What Local Guides Means to Me: Contributing to a providing community

I started my journey as local guide on a random day owing to a prompt from Google Maps. Little did I know that I would get absorbed into it to this extent. From the day I crossed Level 5, I became very enthusiastic about being a local guide. I felt the responsibility of providing the community with the most up to date information as I did not want others to face the same problems that I did. There have been times when I ended up going to places that were marked as open on Maps but ended up being shut or closed for the day. This might not seem like a big problem at first but is a big investment both in terms of time and effort for people who travel the distance just to visit the place. This has led to me suggesting a couple of edits on restaurant timings around me to help others.

One instance when local guides helped me was when I was on my trip to North East India and found a gem of a waterfall in Meghalaya which was not to be seen anywhere except in the pictures on Google Maps. This discovery led to creation of a lot of beautiful memories. Since then I have made it my goal to share such offbeat places with others who are looking for something more than just the tourist spots. I believe that local guides has given people the power to share their local gems with the external world and allow others to experience it. This is the major reason for me to be a part of such community as I fell that the world is a lot prettier than what we usually see. It is those small unknown places that hold the prettiest secrets and sharing it with the community is what I strive to do.

The community has always provided when I was in time of need and I believe that I have the power to give back to such an amazing community.

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Thank you for sharing @ndantis12 I always love reading about what gets others into Google Maps. In my case, I started with taking photos. I love how your journey started with making edits.

The story you shared about how Local Guides helped you find the waterfall was very nice too. The picture is so beautiful and almost dream-like. :green_heart: