Scavenger Hunts

There’s a lot to like with Scavenger Hunts. Everyone knows how they work and what the goals are. Usually, there are clues or tasks or otherwise things to accomplish within a set period of time and area. The game can be made more or less complicated based on the participants choosing. As team building exercises, hunts have been pretty common. 

But scavenger hunts can make things worse. Since being semi-retired, we’ve done some traveling. Impressionism is my favorite type of painting and the ones we saw were breathtaking. However, the problem that I created for myself was making a list of paintings I wanted to see and then having seen them, I crossed it off. 

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to assume that I missed out on a lot of other amazing works of art. And I didn’t fully appreciate the ones that I saw. I treated great works of art like a scavenger hunt. 

A couple of years after the art debacle (sure, I saw several  paintings I wanted to see, but missed out on a lot more) I wasn’t going to make the same mistake in Peru. Machu Picchu was truly awe inspiring. We decided to make it an adventure and hiked the Incan Trail. This guided trek took five days and covered about 45 miles. While Machu Picchu was the highlight, there was a lot to appreciate and enjoy along the way. And the memories of the journey are what we come back to more than the culmination at Machu Picchu.

I understand how people are busy and a checklist can provide focus, but too much focus and the beauty and wonder of the world is lost to a scavenger hunt mentality.