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More information about the book: This guidebook has been written with the geocacher in mind, but more so, with the geocacher who has friends or family who aren’t as keen about the hobby coming along to visit what I feel is one of the most beautiful and amazing places on earth that I am blessed to call home. The 160+ pages of this book includes GC codes and insider tips for hundreds of active geocaches, lists of the top geocaches to find in a variety of categories and ratings, information on how to travel to and around the region you'd only get from a local, and details on day trips to other amazing locations outside of the Lower Mainland of BC. Add to this a variety of insights into activities and locations that would appeal to the non-geocachers (and the geocaches closest to them) and you've got an indispensable resource you'll want to have before you visit! Chapters include:
In case you've missed those episodes, you can watch them here!
Episode 3 - Norway to Go!
Episode 4 - Art Attack!
Where Did We Go?
We explored the city of Norway; in episode 3 we explored entirely on foot from our hotel near Munchs Gate and Keysers Gate, right by the virtual cache "Grass Roots Square" featured in episode 3.
Most of what you'll see in episode 3 is from walking through City Hall area and down to the waterfront near the new virtual rewards geocache "Oslo City Hall - V&V #27."
We followed the shoreline to the South-East and that's where you'll most of the sights we shared in that episode. Some of the key places we visited are:
Here's a list per episode of key geocaches we found. Good news - there's been several more virtual reward caches placed in Oslo since we visited. OK, good news for YOU planning a trip there, or perhaps for us, since I'd love an excuse to go back!
If you have questions, please post them in the comments section below, or use Twitter @LANMonkeyGC and I'm happy to do my best to answer them.
If
there is something else that would be helpful or interesting to you,
please make sure to leave a comment. If you enjoyed it, please make sure
to share it on social media and use @LANMonkeyGC so I can thank you.
Here's some great news; I heard that you wanted to know more about the Blue Lagoon Spa so I'm providing some personal insights on that visit.
Where Is It?
First off, where is it? The Blue Lagoon Spa is located a short drive from Keflavik, or just under an hour from Reykjavik, on the Southern Peninsula.
How Do I Get In?
There are two types of "standard" entry, and then the more luxurious "Retreat Spa" option. You should really book ahead via their website; they have a schedule/ticket system that's quite easy to use.
The two types of standard entry are called comfort or premium. Staff in the pool know which entry you've paid for by the coloured RFID wristband you'll be wearing.
Once through the front doors, there will be two lineups - one for tour groups, and the other for non-tour guests. The staff is highly efficient at getting you signed in, giving you your wristband and towel, and directing you to the change rooms.
What Should I Expect When I Get There?
Both
entries get you access to the lagoon, a silica mud mask, use of a
towel, locker for your stuff, and one free drink. The premium upgrade
gets you use of a bathrobe and slippers, a second mud mask, and
reservations to their on-site restaurant.
Honestly,
you get the full experience with the comfort entry which costs about
79EU, and the upgrade to premium is around 102EU. We didn't even consider the 280EU "retreat spa" option. We really enjoyed the comfort entry for the 3 or so hours we were there. Off you get to the change rooms. You must shower before lagoon entry, and the free lockers work off of the RFID wristbands. A very cool system and all instructions are in English and several other languages. It's really hard to mess up!
Once you're showered and ready for the lagoon you make your way out and into the WARM water. It looks murky/cloudy, and the temperature ranges from spot to spot - as you get closer or nearer to the water inflows. Generally the bottom is flat and a bit gritty, and the water is super-buoyant. Most of the pool is at an average depth of just over a metre, but it does range slightly.
What Do I Do There?
Now that you are enjoying the warm waters, explore around and head to the mud-mask bar! They will ladel out (literally) a big handful of warm silica mud to apply to your face, and give you instructions such as "not in your eyes, nose or mouth" which is maybe obvious but important.
The mud really feels like wet drywall mudding, and once applied to your face beings to dry quickly. You are expected to wear it for no more than 10 minutes, then you dip underwater to wash it off. Now you see one of the reasons the water is so cloudy! After rejuvenating your face, head over to the opposite side of the lagoon and queue up for the in-water bar. They have a wide selection of pop and juice, you can also get red or white "house" wine, or a local beer. They even have a couple flavours of the Icelandic equivalent of a slurpee/slushie style iced drink.
Amusingly, it's called Krap.
You can enjoy your drink anywhere in the pool, but they prefer you don't roam too far with it, and that you use the provided receptacles for your empty plastic cup. You are expected to keep your visit in the Lagoon to about 2 hours, after which you head back to the change room for another shower. The change rooms are very well appointed with hair-dryers, mirrors, and all the basic amenities so you can dry off and clean up nicely for the rest of your day. I hope this info has been interesting, and maybe even helpful! If
there is something else that would be helpful or interesting to you,
please make sure to leave a comment. If you enjoyed it, please make sure
to share it on social media and use @LANMonkeyGC so I can thank you.
Accompanying each episode of Geocaching Adventures we'll provide a "behind the scenes" blog article to give you details on the cool adventures you saw in the video. What should you expect here? Things like:
GC codes for the caches we found
Maps of where we traveled
Photos and video that didn't make the cut but were still cool
Some of the fun stories we just couldn't squeeze into the videos
First things first, right? So our trip planning was largely (almost entirely!) done via the fact that we signed up for a Landsharkz Geocaching Adventure. We've previously joined them for their Alaskan Adventure and had so much fun we signed up for this Baltic one also.
Pro Tips - unless you can get by for six hours on a bag of pretzels, bring food on the plane with you. Standard fares do not include meals. Also, check your carry-on baggage size, as IcelandAir may have slightly smaller carry-on restrictions than you may be accustomed to.
There is another airport right at Reykjavik, but the primary airport for travel in and out of Iceland is KEF.
Once we landed, we did not need taxis or rental cars as we were part of an organized tour group picked up directly by bus from the airport.
Before we went into Reykjavik, our group did a tour of the Southern peninsula where the KEF airport is, an area called Reykjanes. This is a drive that I would highly recommend as it takes you to some extraordinary sights that really aren't that far from the airport.
Key stops of note in this area include:
Midlina - the bridge across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Reykjanesta - spectacular cliffs and basalt formations dropping into the Atlantic
After our drive-about tour we headed to Reykjavik and some folks did an organized city tour, but as the city was quite walkable for us Monkeys, we chose to opt out and walked around a fairly sizable loop (a few km's).
I hope this info has been interesting, and maybe even helpful! If there is something else that would be helpful or interesting to you, please make sure to leave a comment. If you enjoyed it, please make sure to share it on social media and use @LANMonkeyGC so I can thank you.
Recently we returned from an amazing vacation in beautiful Cuba. We wanted to share with you how to maximize your geocaching enjoyment while still experiencing everything Cuba has to offer. It has been a long time since we posted here last - our attention has been focused on the YouTube channel and we realize that only gives part of the story! So back to the blog. With travel restrictions from the US to Cuba imminently lightening, we expect it will be a more popular "North American" destination soon. One of the most amazing things about Cuba is the simplicity of life while visiting there. Hopefully that doesn't change too much, although admittedly there are many people in the country who could benefit from an economic boon (such as increased tourism investment would bring).
Varadero is circled in red at the top of the map.
We stayed in the popular resort area of Varadero, the peninsula on the North-East of the island nation where the majority of the resorts are located. A quick look at the Geocaching map shows a number of caches all along that strip. You can easily spend a day just grabbing the 20+ caches along the Varadero Peninsula. We'd suggest renting bicycles from your resort as most of these caches are placed along or proximate to the highway that runs the length of the peninsula.
You can also take the 5 CUC ($5 US) "Hop-On, Hop-Off" tour buses that run the length of the highway, but they are about 30 minutes between each other and will not be efficient. Along this stretch is an EarthCache we highly recommend, Cueva de Ambrosio (GC2DDG4). This cache was our 5,000th find milestone, but it was also amazing to explore. Also 5 CUC (you'll quickly find a theme in Cuba of 5 CUC).
Most importantly however, is plan some time to get away from the resorts and see the rest of Cuba. One easy way to do this is to take some of the excursions - I won't kid you, they aren't cheap (do your research ahead of time) but the country of Cuba is amazingly rich in history and natural beauty so it's worth the investment. Some of the excursion we took while in Cuba & Geocaches found:
There were several more traditional and Earthcaches in Habana, but we couldn't get to many others due to a tight itinerary on our tour. So hopefully this blog will help you plan an enjoyable, relaxing visit to Cuba, where you can also pick up a few geocaches and have fun - like we did in this video! And remember to cache safely, and cache often! The LANMonkeys
More information about the book:
AG#20 - Akershus Castle and Fortress 
Akershus festning's berggrunn
Grass Roots Square 
Ibsensgate (formerly Ibsenringen)
Phantom of the Opera
