So, this is from the first part of my trip to Ecuador, and the Galapagos. Amazing.
Well, so far our trip has been amazing. After a very delayed flight on Tuesday night from Miami to Guayaquil due to thunder/lightning storms and a malfunctioning bathroom, we finally got into Ecuador around 2am! On Wednesday, we walked down the very modern, new, nice Malecon 2000, a boardwalk along the riverfront in Guayaquil. It is very nice, and I am pretty sure I saw more people cleaning the boardwalk than tourists! There are also Tons of police and security guards around.
Thursday, we took a car up north. We went to Salinas (through Santa Elena), which is considered the "resort" city of Ecuador, though it is a resort resembling Seattle's Rainier Beach. No, I'm just joking, it is very nice, but it is still hardly at a level with any of the "resort" areas in the United States, and really is an eye-opener for anyone not experiencing poverty like this before ( i.e. Claire :) It is so interesting; the huge white hotels are very clean, and the beach area is very nice, but just two or three blocks away are dirt streets and houses with corrugated-iron roofs. Montanita, up north, is also very nice; it has kind of a rasta feel to it, very Bob Marley.
Today, we hiked up the 400+ stairs of Santa Ana and Las Penas, a beautiful hill with brightly painted houses perched on the side. However, it is kind of "disney-esque," in that the facades are beautiful, but if you look through archways and down alleys, you can again see the dirt roads and one-room houses. Everywhere you turn here, it reminds me of how blessed and spoiled, really, we are in the states. The top of the hill offered great 360degree views of the city, as well as a church, a lighthouse, half a pirate ship (fake), and crumbled ruins of an old fort that harken back to the days of pirate attacks on Guayaquil. A very nice climb, very beautiful.
I have learned some things about Ecuador that you may (or may not) like to know. One is that they have an entire language of car honks, and they will honk at you if you are not rolling a little before the light turns green. Very quick to honk, which brings me to my next pearl of wisdom: there are no rules of traffic. There were several times in our taxi trips around the city that there were 3-4 cars lined up next to each other across a two-lane street. Somewhat unnerving, and leads to many a honk. My dinner tonight, too, was great: I had to wear a huge bib, as my steak was served on a sizzling piece of rock. Too bad I hadn't brought my camera! I looked ridiculous :)
