Riobamba Overlook

Jimnet2005, a relatively new Ecuadorian geocacher, has jumped into geocaching with both feet! He has traveled up and down the length of Ecuador seeding the country with caches in some of the most beautiful places here. I'm sure thankful for a serious cacher in Ecuador. I've really enjoyed looking for his caches. We had the opportunity to stop off in his hometown recently. While there we climbed a mountain overlooking the city to find one of his own caches. We followed the cache instructions which led us to the Ricpamba municipal gardens. From there we followed a series of way points designed to keep us on track up to the cache and to help us chart our way around private property. I must admit that at one point I got a little confused and we just headed straight up the hill through the eucalyptus trees. I wasn't sure whether we were trespassing or not. The trail looked fairly well used. After some strenuous climbing we reached a road that appeared to be the main approach. From there we were on track again. We climbed up into a beautiful stand of pine trees. Near the top we arrived at the GZ. What a view of the city of Riobamba! This afternoon El Altar volcano was out and clear. See the photo! The cache was unique to Ecuador. Check out Riobamba Overlook (GC29WGX) if you like. I don't think I've seen on here quite like it. After signing the log we headed back down through the pines. Geocaching is the perfect sport or hobby or whatever you want to call it for seeing this beautiful country. Thanks again to Jimnet2005!

Caching with jimnet2005

One of the biggest pleasures of geocaching is found in the friends you make along the way. Over the past several months I started seeing a new geocacher appear in the logs here in Ecuador. Soon this new geocacher was also hiding some pretty good caches too. On a recent trip into the southern part of the country I was able to pick up a few of jimnet2005's caches. As a result we struck up an Internet conversation through geocaching.com. Today we met for the first time at Parque Metropolitano and were able to visit some caches together. What a pleasure to get to know Jaime and Maria Belen, from Riobamba, Ecuador! They only have a few geocaches under their belts due to the low geocache density here but they have in just eight months quickly risen to become the geocachers with the second highest number of geocache hides in Ecuador! Thanks for the caches jimnet2005!!!! This is what I've been praying for! Jaime, Maria Belen and I met at the outdoor food court in the park. From there we started a swing through the southern end of the park. They had attempted the northern end of the park but found that a number of the caches there were either missing or simply too hard to find. They found eight caches today and we became good friends in the process. One of our near term goals is to host a geocaching event soon in hopes of getting some of the small caching community together. I'm also eager to visit the high jungle near Puyo and find some more of their caches. They have some caches along some trails to some spectacular waterfalls. I know my wife will like these. Thanks for a great day jimnet2005!