so im heading to costa rica for 3 weeks and obviously bringing the mini 4 pro. ive been reading conflicting stuff about whether you need permits or not. some sites say DGAC registration, some say its fine for tourists under certain weight limits. honestly cant figure out which is current info and which is outdated.

mainly planning to fly around arenal and maybe some beach spots near manuel antonio. not trying to do anything crazy, just landscape stuff for personal use. anyone actually done this recently and know whats legit?

went in january, brought my air 2s. honestly the permit thing is a bit of a grey area for tourists and from what i could tell nobody was checking anything at the beaches i flew at. that said i did register just to be safe, took like 20 mins on the DGAC website. arenal is tricky though because parts of it are near national park airspace and i got pretty conservative with where i launched from. just stay back from the actual volcano area and youre probably fine. also wind up there can be gnarly in the afternoon, morning flights only imo.

cant help with the permits stuff but manuel antonio is gorgeous from the air if you can find a good launch spot outside the park boundaries. the park itself is a no fly zone for sure. i just set up on the road near the entrance and got some decent shots of the coastline. bring way more ND filters than you think you need, the light there is super harsh midday