2009-10-29 -34 -71

The Spot

The hash for Oct 29, 2009 on -34,-71 happens to fall right over the J-620 road (distrust the map, trust the sattelite!), in the Maule region, Chile. The nearest locality is "La Fragua" (at least that's what the signs told me) and the nearest city Curicó.

The Trip

As lived by SKeaLoT

• Optimal One-Way distance: 7.27 Km
• Actual Total Trip Distance: 14.70 Km

I woke up this morning, and did a few stuff waiting for the hash (hopefully my first) to come out (at 10:30AM local time). When I realized it was close I decided I would go, so I took a shower after announcing my attempt at the IRC channel.

I started planning: Since I'm navigating GPS-less I fired up google earth and traced an optimal route, going through the whole city and then taking the J-620 road. I would take some water, my backpack with a camera and a notebook to keep track of stuff, my cellphone and my wallet, and of course my bicycle. Gabbed my keys, opened the door and the real world hit me. Damn! It was as hot as hell out there, so I revised my plan and decided to travel lightly. I left my backpack, the notebook (sometimes I DO remember stuff!) and the water (I would buy some on the way if the heat or thirst were unbearable), strapped the camera to my belt, cellphone and wallet in the pockets and left.

I would be back before lunch

• At first I was like this =)
• Then I realized I was riding through some sort of ghetto, and my brand new bike is shiny red. I was like D=

Nothing happened, I didn't even get lost!

After a long ride on J-620 I stopped at a place that looked like the hash, since I don't have a GPS I wasn't 100% sure of the spot first, but after analyzing the place a bit more I came to be 110% sure that I was on the right spot.

• And then I was like =D

Looked around, took a few pictures and spotted a small grocery store! Must be my lucky day... God I was thirsty! Parked my bike next to it, got in, bought a Coke drank it and recycled the bottle.

I decided that no other Geohasher would come (I'm one of the few people that have Geohashed in Chile, the first native as far as I know), so I left quietly.

On my way back I could almost always see the Condell Hill (the main landmark of Curicó), as some sort of reminder of how f*****g far I went.

Then I came back home and started writing this, I freaking loved the randomness of this! I'm going to attempt many more in the future as long as locations are reasonable (someone pointed out in my talk page that I shouldn't wait for reasonable, but I don't thing he/she knows about the chilean topography)

Achievements

As this was my first trip, I achieved some neat stuff:

SKeaLoT earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (-34, -71) geohash on 2009-10-29.

SKeaLoT earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling to the (-34, -71) geohash on 2009-10-29.

SKeaLoT earned the No Batteries Geohash Achievement by reaching the (-34, -71) geohash on 2009-10-29.

And the one I'm most proud of: Template:Virgin graticule