Ecuador - City Tour
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 24 Feb 2008 05:17
On Wednesday (2/20), Don and I were supposed to go on the city tour, but
because we were busy running our engine in reverse to stay off the rocks,
we postponed our trip until Thursday and hung around all day on Wednesday
in the putrid heat making sure our boat was going to survive. On
Thursday, Don still didn't feel comfortable enough to leave the boat for
the twelve hours required to go on the tour, so I left Don behind to
boatsit while I joined the tour. This arrangement was Don's suggestion,
which I was very grateful for because another day on the hot boat in the
smelly water was not something I was particularly looking forward to. So
off I went to see the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil with our tour guide
Jessica, and four German, two Australian and two British boaters. Every
rally activity is a new adventure in international relations.
Guayaquil was about a two hour drive on a new highway from La Libertad.
Ecuador has a population of 13 million people. About 2-3 million live in
the city of Guayaquil, which is set near the coast, and another 2-3
million live in the capital city of Quito, which is in the more
mountainous area of Ecuador. I wasn't sure what to expect of Guayaquil,
but after our country tour, I was thinking that the city would look a lot
like what we saw in the 'Old Town' part of Panama City. I was not even
close. The city of Guayaquil was beautiful with incredible parks and
gardens and lovely old buildings and old neighborhoods restored and turned
into centers for shops and restaurants.
The first stop on our tour was one of these old neighborhoods. All the
old houses had been restored, painted bright colors and turned into shops
or restaurants. It seemed an Ecuadorian version of old Quebec City. The
old neighborhood was built on a hill and there are steps leading through
the area to a lighthouse at the top. Picture 1 are the steps leading
through the restored area. After climbing the 433 steps to the top, we
arrived at the lighthouse (picture 2) and climbed more steps to the top of
it. The view was tremendous and helped us better understand the layout of
the city. Picture 3 shows the view of the city from the top of the
lighthouse. The area to the right is another old neighborhood that has
not yet been restored. The area to the left is the newer part of the
city.
After our trek up the steps to the lighthouse, we went back down and were
taken to the river front where a park, city hall, a cathedral and a few
other notable buildings are located. We had lunch at a very nice
restaurant (air conditioned - yeah!) and I had what Jessica told me was a
very local meal - a fried egg, sausage, rice and two potato pancake like
things with peanut sauce. Kind of a different combo, but all in all not
too bad. After lunch we strolled through the downtown area, through city
hall (picture 4), and to the cathedral (picture 5). The architecture in
the downtown area was influenced by the French and quite a few of the many
bronze statues we saw came from France. Jessica indicated that in the
early 1900's, many of the wealthy Ecuadorians were educated in Paris. The
result seems to be that the French had more influence on the look of the
city than did the Spanish.
In front of the cathedral was another park - a small one the size of one
city block. It had nice gardens and another artful statue, but the real
attraction was the iguanas. Yup, big-ass lizards. Jessica had said
something about going to see the iguanas, but we didn't realize that they
would be freewheeling around a small city park in droves. When we entered
the park, we saw one bright green lizard hiding in the grass. We all
started taking pictures and Jessica laughed at us saying, 'That's only one
iguana, wait until you see the others.' 'The others?' we wondered. A few
more steps through the park and we ran into two monsters lolling about on
the walkway (picture 6). We rounded a bend in the walkway and suddenly
there were dozens of these prehistoric looking scaly things wandering
slowly all over the place, right along with the pigeons (picture 7 - our
tour guide Jessica is in the orange hat and green tank top on the
left-hand side). Aha! We had found 'The Others'. We started to walk
through the mass of lizards and Jessica yelled to us as we were passing
under a tree, 'Watch out! They will pee on your head!'. Oh good, iguana
pee aimed at us from the tree limbs where a bunch of them were hanging
out. We got through unscathed, but shortly thereafter we heard a crash
and thump and one of the iguanas that had been hanging out in the tree
fell to the ground. The lizard was fine, but if it had landed on my head,
I would not have been fine. The park was not fenced, so it seems that the
colony of iguanas just stays there, sitting around laughing at all the
humans standing around laughing at them.
After the excitement of the iguana infested park, we walked through
downtown a little further and then re-boarded the bus for our next and
last destination which was a combination zoo / historical park. The zoo
was very well done - all outside with natural fences and a boardwalk for
visitors to stroll down in between the natural habitats set up on either
side. We saw macaws, an eagle, crocodiles, South American versions of
wild boar, cheetahs and crocodiles and lots of monkeys. Once we were
through the zoo area, the boardwalk opened up to a town built in the style
of Ecuador in the year 1900. The buildings were replicas, but the
windows, shutters, doors and other unique architectural details were
originals taken from actual buildings in downtown Guayaquil. Picture 8
shows one such building complete with an Ecuadorian couple dressed in the
fashion of the time.
So ended our tour of the city of Guayaquil. I was really glad to have
seen the country and the city and feel that seeing both gave me a good
glimpse of at least two sides of Ecuador - the rural, but proud poor, and
the gleaming buildings and gardens of the wealthier city. We didn't get
to see the mountainous area of Ecuador, but those that did said it and the
city of Quito were incredible.
Anne