Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

Are you looking for a fun way to discover exciting places in Riga, Latvia (or any other country) or simply spend a good weekend? Then Geocaching (“jee-oh-cash-ing”) is the right thing for you. It is a modern day treasure hunting game which uses the coordinates of a GPS signal and clues to find a hidden cache. The rule is that non-cachers must not notice you, so discretion is always appropriate.

According to Wikipedia, the first type of such a cache was hidden on May 3, 2000 by Dave Ulmer of Beavercreak, Oregon. Today there are more than 950 000 active caches in over 100 countries and all 7 continents (including Antarctica) and hundreds of caches in Latvia. To understand why geocaching has become so popular the process has to be enjoyed in life, so reading an article can only give a glimpse of what it is. I would describe it from the perspective of an explorer who is thrilled by the act of discovery and the experience itself. Nowadays when there are few white spots on earth, and average citizen is comfortably cruising his well-known roads, it is a great pleasure to tread the paths that you did not even expect to exist.

Geocaching can be divided into urban and countryside type each having its charm. The urban caching is as the name suggests happening in cities and  caches are often placed near memorable places and tourist attractions. For example, Riga has caches located near the National Opera, the Dome church, and also on the Vanšu bridge. In contrast to these, there are  caches that bring you to city parts that you normally would not wander in as a tourist. The best time for caches is late evening or night when there are less people around as sometimes obtaining the cache requires actions which would, mildly saying, look suspicious. The countryside caching also has  caches in great places: near notable natural and architectural sites. The great thing is that almost every cache has a story behing it, the reason why it is placed there. For instance, some are in memory of places where famous battles took place, such as the Christmas battle of WW1. Without a cache a person not acquainted with history would probably never imagine visiting this place (of course, except for primary school excursion). Some geocahing trips also include collecting and disposing of litter and waste found, and the game itself has a generally green attitude towards nature. The cacher leaves the place as he found it or even better – cleaner than before.The game is also about friendship and respect for other people. Players are themselves sponsible for the actions they take and for preservation of  caches.

If you have read this far you most probably wonder how exactly you start geocaching. To find your first cache you need to have its coordinates and maybe a hint to help you in case you face difficulty (the nearest cache is one block away from SSE Riga). The biggest and probably best website for caching is www.geocaching.com which includes the coordinates and also help for beginners. The GPS devices can be quite expensive, so at first you can simply look up the cache on the google maps, reaching the approximate destination is often sufficient to find the cache. Using a mobile phone with a built in GPS device is also a good options. Probably this article does not do justice to the real fun of the process. So don’t just sit there and think about how it could be, but go out and find your first cache.

Reinholds Pirags