When my mother had a stroke in 1984, the Internet didn´t exist and, of course, Google didn´t exist either.
At that time, if someone had some kind of disability that prevented them from walking, their world was reduced to the confines of their home and, perhaps, their neighborhood, but not much else.
She was from Spain, but immigrated to Argentina when she was a child. Before the stroke she was able to go back to her old village in Galicia, and visited her friends, but there were a lot of places in Spain that she would love to visit and I promised her that I would take her sometime in the future.
Unfortunately, first the stroke, and then more health complications, made it impossible to take her on a plane trip.
She dreamed of making the Way of St James (El Camino de Santiago) on foot. Of course it would be very difficult for someone of her age, but almost impossible for anyone in her condition. Her dream couldn’t be fulfilled as she imagined, but at some point she discovered Google Street View, and then, she started “traveling” with her iPad.
Every time I visited her, she was visiting a different country. She was able to walk again! Well, not physically walking, but virtually. One day I noticed that she was doing the Way of St James by visiting the different cities located along the road! It was not complete, but it was close enough for her.
Through my mother I understood that by being a Local Guide I could help others to discover, visit and enjoy the whole world, and hence I initiated this journey. I know that I could help a lot of people by taking photos and uploading them to Google Maps!
As I was looking for new things to do, I decided to embrace the cause of showing the world to everybody. My first step was to buy a 360 camera (an Iris360) and started offering my services to create virtual tours for shops, hotels, etc, But in my free time I did it pro bono in churches (my mother loved churches), and places that would be of interest for tourists and people from around the world looking to know new places, as my mother did when she was alive with her small tablet.
Then I purchased more equipment. An special camera for streetview, very sophisticated that allowed me to take a lot of 360 photos per second, so I could make virtual tours of roads, mountains and golf courses, for example. Finally I purchased a Matterport camera, which helped me to make better quality tours.
This is me working with my Matterport Camera creating a virtual tour for a local Real Estate agent in Buenos Aires
And thinking in my mother, and all the other people that cannot walk or travel, I started documenting with photos every place I visited, either it was a museum, a mountain, a restaurant, a street or a subway station. No matter what, I decided to take photos of everything, because you never know for who and why, this photo will be relevant.
Without knowing it, suddently I got to Local Guide level 9, and I keep pushing harder to show more places and to help more people with my job. I think I owe them in a way. I can walk, and I can afford to travel, so I think that I have to show everything I visit to those that cannot do it.
Also, with my reviews and photos, I help other travellers to find new and interesting places, and to avoid mistakes or to be safe.
So, for me, the Local Guides program is a way to serve the people and to help everybody to travel the world.
You can travel and you can dream with Google Maps, and we, as local guides, make it happen with our contributions. We also help to curate everything that is out there, with our comments and reviews.
You ask me what does Local Guides program mean to me? Well, I would say it means a lot of things:
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A way to honour the memory of my mother
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A tool to help others to visit places that they cannot visit for any reason
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A service to local small shops that can get more customers with my photos and reviews
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A way of creating awareness about places that not everybody know
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And a lot of things that I could not describe in a single post, but I think that you can understand by reading this.
I thank Google for Google Maps and the Local Guides program every day of my life.
All the best.
Jorge
