Geocaching in Aruba

[+QuiltinNana]

We are going to Aruba for a week in a few weeks. I of course want to try and find some caches while we are there. We usually use our car NUVI 1450T to take us to the general location and then use a Garmin ETREX Venture to finish off the search. The maps loaded in the NUVI are only for North America.

 

Will the ETREX work for us?

 

By reading some of the cache descriptions, I think we can find the general location without too much trouble, but without the ETREX, I'm not sure we can pinpoint the actual location.

 

This is our first trip out of the US, so I want to understand what we can expect when we want to go cache hunting.

 

Thanks

Shirley

[+Lineman101]

We are going to Aruba for a week in a few weeks. I of course want to try and find some caches while we are there. We usually use our car NUVI 1450T to take us to the general location and then use a Garmin ETREX Venture to finish off the search. The maps loaded in the NUVI are only for North America.

 

Will the ETREX work for us?

 

By reading some of the cache descriptions, I think we can find the general location without too much trouble, but without the ETREX, I'm not sure we can pinpoint the actual location.

 

This is our first trip out of the US, so I want to understand what we can expect when we want to go cache hunting.

 

Thanks

Shirley

 

We took a city bus from the cruise terminal out to The Lighthouse Cache and the Aruba Postcard Cache. If I remember it was maybe a buck apiece to ride one way and a buck coming back. We use an e-Trex 20 and it worked fine without detailed maps since I only have North America on mine also. It showed major roads which was all we needed. Enjoy your trip.

[+QuiltinNana]

Thanks for the reply.

 

We are going to have a rental car for the week so hopefully we can get around to quite a few.

[AZcachemeister]

A GPSr will work almost anywhere on the surface of the earth...that's why it's called a GLOBAL positioning system.

 

Two issues that may cause issues are:

1. Local politics.

Is GPSr usage permitted in the country in question? Sadly, there are a few political regimes that do not allow GPSr usage, and you will get in trouble...BIG trouble.

 

2. Lack of local mappage.

Shouldn't really be a problem for an old hand, but if you are used to getting turn-by-turn directions from your unit, you may have some difficulties. Back in the olden days, no GPSr had internal maps and you had to navigate using only the directional arrow and distance as your guides. Depending on your attitude, this may actually increase your fun as you encounter dead-ends and roads that don't go the direction you wanted them to go.

[+QuiltinNana]

We won't mind trying to figure things out as we go along. Even with our Nuvi, we sometimes have to figure out where we are really supposed to go since it tries to takes us down private drives, shows road where there are none, and sometimes takes us miles and miles out of the way just to go a few miles down the road. But that just adds to the fun.

[+tomtwogates]

There are hundreds of folk that cache with the old yellow etrex (I'm included there) and they don't support maps at all - I have used it in various countries I have travelled in - it is fun just following the arrow - enjoy!