Satellite maps Tutorial – Google

In addition to Jared’s wonderful maps which are easy to read and include lots of useful information you can also explore our area by satellite.  Many people are familiar with these maps but do not get full value because they are a bit complicated to use.  The time spent getting to know them can be rewarding though.  Here is a bit of a tutorial to get you started.

The old stand by is  Google maps:

Click on this and you should get a map that looks something like this but without the big arrows and instructions:

You can move around by clicking on the little arrows to go rnorth, south etc.  But you can also move the map by holding down your left mouse button and moving the mouse.

If you zoom out and select the satellite imagery you can see that we are surrounded by fields. Zoom out even more and you will see the mountains and surrounding communities.

But even more exciting is a feature called street view. If you take the little yellow guy, click and hold on him, you can drag him onto highway 200 and look around. For example here is the main intersection in La Peñita looking toward the beach:

Of course there are a few problems:

The locations of things on the map may be inaccurate or entirely wrong. For example the placement of the colonia (neighbourhood) names is inaccurate and there is what appears to be a very fine hotel in Las Rosas that definitely does not exist.

You have to place the little yellow guy just right to get him to work. Try it a couple of times. Notice the little circle below him. Place that directly on the highway. Only the highway has been photographed so it is a bit precise.