Urban caching in Lima, Peru

I arrived in Lima, Peru this afternoon for several days. This afternoon I met up with a new cacher, Low_rider73, and we went to visit two urban caches in the Miraflores area of Lima. The first was the newest Lima cache entitled, TOP 10 POI Lima (GC1EY5P). This referred to the top ten points of interest for tourist in Lima. It required that you either travel all over the city or, as a minimum, get on the Internet and research the city. You had to match ten photos of key locations with the correct location name and then assign the value of the associated picture number to an equation in order to find the coordinates of the cache. Several cachers had found this one ahead of us. The one before us reported that the cache had been muggled. Another TB lost! The cache owner gave everyone permission to log the cache if they included a photo of the general cache location. Low_rider, sumajhuarmi and I all tried to find the correct coordinates but kept coming up with the wrong ones. The cache owner published a spoiler picture showing a special and easily identifiable piece of heavy equipment in a park. It was easy to find out which park we were looking for with Internet. We went there in order to complete the requirements for finding the cache. We still are scratching our heads about the equation and the coordinates. It was fun nontheless. A park historian told us the park is dedicated to Peruvians who defended Lima against the invading Chileans in the 1880's on the very spot.

From this cache Low_rider73 took the lead and took us to cache Intihuatana (GC17BMA). This is one of my caches so I came along for the ride. Inti means "sun" and "huatana" means bracelet in Ecuadorian Quichua. I suppose it means the same thing in Peruvian Quechua. It is the"Bracelet of the sun". There is an odd piece of modern art at the site that bears the name. The most noteable thing about the location is the view of the Peruvian coast. The cache is located at a gorgeous overlook of the Pacific Ocean. We saw paragliders, hang gliders, and surfers. Because it was a Peruvian holiday, many Peruvians were enjoying the park. This particular cache is in a "muggle-intensive" site. Low_rider73 was able to find the cache, sign the log and replace it without being spotted. I live in Quito, Ecuador and come to Lima every couple of months. The Groundspeak reviewer allowed me to place the cache because the frequency of my visits allows me to maintain it. Today I added a new log sheet. It is interesting that along the way a fellow cacher decided to replace the cache container, log and to upgrade the cache by making it magnetic. At first I was a little put off to see that someone had declared my cache missing and the replaced it. After thinking about it I appreciate him keeping it alive. I appreciate the upgrade to the container too. Intihuatana seems to be one of the most visited caches in Peru. It is in an area frequented by tourist on a regular basis.

What is a visit to cache-poor Lima without hiding another cache or two? Low-rider73 and I each hid a cache along the coastal cliffs today. That was a challenge with all the muggles out and about. Once these are uploaded on www.geocaching.com we can search for each other's cache. I hope that his cache shows up on the website before I leave on Sunday morning when I fly out for Quito!

Peru has some nice caches. Come on down and visit Macchu Pichu and find some of the Peruvian caches! We'll try to hid some more in Lima too!