Day 414 – Guayaquil to Somewhere
Leaving Ecuador
Terminal Terrestre
Today we woke up feeling defeated. It didn’t seem like the protests would resolve any time soon. Therefore we packed our bags and checked out of our hostel, Departamento de la Iguana.
We caught an Uber to Guayaquil’s Terminal Terrestre. After talking to several companies, we found out that there were no buses to tourist destinations inside Ecuador (Cuenca or Banos). There was a bus to the capital Quito for some reason, which was where most of the protests were taking place.
The options to leave the country by bus were to Lima in Peru or Cali and Bogota in Colombia. However, the Colombian options only run on Thursdays and were closed until the 31st of October 2019 (~20 days away). Therefore, we decided to buy tickets to Peru.
With the company Civa, the bus would leave at 9pm and arrive in Lima 2 days later at 8am after stopping in Chiclayo for a few hours. The tickets were $70 USD ($107.25 AUD) per person (p/p).
However, we decided to only buy the tickets to Chicalayo for $30.25 USD ($46.35 AUD) p/p. Using the Red Bus Mobile App, we discovered that the journey from Chiclayo to Lima, would be way cheaper in Peru.
More sites of Guayaquil
Once everything was sorted, our friend’s cousin, who I will just call our friend now, said that he would come and meet us. He picked us up from the terminal. We were able to leave our backpacks at the Civa counter, which was really helpful.
Firstly, we went to another of his restaurants at Sabor Plaza. He showed us around the place. It was a similar concept to Food Garden from a few days ago (Day 410), but a lot smaller.
After a delicious lunch, we visited a viewpoint, Mirador Bellavista. From the mirador, we enjoyed nice views of the city. The city looked really cool, with the buildings surrounding the many mountains.
Our next destination was Guayarte Plaza and the zig zag pedestrian bridge across the river. It’s a really nice area with plenty of cool restaurants and cafes.
After some coffee and snacks we went back to Food Garden. We spent the rest of the night here. It was good to see that business was picking up again. Our friend dropped us back at the bus terminal at 8.20pm. The staff at Civa had recommended that we arrive at 8.30pm
Good bye Ecuador
The bus arrived at the massive Guayaquil Terminal Terrestre on the top level. It arrived at 9.05pm, which was only 5 minutes later than scheduled. We were provided a pasta dinner before we drifted off to sleep. There is a 15 hour journey ahead of us.