Welcome to the home of the Golden Panthers! Florida International University is South Florida's lesser known school of higher education, but it is on the rise. As of 2012, FIU is the 7th largest university in the nation with enrollment of 50,000 students. Perhaps the reason why it seems that no one has heard of FIU outside of South Florida is because we're a very young school. Opened in 1972, we are one of the youngest state universities in the country, and like Miami itself back in the 1890s and early 1900s, FIU has sprung to life like magic. Since I (Hermes) started here a year and a half ago the campus has already had some impressive additions. It seemed only fitting to plant some caches to show off the beautiful campus and its latest additions.
Parking is the bane of FIU's campus, and will probably be the trickiest part of this cache. I recommend that once you find a parking spot, you walk your way around campus rather than driving from cache to cache. If you come on a week day, you'll find it easiest to park in one of the many garages on the perimeter of the campus, such as the one on the other side of the basketball stadium. There is a small chance you'll be given a parking ticket if you don't have a student decal (I've gone without one for months and not been ticketed), but if you are really worried you can park in Panther Garage and walk to the Parking and Transportation office downstairs to get a visitor's pass. Alternatively, you can park in the metered parking near the 107th Street entrance. On weekends park anywhere that isn't a handicapped parking space (well, unless you're handicapped). Good luck.
Near to this cache you will find a funky looking, thick trunked specimen of tree known as a Baobab. Baobabs are my favorite trees, and are the reason why this cache is located where it is. Observe the baobab. It is pleasing to the eye. But why does it have such a humongous trunk? Is it emulating the Eiffel Tower? Does it need a low center of gravity to help it win wrestling matches? Is it trying to get a role as a female in Lil' Wayne's next music video? No. To understand why the mighty baobab has such a thick trunk, we must look at its origins.
The scientific name for the baobab is Adansonia, and it is a genus with 8 species. Almost all of them are located in arid East Africa, with six native to Madagascar, the Texas-sized island off the coast of East Africa, and the other two are native to continental East Africa. Madagascar is more similar to Texas than just in size. Like East Texas, East Madagascar is hot, humid and subtropical in climate. Like West Texas, West Madagascar is arid and dry. The Baobab's home is in the dry, arid West Madagascar, although this particular species doesn't call Madagascar home at all, as it is one of the two species of Baobab native to the arid, dry, continental East Africa.
So, what does this have to do with Baobab's thick trunk? The answer is that it serves the same purpose as that of the camel's hump, to store up water. That's right, underneath this Baobab's bark is a water resevoir that stores gallons and gallons of pure, potable H20. Sometimes thirsty elephants in Africa take advantage of this by stripping away the bark to get to the water resevoir. And what a resevoir it is. The largest Baobabs can hold up to 32,000 gallons, but the largest Baobabs are huge. They can reach hights of almost 100 feet, and trunk diameters up to 36 feet. Can you imagine? Hopefully ours will eventually reach this size, but we probably won't be around to see it, since Baobabs are reputed to be able to live for over 1000 years. Oh, on top of all that, baobabs produce edible, coconut sized fruit.
Without a doubt this is FIU's most long-term investment. I look forward to the day when they have to move the road so that the Baobab trunk has space to grow. If you're reading this at a computer, look up the "Avenue of the Baobabs" for an awesome sight of what our friend may eventually look like. If you're at the cache site, and it happens to be a Tuesday-Friday, check out the Werthiem glass house conservatory just behind the cache. It doesn't harbor any Baobabs but has lots of other cool plants.
FTF honors go to the brave Wall-E&Eva and MagicHack99!
Good luck with the cache!