Day 55 - Guayaquil, Ecuador (12 May 2012)

Day 55 - Guayaquil, Ecuador (12 May 2012)

We wake up this morning and head downstairs for some breakfast at a cafe at the bottom of the hostel.  When we get out of the air conditioned hostel we are hit with a heat bomb, it is freaking hot here!  I get a cheese toastie and a banana milkshake for breakfast and Ann gets Humita, which is a sweet corn cut in half with cheese in the middle.  Ann was not a fan of this so we swapped breakfasts half way through.  She wasnt getting my banana milkshake though, that was fantastic! As we find out during the day, Ecuadorians seem to put bananas in most of their meals, I suppose they do have the world capital of bananas in their country!
After breakfast we head out and explore the city.  First stop was the cenre of the city, the plaza which is called Parque del Centenario (yes, it is not called Plaza de Armes, I think we are heading away from those plazas now.  A bit of variety in the names is always a good thing).  This plaza covers four blocks and is full of monuments.  It is located at the eastern end of the main thoroughfare, 9 de Octubre, which is definitely a vibrant street.  This street ends at the waterfront which I will talk about later.  Some street names are named after important dates of the year.  This date, 9th of October, marks Independence day in Ecuador. 
We then stroll down 9 de October and then take a turn and arrive at the tree filled Parque Bolivar.  It is just another plaza, but prehistoric looking iguanas roam around the park.  There are quite a few of them here too, it is incredible to see them roaming around a park in the centre of the city.  Across the road from this plaza is the cities Cathedral.  We cross the road and have a look.
We stroll on down to the waterfront.  This has been reconstructed about ten years ago and is called the Malecon 2000.  The waterfront stretches for 2.5km along the river, which is very dirty.  This reconstruction was part of the cities efforts to clean up the place as well as provide increased security as at the time of reconstruction, Guayaquil was considered a crime ridden port city.  We have seen no evidence of that so far.  They have done a fantastic job on tidying up the waterfront.  There are monuments, garden areas, restaurants and shopping malls.  It is generally a nice tidy area with quite alot of police presence.  We walk up and down the waterfront, no mean feat in this stiffling heat.  We stop for lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront, with airconditioning of course.  After lunch we continue to the southern end and then hit the La Bahia markets.  The markets are very crowded and we notice we are the only tourists in there.  It is definitely a local market.  We walk on through and by the end of it we are sick of being offered the 'best deal in town' so we call it quits here.  We then walk to the Iglesia de San Francisco church which is just off 9 de Octubre and have a quick look here.
Finally to finish the day off we walk back to the waterfront and head to the northern end which is the entrance to the walk Cerro Santa Ana.  This walk takes up to the top of a hill close to the city centre and gives us fantastic 360 degree views of the city.  As we walk up the hill we go through historic neighbourhoods which have been refurbished into an idealised version of a quaint South American hillside village with brightly painted homes and cobblestone alleyways.  The stairway winding up through the neighbourhoods is also lined with restaurants and bars.  When we reach the top the views from the hilltop fort called Fortin del Cerro, and the lighthouse are spectacular.  The reason we waited until the end of the day to do this was because we figured it would be more comfortable walking up a hill towards the end of the day compared to the middle of the day and also so we could get daylight views, sunset views and night views.  They were all fantastic.  What made our decision easier is that there is constant police presence from 7am until midnight on the walk up and at the top of the hill, another example of the city pushing its security. 
We then made our way down the hill and went out for dinner.  During the day we had seen alot of people wearing a yellow football jersey, so we figured it was their local football team and they were playing a match that night.  Well while we were at the restaurant we saw the game on the screen, and to be honest the quality of play was not what I expected.  I thought since they were South American professional footballers they would be great players.  I was wrong, the Phoenix could even beat these two teams! That is definitely saying something. 
Today was a good day, we got through all the sights of Guayaquil.  We were planning on staying here three nights but now can save a day and head to our next destination tomorrow morning.  Guayaquil however is a nice city, and the work they have done over the last 10 years has paid off by the looks of things (Guayaquil is also the gateway to Ecuadors tourist gem, the Galapagos Islands.  All flights here are from Guayaquil.  It is very expensive to go there so we have missed it, and we saw the 'cheap mans' Galapagos Islands in Paracas, Peru.  This is another reason why Guayaquil has put a lot of effort into cleaning up, as more and more tourists come here before and after the Galapagos Islands).