El Vago en Suramerica

Somebody made a mistake. I don`t think Guayaquil belongs in Ecuador.

Before I came to Ecuador, I had a certain image of the country: a mountainous place, with a large Indian population, big markets, artesans, small villages, etc. Of course, I was only imagining the Andean region of Ecuador. Guayaquil, the country´s largest city, is another world.

Before coming, I was told that Guayaquil is like Miami. I´ve never been to Miami, but I could imagine that it would be similar. Once my bus pulled into the old terminal, which is a giant collapsing hunk of concrete, everyone immediately rushed off through a big, empty hall to a maelstrom of taxis and buses rushing by. It felt like an arrival in a new country.

The city is hot, sweaty, noisy, and chaotic. Unlike the people of the interior, Guayaquil`s population is warm and open. Though there are few Indians in the city, there seems to be a mix of all colors in the population. Young people dress like young latinos in the United States, with baggy clothing, sunglasses, and baseball caps turned to the side. After dark, the streets become crowded with pedestrians… I could imagine that on weekends, it must be a wild place.

I´ve heard that Guayaquil underwent a dramatic transformation in the last 15 years, or so. In “The Old Patagonian Express,” Paul Theroux described the city as a sweaty, dirty port with little of interest. Today, it is a vibrant, exciting place. The biggest factor in city´s transformation has been a number of extremely ambitious projects involving the many potential sites of interest. The most significant and impressive of these projects is the Malecon 2000, which turned the old malecon into a gorgeous park with playgrounds, exercise structures, refreshment stands, restaurants, bars, lookouts, museums, beautiful gardens, and even an IMAX theater. It is full of pedestrians during the day, and is safe at night.

Another brilliant restoration has been around the neighborhood of Las Penas and Cerro Santa Ana. Cerro Santa Ana is a historic neighborhood that had degenerated into a hillside slum, but a large part of the hill is now a beautiful neighborhood and one of the city`s principal tourist attractions. Outside of the tourist streets the hill remains a slum, but the restored areas have many police and provide a safe environment for both the tourists and residents of the neighborhood.

Guayaquil is easily one of my favorite big cities of the entire trip. I like cities on the water… Guayaquil has a better waterfront than Panama City, and doesn`t feel so flashy… its less touristy than Cartagena… really, if feels like Barranquilla, but I like it much better. Maybe its only because I´ve been here such a short time, but thats OK. I´ve got one more day here, then I´m off for Peru.

I enjoyed Quito a lot. The family who I was staying with, Lisa and Agustin, were incredibly helpful and friendly. It was fun being in a house with young children, as I havent been around little kids in my entire trip. Their dog took a liking to my legs, and would never leave me alone.

I spent the first day in Quito chilling out, recovering from my long bus ride and acclimitizing. That evening I went out with the family for a drive around the city center, and some traditional food in a nice restaurant. The next day I met a nephew and niece of Agustin, and we went to gether in a cable car to an incredible vantage point over the city, at 4100 meters above sea level. turned in early, to prepare for my trip to Cuenca the next day.

I was a bit disappointed by Cuenca. I arrived after a 10 hour bus ride on Saturday, and found a hotel. I set off immediately to look for some hint of the Aventura concert, but found nothing. There were no posters up in the city, and nothing on the internet. People I asked told me to check out the discos in the center later in the evening. After a nap, I headed to the center, but there were few discos, and all were completely empty. I was told that one would fill up, so I went in, and hung out. It was still virtually empty around 1 am, so I headed back to the hotel. It isn`t the end of the world, but I would really have liked to see the concert.

After having wandered around the city so much the night before, I was quite tired of the place. There were few young people around, and though parts of the center are pretty, it really isn´t as good as Popayan or Cartagena, in Colombia. I decided to come to Guayaquil, and here I am.

Love,
Dan

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.