On June 28th, 2008, over 400 Banditos, making up 43 teams, swarmed all over Boston, taking part in the First Annual Boston Scavenger Hunt. The hunt was one part Barter Challenge, one part Persuasion and one part Riddle-Solving.

All participants were asked to meet up at Boston Common, where teams of 8 were randomly assigned, to keep with the Bandito philosophy of getting to know your fellow Bostonian. Groups of friends were allowed to stick together, but they were quickly absorbed into their larger group of other fellow participants.

The hunt had three parts:

Part one - The blob
Each team was given the goal of getting the largest number of random strangers to join in their group. The largest group would be awarded at the end.

Part two - Paperclip bartering
Each team was handed a paperclip that they could trade for another item, the team with the best resulting item would win this said competition.

Part three - The Hunt 
The style of the Scavenger Hunt was passport based.  With each team being handed a passport that had 14 riddles on it.  Teams were tested on their ability to think abstractly, and more importantly, their knowledge of Boston. Once the riddle was solved and they arrived at the given location, all teams were asked to take part in a themed activity.  Once this task was complete, they were given a stamp and sent along to find the next clue. 

It was quite straight forward.

 
But, at the risk of being too verbose, we’re just going to jump into pictures and movies.

Banditos Flickr Photo Pool

Banditos Youtube Channel

Here’s a quick little offering of some fun pictures. We hope they don’t confuse. Sometimes you just had to be there ;-).  

 
All groups were handed a pamphlet:

Three of the Forty-Three Teams:

Three of the fourteen activities:

Silent Orchestra

The Rail of Happiness

Ribbon Dancing

Three of the traded up items:

Adults Ribbon Dancing!

Children Ribbon Dancing!

And, uh, Not-Really-Ribbon-Dancing!

Official Video Recap of the Entire Event: