To make this bit more palatable, I have divided the 10 waypoints into 3 interlocking multi-cache sets, labeled Urban Babel #1, Urban Babel #2 and Urban Babel #3. This breaks things up a bit and rewards you with a couple of smileys in the middle (when you might need a little encouragement!). But be aware that you will not be able to find the final cache (waypoint 4 of Urban Babel #3) if you have not visited all of the other caches in the series.
Use the clues on this page to find the first cache and that will lead you to subsequent caches. Most of the caches are small camo’d containers magnetically attached to a common or logical host. Cache locations were selected to achieve a specific pattern and therefore most are in quite mundane urban neighborhoods—just the sorts of places where Chicagoans with roots in many parts of the world are living.
As indicated by the title and to honor the cultural diversity of this city and our world, this series relies on a variety of foreign-language puzzles. While some who have studied languages will solve them quickly, I think all of them can be puzzled out with a little help from Google. The languages involved touch all six continents of our globe. (Well, there’s nothing really Australian other than English.)
As we need to convert word puzzles into coordinate numbers, most of the puzzles will require you to use the “alpha-order value” for individual letters. This simply means that A (or a) = 1, B (or b) = 2, and so on until Z (or z) = 26. The word "at" would have an alpha-order value sum of 20 as a = 1 and t = 19.
Hints for the individual waypoints appear in the waypoint notes at the bottom of this page.
Keep track of all the actual waypoint coordinates as you go along. They will come into play again later on!
TOTT may be useful. Reading and attention to detail are required.
Now, here is the puzzle of Waypoint #1.1:
#1 Romancing some Words
Answer the questions below involving words (which appear in blue) from a certain romance language. Many are cognates with English words, but beware of “false friends:” words that sound like an English word but actually mean something different!
If you ask a speaker of this language to take you to a hospital, where are you likely to arrive?
- A Condominium (3)
- A Hospital (6)
- A Hotel (9)
- A Youth Hostel (12)
Who would you likely go see about a dente:
- Body shop (2)
- Dentist (4)
- Chef (6)
- Masseuse (8)
Where would you go to find fabrica?
- City Hall (7)
- Industrial zone (14)
- Public Park (21)
- Shopping Center (28)
If you order pasta from your hotel where this language is spoken, which is likely to arrive?
- A box of folders (10)
- A container of paste (15)
- A plate of ravioli (20)
- A bowl of risotto (25)
Total the scores associated with your answers to these questions. Multiply your total score by 5 and add it to both of these coordinates: N 41° 59.734 W 087° 42.938
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
This first cache uses natural materials as a host.