So, what is the most interesting thing I have done as a Local Guide?
Let me tell you, reader friends, that I was a scout in my teens, and I always liked cartography. On the other hand I am also a fan of technology and computing (I am currently a technician). When I traveled, I always used to use physical maps, and then GPS, I was the one who always guided the roads on family trips.
Later I discovered Google Maps, which was the solution to mix my two tastes. It allowed me to explore cities, mountains and find places that I didn’t know existed, although many of them had no name or reference, just using my computer or my cell phone. This is when Google Maps started to become more interesting to me.
For now, time was advancing and I realized that there were many places that were not added to Maps, and that if I added them, I could level up faster by adding more points.
So I proposed to become a “hunter of places without adding”, especially little known tourist spots and this became a very entertaining game.
I live in Argentina “the country located at the end of the world”, in the province of San Luis. I am going to tell you about a little adventure we lived with a childhood friend and colleague, Cristian.
There was a place in the north of my province, in the town of Potrero de Los Funes, that I liked a lot, known as “Vallecito de La Paz”. This natural gem is visited by some locals and tourists who like trekking, however it is not well known. It is a natural valley that is an hour’s walk along the Los Molles River. So I decided to go to the place to take photos to add it to Google Maps, and I asked my friend to accompany me:
Vallecito de La Paz.
We left early in January for Potrero de Los Funes, to leave the vehicle in the town’s municipality, before starting to climb a dirt road, approximately 700 meters ?. We arrived at a viewpoint where the path that descended towards the river began, down a hillside.
Once we finished descending we started up the river. On the route we had to jump rocks and cross the water from one shore to the other, we ran into some people who were doing the same trekking as us.
After half an hour the sun was too hot ?, but we were lucky to find a crystal clear water well which was quite deep, we threw down our backpacks and went to cool off for a while ?.
With our neurons cold again, we continued for another half hour, as the river made its way through the mountains.
Suddenly we began to see some white poplars ahead and the path widened more and more, until we reached a wide and green terrain, with bushes of rose hips characteristic of the place … We had arrived!.
We explored the place, we made our tent and we made camp, we gathered wood for the fire and then we went to refresh ourselves in the river again. At nightfall, we boiled water for a coffee and to accompany it with sandwiches, we waited admiring the thousands of stars and the Milky Way in the sky (something that cannot be enjoyed in the city), while we told good stories.
At night we felt a strange noise, there was a strange and gigantic animal that was prowling outside the store and that several times pushed the latch inside. We were puzzled thinking that it could be a cougar or a dangerous animal ?, so we stayed on guard until dawn. ?When the sun came up, we took courage and opened the tent, we were surprised while laughing at the fright in vain we had, they were just two curious four-legged friends!!
We got up, we loaded mineral water from a natural spring that was on a hillside next to the river, we disarmed camp and started back ? …
La Carolina.
A place that I recommend visiting is also La Carolina, in the north of the province of San Luis. It is a mountainous town where it had mining activity for a long time, which was occupied by the Spanish and the English. There are very important archaeological sites such as the Inti Huasi Grotto which is an old volcanic dome, many cave paintings, arrowheads and other interesting objects were found.
Ok my friends…
I hope I have not bored you with my story, since I have many more to tell … I hope to meet many other local guides to exchange experiences, and grow Google Maps among all. Currently my photos have 366,628 views, my reviews 19,573 views and the sites added more than 19,000 views, meanwhile I will keep working hard to be the best, keep sharing my experiences and adding new places not found on Google Maps.
I hope to see you at connect live 2020 !!! ? ?