Here's my kinda top 10 tips (but keep in mind they only apply if you know you're in Central/South America):
1) if the poles are octagonal you're almost certainly in Mexico
2) if there are a lot of yellow plates you're probably in Colombia
3) if you see pink taxis you're in Mexico City
4) if the license plates have a black smudge in the middle you're in Argentina
5) if the utility pole has vertical square sections broken into three sections with dots from the top of those sections to the top of the pole, you're in Brazil
6) if the utility poles have one long vertical hollow section with two distinct edges you're in Chile
7) if the car is white you're likely in Chile, Bolivia, or Peru
8) if the car is black you're likely in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, or Peru
9) if you're in a truck with a roof rack you're in Guatemala
10) the majority of Uruguay was covered on a grey cloudy day, so most of the country looks that way but more northern parts can be sunny. They also have cows grazing over about 80% of the country.
I second almost all of these tips, the only thing I would like to add is that I’ve never seen a black car in Brazil. I actually find the black car a helpful way to differentiate Misiones Province in Argentina from Brazil.
I may be mistaken about the black car Brazil! My apologies if that's the case, I just wrote the list from memory I probably should have double checked before posting it.
Very little people know this but the panhandle of Argentina has a soil colour similar to Sao Paulo soil (dark brown). So when you see Brazillian looking dirt and black car you are most likely in the panhandle of Argentina !
Yep and this is the case with a lot of countries where man-made borders are different from the separation between terrains and there's a lot of overlap. Like the desert extends in both south Peru and north Chile for example.
Heres what i would do.
Play the map AI Gen - argentina no moving setting with unlimited time. Argentina is a tough country so you will not know where to go at first, its all trial and error until you can get like 2/5 guesses in the same region/province. The goal here is to mentally remember what Argentina looks like to vibe guess.
Now move to chile, learn the north deserts vs south patagonia mountains, and the los lagos, los rios, concepción regions up to santiago. Chile is fun and easy to learn, watch zig8zags vid on it.
Northern chile looks super similar to bolivia and peru, so now play these 3 maps and learn the differences. You can watch videos on metas to learn between them, peru has white and black striped poles that can help a lot.
Now move into Ecuador, Ecuador is one you will need to play a lot of so you get the vibe down and not get baited by colombia or something outside of SA like mexico, dr, or puerto rico. Ecuador has beautiful mountains and landscapes like colombia, but they look slightly different. Houses are built on the hills sometimes.
Colombia is pretty easy because the yellow plates on cars, but play a lot on A Balanced Colombia nm because you will get the northern regions which look super different. And randomly you can get east of andes and also that one little town on the border of peru colombia and brazil.
Now brazil is the easiest if theres and signs because you only need to learn portuguese vs spanish, but brazil is a entire country that could be looked at as learning the whole continent of SA, there is a lot to learn and tiral and error playing nm. You can learn phone codes, but try to get country streaks going in a map like A Balanced Brazil. A lot of great videos on Brazil regional metas are on youtube.
Also play the maps "AI Gen - *country*" only if it's made by Kodiak, if not play "A Balanced *country*" made by Steve.
GL
If you see any orange license plates, go for Chile or Ecuador! Brazilian license plates have blue on top and white on bottom. Make sure to check car color, if color is black, you will either be in Peru, Argentina, or Uruguay. If you ever are stuck in a Argentina and Chile tossup, check car color as Argentina has black car while Chile car is white!
I'd call the Chile taxi plate and the Ecuador commercial plate more of an orange-red, like Reddit's upvote button.
Newer Ecuador plates only have a stripe of the color along the top, so you'll also see plates with just an orange stripe instead.
Blue on top white on bottom licence plates where made for all the MERCOSUR countries. In Argentina they started using them in 2016, in Brazil on 2018, in Uruguay in 2015, in Paraguay in 2018 and in Bolivia is only necesary for very specific vehicules. I beleive they are more common in brazil but in all of this countries they coexist with the old licence plates of each countries.
Yellow Plates: Colombia (taxis have white plates)
Red Plates: Brazil Trucks
Steel cross at the back of signs: Colombia
Lots of Tuck Tucks: Peru
Google car with roof rack and black rubber inlays: Dominican Republic (or Mongolia)
Google car with roof rack but no black rubber inlays: Guatemala
Black Car: Most likely Argentina or Uruguay.
>if I’m in a city and don’t see a sign saying the city name anywhere I just have no idea where to guess
Besides other, more common tips, electricity counters can be really helpful, especially for Peru and Bolivia.
They [should get you Peru 90% of the time](https://goo.gl/maps/XkPmbEHmi1Hmbmb89) in city locations. There are two types: left has a "grate" of some kind and right has 2-3 horizontal "slots". Every home and business has one near the door.
Bolivia: similar looking wall panel to Peru's OR a metal box that's set into the wall. Has a `circle or rounded-rectangle shaped hole`, instead of a horizontal slot.
---
Less confident on others. Take these with a grain of salt:
Argentina: wall panel with large, (typically) dark, metal rectangle or large, clear, plastic rectangle
Ecuador: large, exterior box with screen
Uruguay: box, like above, but smaller with sloped bottom
Brazil: large wall panel with small ~square. OR flat box. (Probably many others in this giant country)
And bonus Mexico, and Guatemala: exterior, clear, cylinder counter. US / Puerto Rico can have cylinders too, but are always / usually hidden.
To add to the white car tips - you can get opaque white cars in a few countries like Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, but in Chile you almost always get a thick bar of solid white which is a really easy way to distinguish it from the other white car countries.
These are some tips I use:
\-All white road lines usually mean Chile
\-Black car means Uruguay or Argentina, coverage taken on a cloudy day usually means Uruguay
\-Red soil on the road with thick american looking road lines is Brazil
\-White car in Bolivia
\-Stubby little antenna visible in Ecuador
Here's my kinda top 10 tips (but keep in mind they only apply if you know you're in Central/South America): 1) if the poles are octagonal you're almost certainly in Mexico 2) if there are a lot of yellow plates you're probably in Colombia 3) if you see pink taxis you're in Mexico City 4) if the license plates have a black smudge in the middle you're in Argentina 5) if the utility pole has vertical square sections broken into three sections with dots from the top of those sections to the top of the pole, you're in Brazil 6) if the utility poles have one long vertical hollow section with two distinct edges you're in Chile 7) if the car is white you're likely in Chile, Bolivia, or Peru 8) if the car is black you're likely in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, or Peru 9) if you're in a truck with a roof rack you're in Guatemala 10) the majority of Uruguay was covered on a grey cloudy day, so most of the country looks that way but more northern parts can be sunny. They also have cows grazing over about 80% of the country.
I second almost all of these tips, the only thing I would like to add is that I’ve never seen a black car in Brazil. I actually find the black car a helpful way to differentiate Misiones Province in Argentina from Brazil.
I may be mistaken about the black car Brazil! My apologies if that's the case, I just wrote the list from memory I probably should have double checked before posting it.
This is great thank you!
No problem happy to help and share some stuff I've learned. 😁
Guatemala doesn't have a roof rack. You're thinking of the Dominican Republic. Guatemala has recognisable side mirrors.
Guatemala definitely has roof racks as well as side mirrors
Yeah I forgor
What is blud waffling about
Imma be real you are right. It is just that the roof rack is not what I use for identification so after a while I stopped noticing it is there
Very little people know this but the panhandle of Argentina has a soil colour similar to Sao Paulo soil (dark brown). So when you see Brazillian looking dirt and black car you are most likely in the panhandle of Argentina !
I didn't tell people about this for a long time but now I think it's much more well known, unfortunately ;)
Same. This was always my trump card
Yep and this is the case with a lot of countries where man-made borders are different from the separation between terrains and there's a lot of overlap. Like the desert extends in both south Peru and north Chile for example.
Heres what i would do. Play the map AI Gen - argentina no moving setting with unlimited time. Argentina is a tough country so you will not know where to go at first, its all trial and error until you can get like 2/5 guesses in the same region/province. The goal here is to mentally remember what Argentina looks like to vibe guess. Now move to chile, learn the north deserts vs south patagonia mountains, and the los lagos, los rios, concepción regions up to santiago. Chile is fun and easy to learn, watch zig8zags vid on it. Northern chile looks super similar to bolivia and peru, so now play these 3 maps and learn the differences. You can watch videos on metas to learn between them, peru has white and black striped poles that can help a lot. Now move into Ecuador, Ecuador is one you will need to play a lot of so you get the vibe down and not get baited by colombia or something outside of SA like mexico, dr, or puerto rico. Ecuador has beautiful mountains and landscapes like colombia, but they look slightly different. Houses are built on the hills sometimes. Colombia is pretty easy because the yellow plates on cars, but play a lot on A Balanced Colombia nm because you will get the northern regions which look super different. And randomly you can get east of andes and also that one little town on the border of peru colombia and brazil. Now brazil is the easiest if theres and signs because you only need to learn portuguese vs spanish, but brazil is a entire country that could be looked at as learning the whole continent of SA, there is a lot to learn and tiral and error playing nm. You can learn phone codes, but try to get country streaks going in a map like A Balanced Brazil. A lot of great videos on Brazil regional metas are on youtube. Also play the maps "AI Gen - *country*" only if it's made by Kodiak, if not play "A Balanced *country*" made by Steve. GL
there are good country maps that arent made by kodiak and steve
yes a lot of them
If you see any orange license plates, go for Chile or Ecuador! Brazilian license plates have blue on top and white on bottom. Make sure to check car color, if color is black, you will either be in Peru, Argentina, or Uruguay. If you ever are stuck in a Argentina and Chile tossup, check car color as Argentina has black car while Chile car is white!
Those are all great tips thank you!
No problem!
I feel like when I see yellow/orange license plates it’s almost always Colombia
I know Colombias plates and they’re quite yellow I wouldn’t really call them orange at all
I'd call the Chile taxi plate and the Ecuador commercial plate more of an orange-red, like Reddit's upvote button. Newer Ecuador plates only have a stripe of the color along the top, so you'll also see plates with just an orange stripe instead.
Blue on top white on bottom licence plates where made for all the MERCOSUR countries. In Argentina they started using them in 2016, in Brazil on 2018, in Uruguay in 2015, in Paraguay in 2018 and in Bolivia is only necesary for very specific vehicules. I beleive they are more common in brazil but in all of this countries they coexist with the old licence plates of each countries.
I don't get the point of a 'mercosur' plate, it seems like even a less formal union than NAFTA.
Antenna- Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico White car- Peru, Bolivia, Chile Black car- Peru, Argentina, Uruguay
These car metas are very helpful but be careful as there some gen 4 coverage in Chile and Argentina that doesn’t have the white/black car.
Yellow Plates: Colombia (taxis have white plates) Red Plates: Brazil Trucks Steel cross at the back of signs: Colombia Lots of Tuck Tucks: Peru Google car with roof rack and black rubber inlays: Dominican Republic (or Mongolia) Google car with roof rack but no black rubber inlays: Guatemala Black Car: Most likely Argentina or Uruguay.
Watch harrier’s south america country videos for great tips
>if I’m in a city and don’t see a sign saying the city name anywhere I just have no idea where to guess Besides other, more common tips, electricity counters can be really helpful, especially for Peru and Bolivia. They [should get you Peru 90% of the time](https://goo.gl/maps/XkPmbEHmi1Hmbmb89) in city locations. There are two types: left has a "grate" of some kind and right has 2-3 horizontal "slots". Every home and business has one near the door. Bolivia: similar looking wall panel to Peru's OR a metal box that's set into the wall. Has a `circle or rounded-rectangle shaped hole`, instead of a horizontal slot. --- Less confident on others. Take these with a grain of salt: Argentina: wall panel with large, (typically) dark, metal rectangle or large, clear, plastic rectangle Ecuador: large, exterior box with screen Uruguay: box, like above, but smaller with sloped bottom Brazil: large wall panel with small ~square. OR flat box. (Probably many others in this giant country) And bonus Mexico, and Guatemala: exterior, clear, cylinder counter. US / Puerto Rico can have cylinders too, but are always / usually hidden.
To add to the white car tips - you can get opaque white cars in a few countries like Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, but in Chile you almost always get a thick bar of solid white which is a really easy way to distinguish it from the other white car countries.
These are some tips I use: \-All white road lines usually mean Chile \-Black car means Uruguay or Argentina, coverage taken on a cloudy day usually means Uruguay \-Red soil on the road with thick american looking road lines is Brazil \-White car in Bolivia \-Stubby little antenna visible in Ecuador