Imagine you are somewhere in the world you have never been, perhaps a bit disoriented and confused. Suddenly a companion appears by your side to guide you. Someone who knows where the best restaurants are to be found and what to eat there, the best places to see, and all the best experiences to be had. Just as often, you are able to leap across time and space to share your own knowledge and experience with someone else virtually. Helping and being helped to discover new places, flavors and experiences… This is what the Local Guides program means to me.
The Local Guides program has helped me to do what I enjoy most in life, travel! I love seeing new places, meeting new people, and acquiring new perspectives from around the world. I like to research to understand in advance everything about where I want to go, and the things I intend to do there. This is the reason that I dedicate myself to the program. People’s opinions, facts and ratings helped me a great deal in my decisions.
I timidly began by posting photos of places, mainly restaurants or tourist spots that I liked. I saw that this was helping others as well and it became very rewarding for me. The description of a restaurant owner about his own establishment is not as helpful as the opinion of a customer who was there, liked it, and suggested a dish. This is much more useful! It makes a lot of difference for a traveler, especially when it comes to a country with a totally different language.
My participation in the program evolved as I began to include my sincere opinions about the places I had been. If I received good service, if the attendants strived to be attentive and if the place had other differentials, I included that information along with the photos. It is my way to help that business to get more visited and have a positive return for their effort to provide good service.
I am from Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Here we have a very distinctive regional cuisine. The food is famous for its strong seasoning, typical regional practices and some delicacies native to the state. Thousands of tourists arrive very curious about the flavors that can only be enjoyed here.
One of my favorite restaurants specializes in one of the most famous local dishes: “Feijão Tropeiro” (Trooper’s Beans). The place serves this dish in the traditional way. The taste is wonderful and the cost is fair. I posted some photos and discovered that there were many likes.
To me, being a Local Guide means helping and being helped. It is a collaboration. Thanks to Google and the collaborators of Local Guides, distances are shorter, doubts are clarified, and good decisions are made. It is much easier to explore the possibilities offered to us in our own city or country, and in the world at large. How privileged we are to live in a time when the internet makes it possible to live life to the fullest! I truly believe in all the benefits that technology brings us and I am grateful for having access to it through the Local Guide program.