Guayaquil, buses, and the Andes

May 9, 2011

The hostel I stayed in last night was probably the swankiest I have been in.  Nice shower, good beds, ambient lighting...all for the price of $11.50.  A little more than what I usually spend, but it was right downtown and close to all the sites I wanted to see.  I surprisingly liked Guayaquil.  Even though there is not a ton to see, there is a sweet riverwalk (Malecon) and cultural center that you might see in Europe somewhere.  There is also a cool lighthouse on top of a hill that used to be a big slum.  Some areas have gone through gentrification and some haven't.  There are actually gates and bars that separate the areas that are still slums from the fixed-up places.  Kind of interesting - I would have liked to be in on the conversation when it was decided where the dividing lines would be.  

Malecon 2000

Cerro Santa Ana

Instead of cabbing it today from the bus stations I needed to go to, I decided to try out some city Ecuabuses. They were great.  I was not quite sure how things were going to go with a huge travelers backpack on my back and a small daypack on the front, but it was all smooth.  No little man blew in my armpit like happened before.  And just a quarter per ride.  Not too shabby!  I'm liking Ecuador's city public transport a lot more than anywhere else in Latin America I have been.  The bus stations are also a lot more ordered, especially compared to Central America.  I have been traveling there for the last couple years, and usually buses leave and come to different areas of the city depending the destination/where you are coming from.  In most Ecuadorian cities, there is one main bus terminal that has platforms where buses leave. 

Guayaquil bus station

I traveled from Guayaquil (Ecuador's largest city) to its 3rd largest city (Cuenca).  We started off on the coast where it was about 87 degrees and HOT.  As soon as we started to climb into the mountains, things started to cool down right away.  By the time we hit our highest point (about 12,000 feet), it was around 55.  Big difference!  The Andes mountains are just plain awesome to ride through.  Sometimes shrouded in mist, sometimes glowing in sunshine, the views when you aren't in a cloud are amazing.  The pics that I snapped of them don't do them justice.

Andes Mtns.

I made it to Cuenca where I just ate a huge huge plate of some Colombian food...some of it I am not sure what it was...and two sweet sweet nectar-of-the-gods coca cola in glass bottles made from real sugar cane.

Colombian platter - $3.50, complete with mystery meat at the very top.

 
There was rice, beans, plantain (a thicker tropical banana), egg, chorizo (sausage-type stuff), shredded beef, arepa (a type of corn tortilla), avocado, and the mystery meat with 8 little tine-like squares sticking out of it.  I took two bites, and decided that I think that I was eating some sort of pig fat and probably the skin too.  I only ate 2 bites of it and couldn't do it.  The last time I ate pork in Ecuador resulted in explosive fireworks in a jungle bathroom.  Keeping my fingers crossed that doesn't happen tonight.  Tomorrow I am checking out the historical center of Cuenca, which is supposed to be the best in the country.  From what I saw today, it should live up to it. 

Traveling alone gives you time to think, meet new people, and grow as a person, but it sucks when you see something that one of your friends who isn't with you would love or laugh at.  Here are a few of those moments from today:
1. A park full of iguanas that Melissa would love.

One of about 100 iguanas living in Parque Seminario

2. If Lindsay, Jon, and Andrew thought they were giants in Panama, they would be super-giants here.  I have seen exactly 2 Ecuas taller than me. 
3. Riding the Ecovia bus like Amanda and I did the day we skipped class in Quito. 

"Pork - the other white meat." - The National Pork Board

Does that count if you are eating its fat and skin too?