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Policies

Thank you for selecting Foto Verde Tours! It is our goal to make your Latin America photo travel a pleasant experience from your initial booking all the way through to your post-trip communications. As part of this experience, we want to be very clear and up front about our policies related to liability, payment, and cancellation.

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The information below has the value of a legal contract. By booking with Foto Verde Tours, you acknowledge that you have read and understood and implicitly accept the policies established below.

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Please study the information below carefully, and if you have questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us. Throughout this document "We" refers to Foto Verde Tours, a legally established Costa Rican Limited Liability Corporation. "You" refers to you, the client(s) paying for our services.

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Liability

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  • We strongly recommend that you obtain traveler’s insurance before leaving home. In Latin America, insurance prices are not competitive, and the coverage can be limited, so we cannot offer insurance options to you. We suggest that you take out a comprehensive traveler’s insurance policy in order to cover missing or stolen luggage and other belongings (including your photo and computer gear), delayed arrival as a result of cancelled flights, missed connections, or weather conditions and trip cancellation. Though we will keep you safe once you're with us (we've never had an issue of theft on our trips), things can happen in-transit and in-country. And medical emergencies can occur that could cause you have to cancel a trip with little notice. 

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  • We accept full responsibility for any problems caused by our own negligence in the handling of pre-payments, reservations, local flights, information, vouchers, and land transfers.

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  • We are not responsible for incidents occasioned by international airlines such as missing luggage, delayed flights, schedule changes and missed connections.

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  • In case of missing luggage, we can provide transportation in order to deliver the baggage to wherever the clients are staying, but the cost of the transfer must be paid by the client, or arranged by the client with the airline directly.

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  • We are not liable for any material damage or loss, death, injuries or traumas resulting from accidents during the trip. This includes accidents taking place in the hotels and caused by deficient infrastructure and signage, poor lighting, or maintenance problems.

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  • We are not responsible for any incidents occurred during any activities done by the participants of a tour, such as: hiking, rock climbing, rappelling, tree climbing, canopy tours, white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, boat rides, snorkeling, scuba-diving, fishing, surfing, windsurfing, boogie boarding, swimming in rivers, lakes, ocean or swimming pools, trekking, horseback riding, biking, hanggliding, free-falling, parasailing and others.

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  • We are not liable for incidents caused by (or derived from the use of) motor vehicles of any kind, including: Cars, buses, vans, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, four-wheelers, boats, jet skis, wave runners, airplanes and ultra-lights.

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  • In case of accident or illness in which medical attention is required, we will facilitate the contacts with emergency rooms and specialists and help the clients with transportation when required. The client will cover the cost of those extra services.

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  • We will help in contacting the client’s insurance company in advance via fax or e-mail and obtaining the documentation necessary for the insurance claim, including doctors’ diagnosis, exam results and prescriptions, all in English. We will not charge for any of these services except for extra transportation.

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  • Although we take great pains to choose lodges and other service providers known for their reputations in looking after the safety of our clients, our company takes no responsibility for documents or valuables (including photographic and computer equipment) that are lost or stolen, whatever the circumstances. We will help the clients to present claims, police and insurance reports and to cancel credit cards and obtain new passports and airline tickets. We will not charge for any assistance in this matter, but clients must be aware that they must cover penalties, extra charges and transportation fees.

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  • We are not liable for situations caused by wild or domestic animals and insects, allergies and/or other reactions produced by local flora, fauna or environmental circumstances, weather conditions (that are typical of an area or unexpected) and any other problems caused by heat stroke, overexercise, overexposure to the sun, or problems arising from local food.

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  • We cannot take responsibility for inconveniences resulting from problems with the electric power service or water supplies, as well as delays or mishaps as a result of weather conditions.

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  • Finally, we are not liable for incidents, material loss or damage, death, personal injuries or traumas of any kind caused by client-induced negligence, chance, and misfortune or “by the hand of God.”

 

Payments

 

  •  As a land operator, we must cover all of your services prior to your arrival for any given workshop. Therefore, it is our policy to work with a 100% pre-payment to our local providers at least 100 days ahead of the trip start date. By securing your full payment 120 days ahead of arrival, we have a time window to sort out any glitches with the payment process. If we have not received your deposit at fewer than 90 days from your arrival, we reserve the right to cancel all reservations in order to avoid cancellation penalties from our providers. We cannot promise any return of funds if the client cancels for their own reasons at fewer than 60 days from the official arrival day stated on this website for a given workshop.​ The only exception is when we at Foto Verde Tours have not sent you the final invoice during the time frame outlined above. In this case, we will expect payment within two weeks after we send the invoice, assuming that clients have provided all necessary travel information necessary for us to issue final invoices. Cancellations at fewer than 60 days are still not promised refunds as we are at the mercy of our providers to reiumburse for services not used.

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  • At the moment a customized trip or photo workshop is confirmed, it is our obligation to reserve the services and lodging agreed and to ensure that there will be space available. It is the client’s obligation to pay the agreed upon amount to our account at least 120 days ahead of the trip start date.

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  • Automatic cancellation of all services with no refund will occur if the total amount agreed upon is not paid by 60 days out from your arrival date.

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  • Because our workshops are popular, we require a deposit to reserve your spot on one of our open signup workshops. The amount is specified on each workshop page and is payable when you fill out and submit our workshop registration online form. The remaining balance is due 120 days out from the trip start date as outlined above (or two weeks from the receipt of your final invoice). Reserve deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable except in the case of special circumstances to be negotiated at our discretion between the client and Foto Verde Tours.

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  • Our preferred methods of payment are via wire transfer and check due to bureaucratic inefficiency in handling credit card and PayPal payments in Costa Rica. As such, wire transfer and check are the quickest and easiest methods for both the client and Foto Verde Tours. When we send you your invoice, we will include complete information for paying via wire transfer or check.

 

Cancellations & Refunds

 

  • Because we pre-pay all local services, there will be no refunds for cancellations fewer than 120 days out from your arrival date. In justified cases, however, we can try to negotiate with hotels and service providers to obtain a refund or a credit note. Nonetheless, the last word in this matter is given by our providers, not Foto Verde Tours. For cancellations more than 120 days before the start trip, we may be able to refund your trip payments but not the reserve deposit except as noted in the section above. For refunds, a 5% credit card comission charge (if applicable) and a fixed fee of $50 for our own cancellation expenses apply. In addition, wire transfer fees to send refunded money may apply.

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  • Unused services specified on our vouchers are non-refundable, but we can try to negotiate a rearrangement of your schedule, depending on space availability.​​

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  • Foto Verde reserves the right to cancel open signup workshops for lack of participants no fewer than 45 days from the beginning tour date. In the case that a workshop is cancelled by Foto Verde Tours, we will provide a full refund of your reservation deposit and any payments on the remaining trip balance, or we will apply the money to another Foto Verde Tours travel option according to your preference. For refunds, a 5% credit card commission charge (if applicable) and a fixed fee of $37.50 for our own cancellation expenses may apply. In addition, wire transfer fees to send refunded money may apply.

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Coronavirus 

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  • With regards to trip cancellations related to coronavirus, we understand that uncertainty is the only certainty for the time being. If we, Foto Verde Tours, decide to cancel a workshop due to increased risk factors that lead us to conclude it will not be safe or prudent, we will provide a full refund to the client, minus any bank transfer fees.

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  • Likewise, if we are forced to cancel a workshop because government regulations in the workshop destination make travel impossible, we will provide a full refund minus any bank transfer fees. Please note that the potential to provide a full refund after payments to providers have been made, will depend in part upon the disposition of hotels and lodges to refund to us any payments that we have made for the workshop. For all other services that we can directly control (guide and transportation services, our agency commission, etc.) we guarantee a full refund. 

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  • We do not take responsibility if a client decides to cancel of his or her own accord or is forced to cancel because of coronavirus related issues in his or her own country. We always urge our clients to purchase regular travel insurance that includes trip cancellation, general health coverage, and flight, luggage, and gear protection. Nevertheless, in case of this type of cancellation, we will always do our best to provide you with as big a refund as we can by negotiating with hotels/lodges and other service providers. We prefer to treat you well and  have you travel with us in the future rather than simply trying to keep your money!

 

  • For the foreseeable future, we will require workshop participants to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as a measure of protection for our staff and collaborators, fellow workshop participants, and for the people of the countries in which we work. Failure to be truthful with this requirement will result in cancellation of services without reimbursement of deposits or services already paid.

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