Guayaquil

We had a pretty quiet night but couldn't sleep in because breakfast was only until 09:30 and we barely made it 😅 Afterwards we packed our luggage and stored it in the hotel. Our first stop on today's agenda was the short walk up to the hill next to the Malecón. It's one of the oldest areas in Guayaquil and was really a highlight with the narrow walkway, colourful houses and lovely cats 🐈 On top is a lighthouse which offers 360 degree views over almost the whole city and a small but pretty little chapel. It was still quite early so we had the walk and the top almost for ourselves.
Then we walked back down to the Malecón station of the cable car. It's running from the main square in the city center, via the Malecón station all the way to the other side of the river. There weren't a lot of tourists and we've been later told that it's twice as expensive compared to the bus going the same way. Therefore mainly tourists are using it nowadays. It was a fun and relaxed way to see the city from above without being stuck in traffic. We didn't go out in the city center because we've already seen it yesterday and continued on to the other side of the river. There wasn't a lot to see but we were a little hungry (the breakfast in the hotel had been tiny) so we got a few different tortillas (yuca, maíz, patacones) that we enjoyed outside the terminal.

Next up was the museum of cocoa located on the pretty street Panama in an exceptionally renovated colonial style building. The entry fee of 5$ was okay for the things offered with some history how cocoa came from initially from Ecuador to Mexico. The pre-colonial usage of cocoa was then more centered on the Aztecs before continuing on to the change in production by the colonisation. Hereby building the boom of chocolate which reaches continuing records in sales... In the end we got to taste two samples 🍫 Afterwards we had a little snack (entrees 😋) and went back to the hotel to re-pack our luggage. Then it was time to catch a taxi to meet my Couchsurfing friend from about 7 years back, Lissette, in the outskirts of Guayaquil. She's from Ecuador and been traveling back then in Europe when she stayed with me for a few days when visiting Liechtenstein. We've stayed in loose contact over the years and she's now married and has two kids. She insisted that we'd stay at her parents place.

After greeting and introductions we sat down and caught up on everything that happened. They're going to move to the Netherlands in the next months because of safety. After catching up and exchanging old and new stories we were invited to a homemade dinner. Together with Lissette's parents and aunts and cousins we were treated to typical Ecuadorian food. Afterwards we played Bingo for hours together and talked about our next plans because Lissette had worked on the Galapagos Islands and had some useful information 🤩 It was nice meeting again and hopefully we'll get to see them earlier again when they are in Europe.Read more