1/6/18
Leaving the Galapagos was sad, but I knew there were more adventures to have. I think it would've been harder to leave to go home from the Galapagos, so I just kept reminding myself of that. A short flight later, and we were back in Guayaquil. This time, we checked back into the Continental and prepared for a city tour. So basically, that meant I left all my valuables in the room (hence why I don't have many photos for today), and we headed out for a walk around the safest parts of town.
The first stop was the Iguana Park right across from our hotel. This park is the oldest in Guayaquil. It was fenced in and full of huge trees. These trees were home to hundreds of iguanas, different from the ones we saw in the Galapagos, and pigeons. It was crowded. People brought their children here to play. Some people were begging by the gates. Others were petting the iguanas. One woman was actually feeding them and they would climb onto her and just sit there. It was quite the contrast having just come from a place that enforced such strict rules about even being close to the animals. Here, no one seemed to care.
Next, we visited La Catedral which was across from Iguana Park. Statues and monuments followed, and then we made our way to the waterfront. I guess you could say this was the equivalent of their boardwalk. Here, everyone wanted to sell you something. Vendors were yelling and getting close to you. The best ones were the people selling very cheap water bottles. They look fine at first glance, but we learned later that those people collect used bottles from the trash and refill them with tap water. There's a big problem with that: the city's water is not safe to drink. The standards for "purifying" water are not high. We had to buy bottled water to hydrate and brush our teeth with. Below, there is a sign that was in each hotel bathroom telling us that the water was not potable. Most locals try to not drink it either, but the poorest may have no other option.
This particular area highly contrasted the more poor areas. Money had obviously been put into this boardwalk section to help re-brand the city. It had parks and amusement rides and food chains, even a movie theater. From here, we crossed into the oldest part of town. Like in the photo above, these homes were on a hill, seemingly stacked on top of one another. At the top of this hill, there was a lighthouse. This was the last part of our tour. There were over 400 steps to reach the lighthouse, and then more steps to the top of the lighthouse itself. It was a fun walk though- we passed a lot of bars and restaurants playing loud music, each one inviting us inside to dance. That motivated us to reach the top.
After that, we climbed back down. My legs felt like jelly. But it was time for dinner. So a group of us decided we wanted familiar fast food. We went to Wendy's. The rest went to a more traditional Ecuadorian restaurant. Greg and I shared a huge order of chicken nuggets and chocolate frosties. We all walked back to our hotel together before it got too dark. Tait and Diego held a meeting before getting ready for bed telling us what the plan was for tomorrow. We would have to start taking our altitude sickness pills tonight. They warned us of the symptoms of altitude sickness and suggested that we all look out for each other, since tomorrow we'd be driving from sea level into the Andes.
The first stop was the Iguana Park right across from our hotel. This park is the oldest in Guayaquil. It was fenced in and full of huge trees. These trees were home to hundreds of iguanas, different from the ones we saw in the Galapagos, and pigeons. It was crowded. People brought their children here to play. Some people were begging by the gates. Others were petting the iguanas. One woman was actually feeding them and they would climb onto her and just sit there. It was quite the contrast having just come from a place that enforced such strict rules about even being close to the animals. Here, no one seemed to care.
Next, we visited La Catedral which was across from Iguana Park. Statues and monuments followed, and then we made our way to the waterfront. I guess you could say this was the equivalent of their boardwalk. Here, everyone wanted to sell you something. Vendors were yelling and getting close to you. The best ones were the people selling very cheap water bottles. They look fine at first glance, but we learned later that those people collect used bottles from the trash and refill them with tap water. There's a big problem with that: the city's water is not safe to drink. The standards for "purifying" water are not high. We had to buy bottled water to hydrate and brush our teeth with. Below, there is a sign that was in each hotel bathroom telling us that the water was not potable. Most locals try to not drink it either, but the poorest may have no other option.
This particular area highly contrasted the more poor areas. Money had obviously been put into this boardwalk section to help re-brand the city. It had parks and amusement rides and food chains, even a movie theater. From here, we crossed into the oldest part of town. Like in the photo above, these homes were on a hill, seemingly stacked on top of one another. At the top of this hill, there was a lighthouse. This was the last part of our tour. There were over 400 steps to reach the lighthouse, and then more steps to the top of the lighthouse itself. It was a fun walk though- we passed a lot of bars and restaurants playing loud music, each one inviting us inside to dance. That motivated us to reach the top.
After that, we climbed back down. My legs felt like jelly. But it was time for dinner. So a group of us decided we wanted familiar fast food. We went to Wendy's. The rest went to a more traditional Ecuadorian restaurant. Greg and I shared a huge order of chicken nuggets and chocolate frosties. We all walked back to our hotel together before it got too dark. Tait and Diego held a meeting before getting ready for bed telling us what the plan was for tomorrow. We would have to start taking our altitude sickness pills tonight. They warned us of the symptoms of altitude sickness and suggested that we all look out for each other, since tomorrow we'd be driving from sea level into the Andes.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Hugo zea