Cerro Nielol - Temuco, Chile

The most southern part of the southern hemisphere is headed into spring while those to our north are moving into fall. For those of us who live on the equator the changes are much less perceptible. On a recent trip to Temuco, Chile I had the opportunity to look for the one and only geocache in that area. I also had the opportunity to introduce six friends and their children (we were 13 all together) to the sport of geocaching. I was with them for three days so early on we set Monday, our last day together, as the day to go for the cache. The kids were excited about the "treasure hunt" we would be going on. I didn't want to build it up too much not knowing what the geocache would look like. It could have been loaded with swag and of great interest to the kids or it could have been emptied of swag and a bummer for the kids. One of the parents told me this morning that their six year old son got up and wanted to know whether I would forget about the promise to take them treasure hunting. I hadn't. We meet at the Cerro Nielol hill overlooking the city of Temuco a little after 10 a.m. There is a city park there but you do have to pay a little to enter. It doesn't matter whether you are a resident in Chile or not, you pay. For non-residents the cost was about $2.00 and even less for residents. We paid our entrance fee and drove to the top of the mountain. Two of my friends had their GPSr and had the coordinates plugged in. The kids were also plugged into it. With the clue in hand we took off up the trail, climbing slightly to the birdwatcher's overlook. Following the needle of both GPS devices we went up the hill until their needles swung around and suddenly told them that the GC was about 50 feet behind them. We looked at the clue again and realized that it described the cache as being just meters from the overlook. Back we went and found the tree we thought was the place. Along with one of the older children I climbed up to the other side of the tree and started kicking around. Sure enough. We found it. One of the boys wanted to look for another. That simply wasn't possible as the nearest traditional cache to this one is probably 60 miles away at the foot of the Andes. I would love to go there today but there was no way. I had a great time today finding Cerro Nielol (GC2016P). Enjoy the pictures.