Day 411 – 413 – Guayaquil
Day 411
We woke up at our friend’s cousins place in the morning. The house was empty, as everyone had already started their day. The cousin came back to pick us up. He dropped us off at our hostel, Departamento de la Iguana. I was nervous that there may have been riots and our hostel may have been looted.
However, everything was alright. The protests had never reached the street our hostel was on. We extended our stay at the hostel, as we attempted to wait out the protests.
After checking on our things, we went out for breakfast. We ended up at Pasteleria Adriana again. Afterwards, we purchased some supplies from the grocery store Mi Comisariato Centro, so that we could remain indoors for the rest of the day.
Guayaquil Metropolitan Cathedral at night
Day 412
Today marks Guayaquil’s independence from Spain! However, we are still in the middle of the protests. From yesterday’s newspaper, we found out that a large protest is planned for midday.
Therefore we decided to confine ourselves to the safety of our 8th story accommodation. We did sneak out before midday to buy some cakes from Pasteleria Adriana. The streets felt a little tense as store owners were standing outside waiting to close. But there were heaps of people going about their day.
Around 3pm, we heard gunshots like sounds outside. From the terrace upstairs we could see some of the action. There were heaps of police officers on motorbikes coming to an intersection next to us, but we couldn’t see if anyone was attacking them. There were also white t-shirt wearing protesters, who were apparently protesting against the other protesters.
After some time the noise and commotion died down. Apparently 3 blocks away from us, was the epicentre of the protests.
On a side note, the terrace had nice views of Guayaquil. Fingers crossed that the rest of the day will remain peaceful.
Day 413
The protests continued today. As we try to wait the them out I completed our Tax Returns for the 2018-2019 financial year. It was easier than I expected, as we didn’t earn much money!
We extended our stay at Departamento de la Iguana for another night. We did venture out to buy some groceries and have lunch at Carls Jr. As far as we could tell, the city of Guayaquil appeared to be back to normal.
From researching online, most of the roads to other cities are still blocked. We had an United States / Romanian couple arrive at our hotel today. They had come from a coastal town that would normally take 3 hours by bus. It had taken them 11 hours to arrive using 4 different cars, as they had to walk around the roadblocks.
All flights out of Guayaquil are super expensive, but we might have to bite the bullet and take one soon.