Monday, August 17, 2009

GPS Adventures

Yesterday Les & I decided to give geocaching a try.  You may be thinking what the heck is geocaching?
"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online." (www.geocaching.com)
 We picked a hunt that was within 50 miles of home and plugged the coordinates into our handy Garmin nuvi.  Our journey took us up through Mineo and out into the hills on a gorgeous drive.  We saw parts of Sicily that were new to us and thoroughly enjoyed our time.

Along the way we stopped to enjoy a fantastic view of Vizzini, a small town on a hill out in the middle of nowhere.



The GPS coordinates took us to the town of Palazzolo Acreide and up to the Area Archeologica Akrai.  We searched and searched but couldn't find the cache, which was supposed to be a black film canister stuck in a wall behind a lamp post.  Oh well, at least we found a cool archeological site and a beafutiful town!  As we were searching we came across some wild blackberries that made a tasty snack.



Finally we gave up on trying to find the cache and decided to go into the archeological park.  It was hot so we didn't stay long but it was definitely worth the visit, and will likely get a second visit from me once the weather cools off a bit.


Greek Ruins of the Theatre of Akrai

To cool off and fill our tummies we headed into the centro of Palazzolo Acreide for lunch.  We found a very cute bar with some yummy savory treats as well as granita to cool off.  We finished off our meal with caffee freddo; mine with latte di mandorla (almond milk) and Les' with panna (whipped cream).

From Palazzolo Acreide we took a drive to Ragusa to see if the mall was open.  Another beautiful winding road through the Sicilian countryside. The mall was closed so we went to Bricco instead (a sort of home improvement/housewares store) and wandered for a bit.  We didn't find anything that we couldn't live without so we headed home.

Our geocaching adventure was a great success, not because we found the cache (we didn't and that frustrated me) but because Les & I got to spend the day together exploring this beautiful part of the world.  We'll definitely give geocaching another try, if only to discover new roads and where they lead and to see more of Sicily.

1 comment:

Trav'ler Jenn said...

What a cool thing to do! What will they think of next? I bet some little kid took the cache and is hiding it in his left shoe. Inspect all left shoes!