January 28, Saturday – Guayaquil, Ecuador

This morning we had a tour of Guayaquil.  The city is the financial capital of Ecuador and the main shipping port for the country.  The city is in the tropics and was rather hot and humid for us after Torres del Paine.  However, it wasn’t too bad in the shade, particularly when the wind blew.

It turns out that the official currency in Ecuador is the US dollar.  Consequently, they must have a balanced budget as they cannot print money whenever they need it.  They have a healthy export business that includes flowers plus a healthy tourism business that is the fourth largest income generator in the country.

Stops included one of the major flower markets…

the Administration Plaza with the City Hall and the Governor’s Palace,

There was usual "national hero" statue in the plaza...

along with a statue of some founders/revolutionaries.

We also saw the Metropolitan Cathedral that was damaged in last year’s earthquake...

And stopped by a park with iguanas (which we will see lots of in the Galapagos):

and then walked the Rio Guayas riverfront promenade ”Malecon 2000”.

The entire city burned to the ground in the late 1890’s so much of the construction is relatively new.  However, Las Peñas, an old section on the hills, that was rebuilt pretty much in the same style as the original.  The buildings were painted many bright colors and the view was certainly very picturesque from a distance.  From below it looked to be wall to wall buildings all the way to the top.  The only way to get from the bottom to the top is via some 400+ steps.  

We just walked along a cobblestone street that connected the “old” promenade with the “new”. The buildings had very colonial facades with louvered shutters that could be opened wide to let the winds blow through the buildings. 

The original promenade is about 3 kilometers long.  A new one is gradually being build that will go all the way to a bridge with the two promenades connected via the cobblestone streets through Las Peñas.

And an unusual street scene:

Paul is fighting a stomach bug so he spent the afternoon in bed while Mary hit the restaurant for a salad and enjoyed some quite time working on this blog and the pictures. 

Today is the end of our independent travel.  Tomorrow we join Jim and Phyllis Bratt and a host of others for a National Geographic Tour to the Galapagos.