World Wide Flash Mob – The Spice of Geocaching Life
It’s your time to bask in the geocaching limelight, with fellow geocachers from around the world, for 15 fast minutes. Join one of hundreds of Geocaching World Wide Flash Mob events on June 7, 2014. The WWFM events are Geocaching Event Caches on fast-forward. They’re 15 minutes of fun and excitement, packed with “typical” geocaching event activities like group photos, event meals, prize giveaways and trading trackables.
Hurry up, time is running out to host a WWFM of your own. Events must be published two weeks prior to the event date and your local geocaching community volunteer reviewer will need time to review and publish your event. All those logging an “Attended” for a WWFM event receive a commemorative digital souvenir for their geocaching profile.
Last year, more than 25,000 geocachers attended one of more than 550 geocaching flash mob events in 42 countries spanning the globe. Discover information on attending the eleventh WWFM event this year on the official WWFM website.
From a small beginning in 2007, the WWFM has grown astronomically, spreading around the world to include more geocachers and more events every year. The WWFM events are 15 minutes of fun and excitement, packed with “typical” geocaching event activities like group photos, event meals (usually Hershey’s kisses), prize giveaways and trackable trading.
Check out the pictures below for a look at what you could experience at a WWFM near you!
Geocachers like a challenge! The Yanamarca Valley floor is at 11,300 feet above sea level, and the surrounding hills go up to 13,000 feet. You’ll explore all of that. We recommend spending the first day walking or biking around the valley floor if you need to acclimatize to the altitude. It’s a lovely area to explore. Over 90% of the buildings are traditional adobe with red tile roofs. Farming is the center of the economy. You’ll see grandmothers in their colorful mantas watching their sheep, pass fields of quinoa, and complete a challenge that will take you to 10 brightly-painted neighborhood chapels. This area is bursting with genuine Peruvian folkways, and as a geocacher, you’ll see it all up close. Above the valley floor, you’ll hike into the hills to find archeological sites, interesting rock formations, and lovely views of the distant Huaytapallana glacier. This is a great location for geocaching because here are so many little delights to be discovered, that you would definitely not come across without geocaching.
When people think of Peru, they think of Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire. Over the span of the history of the Andes, that was just the blink of an eye, less than 100 years. Before that, there were hundreds of cultures spread like a patchwork quilt across the Andes. In our valley and the surrounding hills, it was the Xauxa culture. I’m from the American Southwest, and the Xauxa culture is very similar to the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture. Lots of little stone buildings remain to tell the tale of a vanished civilization. In this tour you’ll build up a picture of these people as you visit the remains of their towns, roads, aqueducts and graves. You can even hire a local shaman to do a traditional ceremony with you to thank the ancient spirits for letting you explore these sites.
We hope that people from around the world will visit us. Many people here take their home for granted. Seeing it through the eyes of visitors will help build local pride. This valley is in the lowest 25% of communities in Peru, economically. If you visit us and spend a little money in the valley, that truly matters for us. Young people are migrating out of this rural area. A little bit of tourism income might entice a few of them to stay. We’d like to see a small but steady stream of visitors. We don’t want to become Machu Picchu—a GeoTour is a perfect way to generate some light tourism without destroying the traditional way of life of the valley. We’d like to have some friends from around the world stop by to share the gentle beauties of our home.