1.00 LED key chain lights from CountyComm make sense. Your sister can give some away as gifts.

The Battery Station for Gerber (Infinty) LED lights

Peak

CountyComm

Pt Surge, BD Supernova, Infinity Ultra

Well, this is a school trip, not some expedition into the jungle, and it's for a few weeks, not months or years. So I figure the students will be studying most of the time, and while they may occasionally go on outings they'll still mostly be in civilization and have electricity and stuff like that. So I'd say the same lights appropriate for a non-flashaholic on a school trip in the US are probably perfectly fine here. The stuff about solar chargers and monstrous lights is overkill.

Frankly I'd be comfortable with just an Arc AAA on a trip like this, but if I wanted to bring something brighter, a lithium light like a UKE 2L seems fine. Yeah, getting more batteries could be problematic, but the solution is to just not use it too much. I carried a UKE 2L and a Photon II on various long trips and changed the batteries in the 2L just a couple of times in several years. The 4AA eLED that I suggested above is a nice light, but it's sort of large, and maybe the idea is to minimize the amount of junk being carried.

If you really want to send a bigger flashaholic light, I'd send a 2AA Minimag equipped with an Opalec Newbeam and leave it at that. It's compact, familiar, easy to operate, regulated, bright enough for most purposes, and has very long runtime. The PT Attitude is a possible alternative to the MM/Opalec. The CMG Ultra or Arc AA/AAA are more compact but are more of a nuisance to operate because of their tiny twist bezels. The new Streamlight Jr. 2aa Luxeon light is another interesting alternative, but I haven't seen it yet so I'll wait before personally recommending it.

The suggestion of a bag of CC keychain lights to use as gifts is also excellent.

Chuck, I was in Belize and Guatemala two weeks ago and bugs are a bumper crop this year. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

When traveling in the 3rd World, it's always better to have it and not need it than the other way around. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

belize seems like a wild place i looked it up on google

I wouldn't think of Costa Rica as the third world. More like second world if even that. It has 96% literacy, universal medical coverage, life expectancy over 70 years, 1 telephone per 4 people in the population, etc. It's not at all a primitive part of the world.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cs.html

paul. that is the first place i looked when i heard she was goign there. i wasnt pleased. im a bit overprotective of her i suppose. 20 years old, naieve liberal college student. lol. Shes no push over though, shes real smart, im sure shell be fine. i was relieved to find out that the country wasnt as impoverished as i had thought. she went out unbeknownst to be and bought a petzel tikka headlamp. so thats going to be her main light. she doesnt want one of my many surefires, shes afraid (as am i) that shell loose it. i think i'm going to get her a personal 2 cell led light to go along with her headlamp. another one that also takes AA batteries. i saw a "dorcy LED light" at osh hardware today theres a million different kinds are tehse cheap jump or are they ok?

Costa Rica is in better shape than about all of its neighbors in the isthmus. But it's still Central America.

When were you in Costa Rica, Paul?

The Dorcy lights are an excellent value. They're not built like Surefires, but they're not junk. I don't see the point though. The 2aa model has four 5mm leds and is about the same brightness as the Tikka, so it just seems redundant.

The Tikka is a real nice light and I don't see why it would be any more likely to be lost than a handheld light. Note that it uses AAA's, not AA's.

Really, I think you're worrying too much. She'll be fine with the Tikka. If you want to send a waterproof backup, I think a UKE 2AAA eLED would be fine. It weighs just 1.5 ounces or so, and would go nicely on a neck lanyard under her shirt, so she'd always have it. Alternately, a Photon or similar coin cell light hanging from a belt loop is also very hard to lose. I often carry a Countycomm light that way.

Thanks for pointing this out Paulr. I must say that the country is in better socioeconomic shape than any other country in Central America. That said, if glock_nor_cal's sister ends up in some biological field station, things can get a little rugged for US standards. Being familiar with this type of courses, I would expect all the basic facilities (including electricity, phone, running water, and maybe even Internet access) will be available for her.

glock_nor_cal: She'll do fine with the Tikka for the most part. What kind of school field trip is this? If she's going to be spending her time in any town (as in a cultural-type class), I could argue a flashlight is not a must. However, if she's taking one of those field biology courses or the like, she might end up needing a brighter light in case her group goes on a night hike. If this is the case, she'll definitely need something (way) brighter than the Tikka. She'll have a better chance of spotting nocturnal animals (including poisonous snakes... since you mention being overprotective /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif) with a brighter flashlight.

Anyhoo, I'd stick with any of the AA lights people have suggested here. AA are easy to get in CR. Paulr's observation of a "low key"-looking flashlight is a good one. If she has a fancy-looking light it might get stolen (depending on where she'll be staying). I would not give her a SF unless you give'er spare 123's and lamps.

Offtopic: tell to stay away from San José as much as possible. Not a bad place, but why spend time there when there's so much to see elsewhere?