Alerces
in Flames (Spanish: Alerces en Llamas)
International
Multi Cache
As this
is an
international cache, please write
your log in English! You
may add a
translation in the local language
if you
want.
All notes just advertising
someone from abroad
is ready to
trade hints will
be deleted!
This
cache
is just
one cache of a set of 24 caches
named "IMC No. 4
…" (IMC = International Multi-Cache) dedicated
to the
theme Fire,
one of the
four basic
elements of Earth. These caches are
hidden in 12 countries around
the world:
Australia
[AU], Canada
[CA],
Chile [CL],
Czek
Republic [CZ], Deutchland
[DE],
Spain
[ES],
Nederlands
[NL],
New
Zealand [NZ], Portugal
[PT], Singapore
[SG],
Thailand
[TH]
and
South Africa [ZA]
In each country there
is a "primary cache" and a "secondary cache".
The
12
primary caches are named "IMC No. 4 P-x - yyy" and the
nn secondary caches "IMC No. 4 S-x -
zzz" where x is
the country code given
above and yyy and zzz can
be any additional
name.
The
primary caches are almost like
traditional caches. The only
difference is, that
they contain beside
the "normal" content (stash-note, logbook, pencil,
give-aways) a "lists of hints"
for the secondary
caches.
To
be able
to search and find a
secondary cache you need
all hints from
all 12 primary caches!
As the primary caches are
scattered all over
the world it
will either require a
lot of travelling or - and that
is the intention of
the IMC No. 4 - international cooperation:
If
you want
to find this
secondary cache, you should:
1. Find a primary IMC No. 4 cache.
2. Contact finders of other
primary IMC No. 4 caches and
exchange the hints.
3. Puzzle the hints
together and
…
4. … go and seek the
secondary
cache.
The
IMC
No. 4 team wish you
good luck!
About
the place of this
Primary Cache:
The
alerce
tree is a
rare species found
only in the
Andes mountain range and can live
for up to
3,500 years. It is
often referred to as a
“first cousin” of California's giant redwood
trees. Because of its
durability and impermeability, alerce wood is
extremely valuable and can fetch as much as
US$5,000 per cubic meter in
illegal international markets.
Fitzroya
is a genus in
the cypress
family Cupressaceae with a
single species, Fitzroya cupressoides
native to
the Andes mountains of southern
Chile and adjoining Argentina,
where it
is an
important member of the
Valdivian temperate rain forests.
The scientific name of
the genus
honours Robert FitzRoy; common
names include Lahuan
(the Mapuche Native American name),
Alerce (South American Spanish), and
Patagonian Cypress. It
is a very large
evergreen tree, the
largest tree species in
South America, growing to 40-60
m tall and up to 5 m trunk
diameter. The leaves are in
decussate whorls of three,
3-6 mm long (to 8 mm long
on seedlings) and 2 mm broad, marked
with two white
stomatal lines. The
cones are globose, 6-8 mm diameter, opening
flat to 12 mm across, with
nine scales in three
whorls of three. Only
the central whorl of scales
is fertile, bearing
2-3 seeds on each
scale; the lower and
upper whorls are small
and sterile. The seeds are 2-3
mm long, flat, with a wing
along each side.
The seeds are mature
6-8 months after pollination.
In 1993 a
specimen from Chile was
dated as 3622 years old.
This gives it
the second-greatest fully verified
age recorded for
any living tree (the
oldest being the Great
Basin Bristlecone Pine). Much larger
specimens existed in the
past before the
species was heavily
logged in the 19th and 20th centuries; Charles Darwin reported finding
a specimen 12.6 m in diameter, which,
if accurately measured, would
have made it
the stoutest tree
ever measured anywhere
in the world. A team of
researchers from the
University of Tasmania
found fossilized foliage of Fitzroya on
the Lea River of northwest Tasmania. The 35 million
year-old fossil has been
given the species
name Fitzroya tasmanensis. The
finding demonstrates the
ancient floristic affinities between Australasia and southern South America, which
botanists identify as the
Antarctic flora. In the colonial Chiloé the Fitzroya
wood was very
valued and roof shingles of
Fitzroya were used as
money and were called "Real
de Alerce".
In
order to populate
the south of Chile, many forests of
alerces were burned, causing its
danger of extinction. The
smoke of these fires
could be seen
even in Argentina
Initial
Cache
Content:
·
Standard
stash note
·
IMC
Stash note
·
Several
copies
of the hintsheet
·
Logbook
Pen/pencil
·
A MatchBox (yes, a match box... please leave
it)
·
TB (El Sibarita)
(for the
FTF)
·
Some
little gift
Don't
forget: "Cache in, Trash out"