Guayaquil

Everybody says "Don't go to Guayaquil", "It's dangerous", "It's ugly"....blah, blah, blah.  Well, we went to Guayaquil and although it's not the prettiest city it was nice for a 3 day visit.  When we arrived, we were met at the bus station by Anthony Serrano, an American who moved to Ecuador after meeting his wife.  Anthony was really helpful and showed us around the city a little bit and found a nice place for us to stay at in the good neighbourhood of Urdesa. Thanks to his help, we didn't think Guayaquil was that bad and I would recommend people to visit it.

One of the highlights of Guayaquil is Cerro Santa Ana.  It's an old neighbourhood with a nice lighthouse and cathedral at the top of a hill.  As you climb up the 444 steps to the top, you pass by lots of colourful and interesting houses, great views of the city and a pirate museum.  We went on a sunny day with a father and his two daughters from Quito.  They were in Guayaquil because his oldest daughter was doing some volunteer work and trying to figure out what to study and where to go to university.  She won a scholarship from the government allowing her to go to any university in the world to study what she likes. She earned this by scoring one of the highest in a nation wide test!  That was very impressive and we got to have breakfast and spent an afternoon with the smartest 17 year-old in all of Ecuador.

Another highlight is the Iguana park.  It's located in downtown Guayaquil in front of the church and surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings. Like the name indicates, the park is home to hundreds of land iguanas, which are very different than the ones in the Galapagos.  The first time we went to this park was with Anthony and his wife on the morning we arrived.  We must have gone at the wrong time because all the iguanas were up in one tree and just shitting on everything below them.  So needless to say we kept a safe distance and Mareen and I decided to come another time.  An important lesson learnt so far is try to avoid being under animals because they will shit on you (birds and animals in trees)!  The second time we went there was in the afternoon and it was a much more pleasant experience.