Guayaquil. Ecuador, Part 2

Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador. Yep, took me by surprise, too. In fact, they have nearly a million more people than Quito. Located on the Guayas River just a few miles upriver from the Pacific, it is Ecuador's main port city. Our original intention was to take a bus from Quito down to Guayaquil, but there were safety concerns, what with muggings and rapes and all. So we all hopped on an AeroGal flight and headed on down to the coast.


After checking in at the Howard Johnson's, we had ourselves a nice meal outside along with our first taste of the Pisco Sour, an Ecuadorian mixed drink. Muy bueno, I must say. We didn't have time for much after that so , we just went down to this hill in the Las Peñas district, the artsy part of town. The hill has 444 numbered steps up to this old fort, complete with a lighthouse and a church. Great views of the city at night. We wrapped up the night with a few beers at this bar built into an old ship, or at least a replica of a ship.



On the 9th, we went down to the Malecon 2000, Guayaquil's recently renovated riverwalk. Millions were spent on this thing, as it's by far the most modern part of the city that we saw. It's probably the safest part of the city, and remarkably, it doesn't smell!! We went to a huge marketplace and bought our share of bags, Alpaca scarves, tee shirts, and Panama Hats. Love negotiating! "$20? No... how about $15?" This walk ended at La Rotunda, a statue of Ecuador's famous leader Simon Bolivar and some other dude.

For our last full day in the Guayaquil area, we chose to hire a driver to take us to the coast. We stopped first at the small beach "resort", Playas. Looking more like an abandoned former beach resort, our driver took us out of Playas and down a dirt road to a smaller fishing village. A more pathetic and sad scene I could not imagine. Garbage everywhere, half-haired pigs running around freely, and a rotting horse carcass on the road into this craphole, no one wanted to even get out of the van. We saw one guy in the doorless doorway of a house with no windows looking at his Blackberry. What the...? Stray dogs were everywhere. The smells of hot garbage, diesel, and death were enough to ruin your appetite, and the sights were enough to make you beg God for forgiveness for every time you complained about your job. I love being an American.

"Get us out of here" was the concensus, so we headed west to the larger resort town of Salinas. Now Salinas was more like it. Nice beach, boats in the harbor, and even a few bikini-clad latinas. We walked down the beach for a bit, and then our driver, through much effort, got us into the local military base to watch a sky diving exhibition. Unfortunately, the clouds were too low, and we didn't get to see any action, but we did meet a few Americans and downed a few much needed pieces of pizza.

Back in Guayaquil, we had another round of Pisco Sours after I scrubbed myself down in the shower with steel wool.

The next day, the entire crew was in town, and we were ready to pack up and head to the Galapagos.