At least once in our lives, we feel attracted to what we see, that is why we must “See to Believe”. We can listen about somewhere through the radio, podcast, etc. and immediately we think I must look for a picture to see how it is, even more if a friend tells us. We rush to tell him “show me, did you take any pictures?” The reason why is that we are visual, we want to be surprised and believe that we discover new things. If we go to a new place, we want a reference before.
My name is Albani Sanchez, and that is how I started contributing to the community. Now I am level 6, but at the beginning, I was anxious not to have an image in my mind of the places I was going to visit. I needed to see something, even if it was a poor-quality photo. I started looking in Maps for the places I would go to see real photos of them. Then, I discovered how to upload my own photos and… BOOM! I got hooked. I understood that as I must have more people looking for visual references and I decided to be part of the solution.
In mid-2017 I made a trip to South America by bus, 13 days to be exact. I had to leave my country (Venezuela) due to the deep crisis and shortage of food that is lived there. To my surprise, on the way I met places that did not imagine exist, people, tastes and smells. There, I started uploading my photos although they did not have an excellent quality. I thought, and I still think, those could help SOMEONE else. Of course, I will not deny you, I love photography and tourism, in fact I am now developing my own blog. My friends have always asked me for tips about the cities I have visited, and on Google Maps, I have discovered an immense community eager for answers. For that reason, from what implies being a Google Maps Guide, this is what I am most passionate about: uploading photographs.
Perhaps it is cliche to say “an image says more than a thousand words”, but it is the truth. The first time that Google sent me an email telling me that my photos had more than 1000 views, I was impressed and I thought “this is working, I can contribute much more”. So, I post, mostly, new places, restaurants, parks that I know along with the reviews of my experiences.
I know it has happened to you, when you can see the results of your small actions you know that a single drop of water is important in the ocean.
Every time I find myself more active, since I discovered Connect Guides, I also share my photos in this platform. I hope to see you this November in the Connect Live 2019.
Take Care guys,
Albani Sanchez