Guayaquil, Ecuador

Guayaquil is Ecuador's largest city and most important port, because of that it has an extensive history of holding off pirates and today is quite the commercial center. It was a bit odd to see so many malls, American restaurant chains and stores compared to my latest destination. Guayaquil is also hot...very hot.

I took the bus and arrived in the late afternoon, after taking two buses and walking a couple km I made it to my couchsurfer's place in an area of town called Urdesa. My couchsurfer was Micheal 31 year old dentist who had down quite a bit of traveling and lived in the US himself. He was extremely nice and referred to me as Hermano most the time.

The first night there we went to the tienda (store) down from his house that his friend owned and his other friends were having a beer at. I met his friends and we ended up driving around and getting bbq.

I was lucky to have met his friends who took me all around town to show me Las Peñas the old part of town that sits on a hill 500 steps to the top and each house is brightly colored. One afternoon I spent walking around the city and ended up listening to some old men play music on the Plaza Centenario.

They took me to anther area called Plaza Lagos where rich. People live in their own closed off communities and it feels as if your in Wexford heights. On night I cooked lasagna for them and another night we had a little christmas dinner complete with Russian salad yup that's a thing even in Ecuador.

Guayaquil is very spread out and the bus system not so easy to figure out so I'm glad I got to walk a lot and see a lot of the city including its infamous iguanas.

Ps- postcards are incredibly expensive to send from here...$8 for three postcards to the US?!?!?Read more