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Visiting the Wonders of the World in Real Life


Ambrosia

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I thought it would be interesting for people to post about their past visits to the Wonders of the World. Have you ever visited any of the wonders that are listed in the promotion? It's nice to be able to reminisce about travel during a time when traveling is limited. Post a link to a cache that you found at the location, or nearby, if any!

 

Locations that can be visited:

 

Roman Colosseum 

Great Wall of China

Machu Picchu

Christ the Redeemer

Chichen Itza

Petra

Taj Mahal

Great Pyramid of Giza

 

My husband and I visited the Taj Mahal in 2013. My husband (not me) also visited Petra in 1994.

 

Taj Mahal (qwerty53)

 

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Roman Colosseum : we were in Rome in 2008, this was our first geocaching year and I don't remember if there were that many geocaches back then. I do know we weren't premium member back then so the information we had was limited in our gps and we brought some print outs, which of course also limits the amount of caches we were going to do.  It wasn't easy to find the cache we've found closest to the Colosseum since it wasn't just a matter of looking at the smilies on the map. The cache we found back then is now archived, so no smily on the map anymore, it is a traditional:  SPQR - IL CIRCO MASSIMO. We found it on Sep 2, 2008 and according to the log we found it just a few hours after arriving in Rome and even in the dark it was an easy find.

 

Petra: Yes! We found several caches here on Oct 24, 2016, for this list I'll pick the oldest one, the traditional Petra

 

Great Pyramid of Giza: we visited the Great Pyramid of Gizo and many other wonderful historic places in Egypt in 2005. But this was B.C. (before caching) for us, so no finds in Egypt.

 

Taj Mahal: on our to do list

Great Wall of China: on our to do list

Machu Picchu: on our to do list

Christ the Redeemer: on our to do list

Chichen Itza: not really on our to do list, but we've been to other Maya sites. Maybe if we happen to be close ;)

 

Photos taken at the cache location in Petra:

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Edited by irisisleuk
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I visited the Colosseum more than once over the course of my childhood - living in Ireland means my parents were extremely fond or Italy and France holidays, so we were in Rome two or three times, the last time I think I was 12 or 13. Couldn't find any photos unfortunately!

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4 hours ago, Ambrosia said:

Locations that can be visited:

 

Roman Colosseum 

Great Wall of China

Machu Picchu

Christ the Redeemer

Chichen Itza

Petra

Taj Mahal

Great Pyramid of Giza

 

Of the 8 listed by Ambrosia, I've visited 5 of them..... Roman Colosseum, Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer and the Great Pyramid of Giza. My most recent visit was to Macchu Pichu back in March. This is such an awesome place to see and was a highlight of our trip to South America.

 

Macchu Pichu.jpg

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I've been to Rome about 6 times for work at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N.  The FAO building is just down the street from the Colosseum so  I've walked by it a couple dozen times.  The first time I was there I found the original Colosseo cache, that was archived in 2018. That cache was a film container and was the example of a micro on the wikipedia page on geocaching.  

 

I've been to the Great Wall of China twice.  The first time I was accompanied by a couple of students that met me at my hotel, hailed a taxi to the train station, then took the hour long train ride from Beijing to the Badaling section of the wall.  There, I saw hundreds of tour buses and it was very crowded.  I was stopped several times and asked if they could have their picture taken with me (before selfies).  They thought I looked like Santa Claus.  

 

The second time I was there I was spending a week consulting at the Chinese Agricultural University and the director gave me the day off and asked if I wanted to go to the wall.  I said that I had been to the Badaling section but would like to see a different section.  She, the former director, a student and I took her car to a section that has private property access to the wall.   There was room for 4 cars in a small parking area at a families house (who the library director knew).  The family allowed people access to the wall for a small fee.  They also had about a half dozen "motel" rooms for people that were through hiking the wall.  The student and I went up onto the wall and started climbing to a high spot.  It was so steep that we were on our hands and knees at several spots. It took us about an hour to get to a high point, where we saw four other people.  After we got back to the family house we had an amazing lunch with the family.

 

In the late 1970's I went to the Club Med in Cancun and took a daily excursion to Chitzen Itza.  The jungle was amazing as were the pyramids.   I was able to climb the El Castillo back then and also climbed the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan near Mexico City.  No jungle there, and not a Wonder of the World, but it was very impressive.  

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When I was a kid in the 80's we took a trip to Cancun.  One day we took a trip to Chichen Itza.  I wasn't thrilled about it because I didn't even comprehend what we were doing.  We were just getting on a dubious bus when I could be going to the beach.  It was a pretty bad bus ride.  But when I started seeing the sites I was so happy we did it.  Now it is the most memorable part of the trip.   And I think this was right around the time that movie Against all Odds was out which had many scenes from there.  One thing about the pyramid that struck me was that when you stood around the base and clapped, the echo came back sounding like a chirp.  I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't do it.  And apparently that was of some religious significance dealing with a bird.  Yes, I climbed up to the top, too!  Sad to hear from the post before mine that you can't any more.  It was  steep climb and, really, the side was restored and not 100% original (other sides were much rougher.)  I always remember a thick metal chain that just was laid down the middle of the stairway to aid climbers. 

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The road has been VASTLY improved since the 80's, along with the quality of the transport itself.  IIRC, we made the trip from Playa in a non-A/C school bus.  That was long before caching was possible, but now there are a fair number of them in the Yucatan, especially up and down the coast between Tulum and Cancun, and on Cozumel.  That said, it's also an area where there are too many 'vacation caches' that don't conform to the guidelines in one manner or another -- especially contact with proprietors of businesses.

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Visited the great wall back in 2012 I think - went to the touristy and kind of fake section at Badaling where all the tourists go, and then on another day visited the genuine article at Simatai.  The Simatai section of the wall, highly recommended, truly spectacular.  We were very lucky that it rained heavily the previous night as well, so we got a beautiful clear blue sky day as all the smog had been washed away.

 

Visited Chichen Itza (or Chicken Pizza as was the running "dad joke" for the trip) with friends on a big geocaching roadtrip a few years ago - short trip to Cancun before roadtripping Houston to Seattle.  We drove from Cancun for the day, got there reasonably early before most of the crowds.  Great place to explore, and even a lot of fun dealing with all the hawkers selling their various tourist-trap souvenirs.

 

Visited Rome back in 2015 but shock-horror did not visit the Colosseum!  We were focussed on visiting some places around the Vatican at the time.  I'll never forget the absolute sea of people at the Spanish Steps.  Rome traffic was fun to drive through as well, like a video game!

 

Machu Picchu

Petra

Taj Mahal

Great Pyramid of Giza

- all on the todo list!

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I haven't checked them, but do all the caches near the real wonders actually give the relevant associated WotW stamp?  :lol:

Seems like it'd be odd to visit Machu Picchu and get awarded a stamp for a wonder somewhere else across the world, heh.

Edited by thebruce0
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38 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

I haven't checked them, but do all the caches near the real wonders actually give the relevant associated WotW stamp?  :lol:

Seems like it'd be odd to visit Machu Picchu and get awarded a stamp for a wonder somewhere else across the world, heh.

No.

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/358016-never-before-have-i-been-so-disappointed-by-a-such-insignificant-thing/

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33 minutes ago, SamLowrey said:
1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

I haven't checked them, but do all the caches near the real wonders actually give the relevant associated WotW stamp?  :lol:

Seems like it'd be odd to visit Machu Picchu and get awarded a stamp for a wonder somewhere else across the world, heh.

No.

Okee.

Isn't that too bad then. *shrugs it off*

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How about the Natural Wonders of the World:

 

Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights)

Harbor of Rio de Janeiro.

Grand Canyon.

Great Barrier Reef.

Mount Everest.

Victoria Falls.

Parícutin, Mexico.

 

I have only been to Victoria Falls (on the Zimbawe side).  I was in Iceland when, allegedly the Aurora Borealis would have been visible but it was raining and overcast the four days I was there, so didn't actually them. 

 

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13 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

How about the Natural Wonders of the World:

 

Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights)

Harbor of Rio de Janeiro.

Grand Canyon.

Great Barrier Reef.

Mount Everest.

Victoria Falls.

Parícutin, Mexico.

 

I visited the Great Barrier Reef while holidaying in Cairns in the late 90s. The tour boat took us out to an island where we did a bit of snorkeling close to shore. It was back in the days of film cameras so this is all I have from that day:

 

GreatBarrierReefCairns.jpg.6c44d888048f0de552f51404d5b82c69.jpg

 

I'm also curious why the northern lights (Aurora Borealis) is included but the southern lights (Aurora Australis) isn't. I haven't seen either yet, but I'm hoping someday post-COVID to travel down to Tasmania and maybe catch a glimpse of the southern version.

 

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I've been to the Coliseum, but it was when I was a child (back in 2001 or so). I went to the Great Wall of China back in 2008 but that was before I started geocaching. 

 

As for the natural wonders of the world:

 

I've seen both the Aurora Borealis and Australis (lived in Alaska and have traveled down to Antarctica twice).

I've made it to the Grand Canyon.

I've sailed over the Great Barrier Reef (but much to my chagrin I didn't get to dive there).

 

 

Still so much to see and do in the world!

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I love to travel but of the places on your list I have only visited the Great Wall.  Twice.  Well, sort of.

 

You see, in 2001 I traveled to China and was able to walk on the wall for a short distance on the section near Beijing.  But that was before I was caching so I was unable to geocache in China even if one had been there for me to find.

 

The second time I visited the Great Wall was in 2014, well after I started caching and I was able to find GC3244, Is That a Great Wall or What?

 

Apparently this little piece of the wall is the only one to ever leave China, at least legally.  This is from the cache description:

 

Four-wheel-drive technology was developed here early in the twentieth century, and in the 1920s Walter Olen and the company's heavy-duty trucks traveled far and wide. They helped build railways in China, a project that led to Olen's hauling home a hefty souvenir, a portion of the Great Wall of China, which, to date, has protected Clintonville from possible invaders from the North. A gift from revered statesman Sun Yatsen, it is believed to be the only section of the Great Wall ever to leave China. 

Eventually Olen's 1,700-year-old Chinese bricks were joined by stones from such places as Jerusalem, the Petrified Forest, Yellowstone National Park, and the Dakota Badlands, along with a Wisconsin millstone. The exotic mementos are lined up in Pioneer Park on the banks of the Pigeon River near two historic houses and the Four Wheel Drive Museum, which displays original four-wheel-drive vehicles -- a must visit for SUV or urban assualt vehicles seeking to return to their roots. The museum is open from 1:00 to 4:00 each weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day. (Source: WISCONSIN Curiosities by Michael Feldman and Diana Cook; The Globe Pequot Press, Gilford, Connecticut, 2000).

 

And this piece of the wall may have been more effective than the section still in China in that since this has been in Wisconsin there have been no successful attacks or raids from the north.

 

Thanks for bringing back both memories for me, the visits to The Great Wall and the Piece of The Great Wall.

 

And my personal Travel Bug was on the Wall, Travelingman00.

 

 

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