Earthcache Laguna Cuicocha

This weekend I had the opportunity to go after an earthcache.  If you haven't heard of such let me explain.  An earthcache is a type of virtual cache.  You don't actually find a container. Instead you learn important information about the earth and by completing a few tasks you prove that you really visited the location.  I've visited Cuicocha many times.  I even have a traditional cache (one with a container, logbook and swag in it known as Sea Breeze - (GC1DD42) along the highest point on the trail.   Since placing my cache an earthcache was put out by a fellow cacher from Germany.  The tasks were to hike the trail, take pictures, and gather some specific information after taking the boat ride out to the islands in the crater lake.  It was fun!  I actually went to Cuicocha with a group of fellow missionaries, some from other countries.  Four of us went on the boat ride while the remaining 12 went on the hike.  One of my friends, also a geocacher, took off to look for the Sea Breeze cache.  He only had a two hour window to do this in so he pushed ahead alone.  Sumajhuarmi and I decided to climb the trail to the cache when he didn't show later. We were a little concerned for him since the trail is along the crater edge and hiking alone can be dangerous.  The incentive to find him caused us to push hard.  We hiked it fast. When we were about 30 minutes from the cache we saw him walking down a road on the outside of the crater.  We pushed on to the cache and sumajhuarmi made her find.  After signing the log we took off down the road.  Sumajhuarmi is a runner and I'm not.  In order to get to the car quicker and since it was down hill we took off running.  She was soon out of sight leaving me in her dust.  Our friend made it to the car and came back up the trail to get us.  We had a great day on the mountain!  If you are coming to Ecuador be sure to look for the caches at Cuicocha (Earthcache -GC1EHA5).

I'm adding some pictures.  I'm the one in the geocaching cap and I'm with sumajhuarmi in one of the pictures.  Also see my friend and his wife at Cuicocha.  Also check out the bubbles in the water off one of the islands in the crater lake.  This is gas escaping from the volcano.