Wandergliding: Guayaquil

December 19^th, 2021

Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador with a population of over three million and it is located on the west bank of the Guayas River, and about 60 kilometres from the Gulf of Guyaquil which opens onto the Pacific Ocean. It is the nation’s main port. I didn’t plan on spending much time here, it was more of a transit stop on my way to a surf town called Montanita and I would fly out of it later to the Galapagos Islands.

The bus ride from Alausi to Guayaquil began with very windy roads along lush mountainsides that were sometimes shrouded in clouds. I almost got a view of the Devil’s nose but the view was obscured by some low clouds.

That's the trainline snaking along the hillside:

Some train station in a little town we passed through:

The terrain changed for the last hour of the bus ride as it was flat with lots of banana plantations and then suburb cities of the biggest city in Ecuador. The bus terminal is right by the airport and it’s massive, three storeys of bus bays and it almost seemed like a shopping mall inside. I grabbed a taxi to Casa Michael, the hostel I had booked for one night.

Banana plantations:

The first view of Guayaquil:

My first impressions of the hostel and the neighborhood were not great. Old, delapidated buildings with paint peeling off of them. Most with bars on the windows and the odd courtyard looked more like a prison yard that a backyard. The hostel was pretty basic and seemed very empty. I was shown to a dorm room with four metal bunkbeds but luckily there was nobody else staying in the room, in fact, there were only 3 other guests in the whole hostel. Oh well, I’m only here for one night.

In the small outdoor courtyard, I met Andreas, a Swede backpacker. I asked whether he wanted to join me in visiting the Malecon 2000, the boardwalk by the riverside that had been rejuvenated in the year 2000, and hence the name. We took an Uber there (my first one ever) and the first stop was La Perla, the Pearl, which is a big ferris wheel with enclosed cabins. It’s similar to the London Eye but not quite as big and with smaller compartments, which luckily had air conditioning as the humidity is high in Guayaquil.

Some strange monkey statue just before we entered a tunnel:

La Perla:

On la Perla:

The big letters of the city or town seem to be everywhere in Ecuador:

After the ride, the other attraction I wanted to check out was the Henry Morgan replica pirate ship. For $7 you could sail on it for an hour while enjoying some appetizers and drinks. We walked about a kilometre down the Malecon and could see the small ship. Andreas was bussing to Quito that night and decided that he would skip the boat ride, grab a bite to eat and head back to the hostel. So we parted ways and I walked onto the ship, only to find out they weren’t sailing due to Covid even though there were a couple of people dining on the mid deck. Next week I was told they would be doing some trips, well that doesn’t help. I ran back up on the Malecon and tried to locate Andreas but to no avail. Oh well, I decided to continue to wander around after first having a few beers on a raised little bar with a bit of a view of all of the action.

Probably a good chunk of their navy:

The Henry Morgan ship:

Enjoying a beer-verage:

Afterwards I walked up the nearby Santa Ana Hill with its somewhat colourful houses and a lighthouse at the top of the 444 stairs, which were numbered just to keep you motivated. It was a nice vista of the city and the river. On my descent, I stopped in at a crappy little bar that did sport a nice little patio with a good view of the Malecon before returning to the hostel.

I thought this was cool, a cop entertaining/educating some young boys with a puppet. It's easier to be a ventriloquist when you can wear a mask!