Day 410 – Guayaquil
Today we woke up late at our hostel, Departamento de la Iguana. We forgot about the one hour time difference between the Galapagos Islands and mainland Ecuador. We had some tea at the hostel’s small kitchen to wake us up.
The hostel did a load of laundry for $5 USD ($7.64 AUD). The price increased to ~$7 USD ($10.70 AUD) the next day so I guess we were lucky. We ventured out and found a large Movistar store. Here, we paid $10 USD ($15.28 AUD) for 3GB of data. Unlike, last time (Day 397), where we were ripped off, we made sure to get a receipt and waited for confirmation on the phone before leaving.
Then we walked around the city looking for some breakfast. We found a small cafe called Pasterleria Adriana. The crepes here were nice. Afterwards, we returned to the hostel.
One of my wife’s friends’ cousins lives in Guayaquil and had agreed to meet us. While we waited, we decided to walk around town.
Parque Seminario
Our first destination was a stone’s throw away from the hostel. Seminario Park is in front of the Guayaquil Metropolitan Cathedral. The park is full of iguanas, and small tortoises. It almost felt like we were back in the Galapagos Islands. These are probably the ancestors of all the Marine Iguanas.
Malecon 2000
From the park we walked towards the pier (Malecon in Spanish). Along the way we saw some beautiful colonial buildings and statues. In contrast, we also saw a heavy police presence around some buildings. Later we discovered that this was around the universities.
The Malecon 2000 is a very nice pier. It is gated off from the rest of the city and each entrance has security guards.
The pier runs along the Rio Guayas. There are several cafes, stalls, benches, statues. There is even a small amusement park and ferris wheel. It was very nice to sit around and chill.
Food Tour of Guayaquil
Our friend’s cousin came and picked us up from the Malecon 2000. The friend’s cousin and wife were super friendly and treated us really well. We dropped off his wife and went around town to see some of the sites. The cousin owns some restaurants around town. Due to the strikes around the country, he was concerned about getting supplies to each of his restaurants.
Food Garden
One was located at a place called Food Garden. I instantly fell in love with the place. It was essentially a food court, but it was beautiful. There were restaurants with global cuisines, large screens to watch sports games and a raised balcony for a band. Apparently it goes off on the weekend. We had a delicious lunch from his restaurant.
Plaza Lagos Shopping Precinct
Then we drove around town to a more high end part of town. This part of town is on the other side of the Guaya River. The Plaza Lagos is surrounded by a golf course and gated communities.
The infrastructure here reminded me a lot of the Pearl in Doha (Day 233). We walked around and chatted. Afterwards, we had coffee and cakes at a cafe.
While we were enjoying our snacks, the cousin received a call that the bridges were blocked by trucks. We were stuck on the other side of the river with no hope of getting to our hostel.
The cousin was really nice and told us not to worry, as we could crash at his place if the bridges remain closed.
Food Garden II
We went back to Food Garden for some drinks. As we were enjoying our sangria, the police came and saw Food Garden’s manager. A group of protesters were expected to come into the area, so they had to shut down all the restaurants.
The bridges remained closed so we went to the cousins place to spend a night. We were very grateful for the accommodation.