Day 54 - Mancora, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador (11 May 2012)

Day 54 – Mancora, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador (11 May 2012)

This morning we head to a restaurant for breakfast.  After breakfast we have a few Peruvian Soles left so I buy some water and some snacks for the bus ride.  Today we will be leaving Peru.  We have been here for about 4 weeks now and have loved the country, with the obvious highlight being Machu Picchu.  We are heading into Ecuador and the first stop will be Ecuador’s biggest city called Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-kill).  After breakfast and my snack stop, we wait at the bus station and to our surprise we are put in a mini van collective and taken to the border which is about a two hour drive away.  When we get here we wait at the bus station and then after about 45 minutes board a bus that will take us the remaining six hours to Guayaquil.  We arrive at the border about half an hour later and get our passports stamped etc, and then we are on our way! At this point the bus is relatively empty, about half an hour down the road the bus is packed and it is like this all the way as people are getting dropped off everywhere and the bus is also stopping at random points along the road and picking people up.  It was a very unusual bus experience.  Also about 30 minutes after we cross the Ecuadorian border, we come across our first banana tree (don’t know what they are called).  From there, we see banana trees along the side of the road and stretching miles into the distance for pretty much the rest of the trip to Guayaquil.  We also pass through the town which is the banana capital of the world.  I can’t quite remember the name of the town at the moment but I am not surprised it is the banana capital, they are everywhere!!!  We arrive in Guayaquil about 6.30pm, and the bus station is massive! It is connected to a shopping mall and is very busy considering it is a Friday night.  We get a taxi into the city which costs us US$5.  We have to get used to a new currency again.  Ecuador’s currency is the US dollar.  We do not have a hostel booked but Ann finds a good one in our Lonely Planet guide and we head there and hope for the best.  They have a nice room available, which has its own bathroom, TV and most importantly, an air conditioning unit.  That is the most important feature because it is so hot!!!  We are 2 degrees south of the equator at present so that explains a lot.  We then head out for dinner and it is terrible.  The food is terrible and the service is even worse.  Luckily I was pretty hungry so I gobbled the food down anyway.  During our brief walk around the city, it looked like a nice city with a good vibe.  Apparently in the last ten years there has been massive headway made in this city in terms of security and appearance and so far it shows.  I am looking forward to tomorrow to explore the place.