Andromeda321

I was figuring this too (and yeah there's a geocache pretty much everywhere these days, I found one in the courtyard of the Louvre a few months ago), I just figured if I heard of an exceptional one I just might divert for it, like now the A.P.E. cache in Brazil is tempting me. Plenty of other reasons to go to Brazil obviously, but researching locations always starts somehow! I!, might be hard to tell but with rare exception I fell into the pace of staying one place for 4 nights/ 3 whole days, staying a few places longer if I decided I liked them (Ko Tao, Thailand and Florence, Italy come to mind). The exception to that was the interior of Africa where lack of public transport/ my abilities to do car maintenance and drive stick required joining up with a group of backpackers, and yep 7000km in three weeks while camping was plenty exhausting!

How cute! I have two married friends who just released their first travel bug today that wants to visit caches used by couples for marriage proposals. Would be awesome if it someday ended up at yours.

Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to word it, but you said what I was thinking. I was a Vocal Performance major (now I work in computers, fancy that), and I didn't even go to grad school... so I'm really pleased to see people taking the initiative. It's okay to be proud of who you are, and it's okay to be proud of achieving. Sure, it could have been phrased better, yes, but I don't see it as elitism either. Thanks you two, as without your defenses I really would be very discouraged by this thread. I wasn't trying to be elitist but rather the phrasing came out wrong as I feel a bit on the defensive here. In an attempt to steer things back on topic that probably won't work but hey, I do love the idea of releasing TBs (I was thinking of getting a TB patch for my backpack, that'd be fun to get logs for!) and the Peru cache sounds pretty sweet as well.

I always thought it was "Hey look everybody! I'm using my loans, scholarships and grants for non-academic purposes!!" Had to laugh when I got my bachelors and half the guys I knew in college, who always went on spring break and summer expeditions, started complaining about paying back exorbitant amounts of college loans and I barely had anything to pay back. And what a coincidence, I still have to wonder about how people can make so many opinions without knowing a person or doing research! 1) Most of the world is actually very cheap- one can be perfectly sufficient on $1000/month in Asia for example, and Africa isn't that much more than that. Neither is Eastern Europe, especially if you have family and friends or use CouchSurfing. All in all I could've bought a car or traveled the world, and gee that's a tough decision! 2) People actually pay you to do grad school if it's in something, you know, actually hard, and if you live in a place like Ohio you can actually save a good amount just from cost of living (plus I travel for my research, I'll be visiting an observatory in Argentina later this year for example). So have never taken out a loan and I live a frugal lifestyle- making your own coffee doesn't sound like much for example until you realize the $3 you spent for the Starbucks latte is the cost of a room for a night in Cambodia! (I did love Vic Falls though, so much that I set up the Mosi-oa-Tunya Earthcache. ) Loving the idea of going for the non-traditional A.P.E. cache in Brazil, that would certainly be different!

Hello everyone, To introduce this topic, I'm not a particularly normal person in that I have a huge priority in life to travel- in my mid-20s but have already visited 35 countries and will visit my sixth continent (South America) by the end of the year if all goes well, and loving it! I lived in New Zealand awhile a few years back, last year I did a six month trip around the world through Asia, Europe, and Africa... and then after all that I discovered geocaching. You have no idea how annoying it is to see that Tropic of Capricorn sign in the Middle of Nowhere, Namibia pop up on the main page knowing I was there a year ago but didn't know about caching! Anyway, I'm a student when not traveling and looking to finish the M.S. by December or January, so I have until September to go for a nice long wander around the world until starting my PhD. Not yet certain where I'm going but I want to make geocaching a part of it so I figured I should ask around in the planning stages- does anyone have any caches they've stumbled across where they thought "wow, that's an amazing place/adventure!" that they'd like to share? This or this are good examples of what I'm thinking about... My only real criteria is that the getting there shouldn't be super-expensive (so probably nothing in the extreme Arctic or Antarctica or the ISS cache, for example) as I travel cheap and overland wherever possible. Thanks a lot all, and I look forward to hearing about some spectacular spots of the world!

Hi all- Just got a new GPS and wanted to go out and play around with it, but can't because the gpx file from my pocket query hasn't arrived yet in my inbox! Checked the spam filter too, and nada. So just wondering, how long does it take for these things to show up in email and what address do they come from (to thwart the spam folder should I just not be noticing it amongst all the letters from Nigerian princes ). Or am I doing something colossally silly and have to do something else after hitting "submit information" with the correct email address listed? Definitely getting caches listed in the preview, so that's not the issue. Thanks!

Ha I've gone to the last two on the East side, guess we just haven't crossed paths yet! Oh well maybe at the event tonight or Monday... Thanks all for the suggestions, found an Oregon 450 for $300 online after you mail in a rebate so might be going for that as it would work perfectly! After all if the main reason I balked was price and it fits in the price range, what's not to like? Will research the other suggestions a little more before a final decision, but that's what I'm going for for now...

Hi all- My grandmother recently gifted me $300 with the understanding that it should go towards "something I want," and as a grad student I want to spend it before I decide what I really want is to pay the bills! So researching GPS units as all I have thus far is my iPhone and would appreciate the accuracy and ability to use it in wooded areas. Though I should note that a. I'm used to being paperless and want to keep it that way and b. am ok with going over $300 with some of my own funds. So some basic and potentially stupid questions to start- 1) I run a Mac- does this mean I won't be able to use some GPS units? 2) Are there any units that you can charge by plugging into the wall and not by buying batteries? It might sound silly but everything else I have runs this way and it's not like I'm going to be out in the wilderness for days at a time, so this would be a lot more convenient for me. 3) I'm assuming GPS units in this range can give turn-by-turn directions, right? Like can you plug in GPS coordinates and it tells you how to drive there on roads? Just wondering! 4) What's the difference between, say, an Oregon 450 and Oregon 450t? Beyond a chunk of change. My research so far leaves me dithering between a Garmin 60csx and an Oregon 450(t or no!), I include the latter because while on the pricey side it was fun to play around with at Best Buy last weekend. If people have any suggestions or can suggest any other units, I appreciate it and am all ears! Thanks in advance!

Last year I went on a six month trip around the world- two months Asia, three months Europe, six weeks Africa, about 20 countries in all. Got into geocaching four months later and there are so many missed opportunities I don't even want to think about it.

I live alone so often no one knows where I'm wandering to, but I have yet to cache in truly wilderness regions with no cell reception. Honestly I don't worry about it much though, because last year I traveled solo around the world for six months with nary a cell phone around, not saying I was in places like Zimbabwe until afterwards because it would only make my parents worry more. Yes I'm young, stupid, and plan to live forever, and it was an amazing adventure.

Personally I feel like my beliefs (or rather, complete and total lack thereof) are strong enough to withstand any crumpled pieces of paper I might find in an ammo can in the woods. But apparently lots of people aren't. I also agree with the person who said above they'd trade for Chick tracts because they find them hilarious despite not believing a word of it, but I've yet to find one in my local area up north. Visiting my relatives in the South, however, you find something along those lines in pretty much every cache.

I was having this exact same problem all day today- very annoying because it's great weather outside, and it worked great yesterday! Plus GPS works fine on things like the maps app or a GPS one I downloaded (so I did get one cache today), just not on the Geocaching one (also the "number of geocaches worldwide" thing on the main page wasn't loading either, so I'm guessing the app was having issues contacting the main site for whatever reason). This happened to me about a month ago as well, also on a Sunday, but that was only for a few hours and then the app was back to normal. Would love to hear if any others have run into this problem today.

My bike Hey, I wanted a pretty one! And that's an older picture, it now has a basket, and a bell, and some lights, and... Got started caching last December so haven't used it much yet, but there are a few I've been deliberately saving around here for warmer weather so I can bike to 'em. Can't wait!

Ok wondering now guys- I'm a grad student too strapped for funds to get a dedicated GPS unit so I use an iPhone exclusively. Starting to think about my first hide, but if it's going to happen it'll be with iPhone coordinates, which will be carefully checked as best I can when the time comes, but would cachers rather not look for one I place under such circumstances then?

I'm new to this too, but can't understand for the life of me why people have such a hard time telling the truth. Is "it's like a scavenger hunt" really so hard to utter?

I started this last month when trying to procrastinate from doing exams using my iPhone. Now a bit deterred by the snow (there's a lot of it! it's cold! I'm not that hard core yet!) but hopefully we'll have an early thaw or something! By the way this is something I've been wondering about- I have a hobby on weekends of just getting in the car and seeing where I end up, which seems perfect for geocaching. Is there any way of knowing what particularly good caches are or something like that? (I'm thinking about how I wouldn't mind driving an hour away from my place if it's a great hike or something, but wouldn't know where to go to begin with!) Asking around the local club maybe? Ciao!

Hi all- I'm visiting my sister in Washington DC this weekend- she lives just a few blocks from the National Mall and since I've been bunches of times there I thought geocaching the area might give me a new way of looking at old haunts. Looking at that area though it seems like almost all caches are virtual- guess it makes sense considering the location! Just wondering though, how do these work exactly- find the clue to prove you were there, email the person in charge, and then you can log it? And they count the same way as a traditional cache? Sorry if these are basic questions, just wanna make sure I understand what I'm doing when it comes time for my DC jaunt.

Another newbie interjecting with a winter geocaching question if that's alright... Just got into this hobby a few days ago, and in my 4th cache ever (found earlier today) was a Travel Bug wanting to go Idaho. Well what a coincidence, I'm going skiing in Sun Valley at the end of the month! So I took it but looking at the area's listings none of the non-micro caches were found in wintertime, I'm assuming because the snow is so deep (right, snow gods?!). Plan is right now that I have ten days there and I'll just take the TB and see if I can find a solution while actually there, but was wondering if anyone had suggestions beyond that? Would be very disappointing to take the Travel Bug all the way to Idaho only to bring it BACK...

Thanks a lot guys! Had better luck today and found two decent-sized caches- first one was relatively straightforward, second one made me thoroughly learn the lesson of reading the description carefully (would've saved a lot of grief!). And mattfamily I know of Caught in the Middle because I downloaded the app while bored in the physics building and thinking "wait, there's one only 300 feet away?!" But it was dark when I went to check it out so I'm chalking up the lack of luck to that and will try again later.

Hi everybody! I just got into this hobby and am currently in grad school at CWRU in Cleveland- found my first two caches today but there were also four caches today that I just couldn't find. Bit dejecting, don't think I'm that clueless... I suspect a reason is because all but one of the ones I have tried so far are micros in the University Circle area so they're just harder to spot, and poking around these boards reveals this is probably not the best sort of thing to start with. So does anyone know of any caches in the area good to cut my teeth on? I have a car and can drive, but just wanna whet my appetite before the snow flies and I lose most of my motivation to head outside. Thanks a lot everyone.