I don’t remember exactly when I started to be a local guide (more than four years surely), but I clearly remember the sensation that I had when I thought of everything I could do, and I saw the journey I wanted to start. It has been very important for me to have a preview of the place that I am going to visit, to have an idea without generating expectations, so I can let myself to be surprised, have my own criteria and live my own experience. For this reason, I thought it was fantastic to be able to provide the information that other people might consider useful from places that I visited and also I knew this information would also serve as a backup for myself in the future since it will be available on any device, anywhere, always. It is amazing how many things we can do, more you see, more you have. It is a powerful tool!
There are 2 things that have marked my career as a local guide that in fact explain very well what this means to me and why I am so excited to continue contributing.
Sharing fantastic places and that more people can visit them is a motivation for me. A while ago I went with some friends to a very touristy place not far from where I live called Mindo, we couldn’t find the place because it was marked wrong on the map, and therefore not many tourists usedd to arrived. So, I corrected that information, added another, and from just a marked point on the map it became a place with many photos, reviews and a lot of information on maps to this day. That makes me feel incredible happy because it really is a place that we should all visit sometime. Here there are some pictures of La Bicok EcoLodge so you can have an idea what people was missing the time it was hard to find.
Helping local businesses is the most important thing to me. I love when I review the views of the images that I uploaded, it is an indescribable feeling that in one word would be: satisfaction. Near where I used to live there was a small place that helped children with their language problems, the director is a wonderful woman, professional and her work is clean. When I put her site on maps "Centro de Terapias Emanuel" , and after a while when we caught up, she told me that now she no longer only has new patients from recommendation of other patients she once treated, but now she has patients who come because they found her in maps. I am very excited to know that the site also has many views and she can reach more people, now the place “exist”, and she can increase her income.
Ecuador is a small country, although there have been great contributions on maps in recent times, there is still much to achieve and there’s my challenge. I want to continue contributing so Google Maps is always updated and full of information. I feel part of the team of this great company with each contribution. I love it!?