If you are visiting these pages for the very first time and you are in a hurry.......... do yourself a favor and click on the 'Hymno de las Islas Canarias'... (just below) It will give you an "Insight" into the Pride, Full Heartedness and generosity of the Tinerfenians..........Merry Christmas everyone.

Monday 12 October 2009

"Buried treasure" on Tenerife

I have always been fascinated by pre 1900 Leather Bound Books, Old Maps, Lythographs and specifically Old Charts.              The smell, the romance and knowing that someone has put pen to paper; largely guessing as to its import and then lovingly painting it with now; fading water-colour.               Over the last few years, I have been doing a lot of research (mainly on the Internet) regarding just how many reported Treasures, troves or caches have been stashed on this Island alone.  There are more than Seventy!     These are very well documented, authentic and are the original places where caches have been hidden and are to be found.     Anyone can ask the correct  authorities for this information and go Treasure Hunting themselves. What it takes is a lot of patience, skill, correct equipment and Luck.

In the olden days, Treasure was hidden well above the High-Tide Line. Somewhere remote and hard to find even with the help of a fading, parched and cryptic map.  If you were superstitious you had to get a fearless crew together and cross their palms with silver before they would even think about the expedition. More recently, you still had to decypher a forgotten language, find the rough area to search and then break out a metal detector. Then, walk a search grid for hours; even days before you would stand a chance of success.


Well, the good news is that things have changed dramatically for all those budding "Treasure Hunters" out there. The 21st century has brought us a Global Positioning System that can place us within 6 feet (2 metres) of a given Co-ordinate!    Handheld gps can be bought for €100 and can be found on many mobile telefones nowadays.              So, Now the only thing we need to know is exactly where our "Cache" can be found.
The old maps cannot serve, so we have to resort to the new generation of maps and these are readily available on the Internet... and it is here that you will find a fantastic "authority" on worldwide caches.      Before I go any further you must by now realise that I am talking about a Modern Day Version of Treasure Hunting that has become a fast growing Worldwide Hobby of enthusiasts that have planted Caches in the more interesting, beautiful and inspiring parts of the Country. (sorry to kid you along a little but, please read to the very end)    The Internet site    http://geocaching.com/   then publishes the gps co-ordinates of each and every cache for us to visit. (click on the link and look around... You will have to log-in, it is free, and then you can download all 70 + co-ordinates on Tenerife) I placed a "treasure, yesterday, which will be published very soon....... It is in a remote part of the Fabulous Anaga Mountains...    I am publishing this for a very good reason.  I have found that most of the caches have been put in places that I would not have thought of even visiting. Yes, they are remote but each and every one will take you somewhere special. With Fantastic Views or Great Walking. You will learn so much about the local culture and be able to visit some out-of-the-way Restaurants/ Bars.            Good Luck, Fun Hunting and Happy geocaching. (more to come.... so please re-visit us)

1 comment:

  1. Fascinating blog, thanks. Unfortunately I don't have gps.

    There's not a similar site for people who navigate through the countryside by following twig arrows, dots on rocks and faint footprints in the earth is there?

    ReplyDelete