|
Geocaching in Quito
On my way from Honduras to Galapagos I had to stop over in Quito. The first day I dedicated to Geocaching because I discovered that Quito has a big park which is chock full of Caches.
Equipped with a map I made my way to the park using the public bus, my feet and my sense of direction. And even though I didn't exactly know where the entry to the park was (it is a big park after all and there is only one main entrance), I did find it after only a short detour.
Very close to the entrance I found the first Cache of the day (Brandon's TB Boarding House) where I dropped off the Travel Bug I had with me from Roatan. From there on the afternoon progressed smoothly, I always checked which Cache was closest to my location and after hiking for 300 to 1'100 metres along big and small trails as well as cross country, I was able to log another Cache.
Most of the Caches were very easy to find, only two gave me trouble. The first Cache where I had to look for a bit longer was Adkins Diet, there I circled the target area three times before I spotted something which didn't belong there. Metro Park SE was even tougher. I was poking around the undergrowth for a long time and didn't find anything. I already gave up and decided to take a short break before heading to the next Cache, when I spotted an opening which looked suspicious and indeed, there it was :).
After three hours of hiking and caching I logged my 11th Cache for the day and decided to head back. Noteworthy is, that I found all 11 Caches I set out to find, I've never had such a good success rate!
So if you find yourself in Quito and have half a day to spare: Take your GPS along and go Caching! It was a truly great experience hiking through this nice park :)
If you are interested here is the order I did the Caches:
- Brandon's TB Boarding House (GC1K4MD)
- Karen's Caper (GC182AC)
- Hole in the Wall (GC238MC)
- Adkins Diet (GC2C32F)
- El Memoria de Giovanni (GC18HYC)
- Metro Park SE (GC15JCC)
- Log Man (GC2MHQ7)
- Picadillo (GC2B17C)
- Support Power (GC2QCN3)
- Ropa Vieja (GC1Y8HP)
- Cuy (GC2MHJY)
My second day in Quito I spent visiting the old town, looking at the old houses, the churches and climbing all the way up to the Monumento a la Virgen de Quito. It just so happened that this day a Down Hill (Bicycle) Race took place from the Monument all the way down, so I spent my hike uphill observing the race and I can tell you this was a breathtaking course with hundreds of steps.
You can find some pictures of Quito in my web album.
Labels: pictures, round the world, traveling
0 Comments:
| 
