Guayaquil is at the mouth of a river. We sailed in here over night and now we are sailing out. It will take 4 hours to reach the ocean. Ecuador is right at the bulge of South America. We are half a degree south of the equator.
The local Catholics (almost everyone) celebrate Carnivale with water. They go to the beach if they can. If they can’t, they try to stay wet all day.
They play with water pistols and throw water balloons at each other. They fill baby pools with water and play in them. I took pictures of several of the pools set up on the sidewalks outside the poorer homes.
They used to have the traditional parades and parties but there were riots and many tragedies. The new celebration looks sweet and peaceful. The residents of Guayaquil are known for being both liberal in their politics and extroverted in their personalities.
The current president of Ecuador is a leftist and our guide doesn’t like him. In fact, she says she hates him but that it is dangerous to talk that way in public. She said people spy on each other so it’s not exactly Canada.
Ecuador had runaway inflation in the 1990’s. The situation was somewhat similar to Greece’s situation today. To get the economy back on track, they adopted the U.S. dollar as their currency and public workers accepted a huge cut in salary. The income Ecuador receives from the oil business is dedicated to pay down the national debt.
Our guide said the economic upheaval was very painful. She pointed to a row of buildings that used to be banks. They all failed and the court cases are ongoing to recover some of the losses. She said her salary went from $600 a month to $200. Her salary has risen to $400 a month over the last twelve years but it is totally inadequate. Not only that but public employees often have to take to the streets and protest just to get paid. That’s why she does other jobs.
She’s a great guide. She said we were her children for the day. She cheerfully repeated herself several times and guided us like a mother hen.
We first went to see two beautiful homes called The Chocolate Houses. They were owned by the families who made their fortunes here in chocolate. Most of the chocolate candy in the U.S. is grown in Ecuador. She mentioned a few, including M & M’s.
The big export now is oil. They export oil to the United States as well as bananas, tuna, tilapia and other food products. They used to grow huge shrimp here (4 shrimp to a pound) but the shrimp got a parasite and it has taken years to recover the business.
They also export minerals, including uranium to Iran. That is controversial but it is ongoing.
The city government has done a spectacular public works projects on the waterfront. Again, I wish I could post some pictures. We walked about a mile along the waterfront taking pictures. The area is called Malecon 2000 because that is the year it was dedicated.
One of the attractions is the clock tower. It was erected after an especially bad bout of Yellow Fever in the late 1800’s.
There is a beautiful botanical garden but our guide said it is full of mosquitoes. This is the rainy season and they have an outbreak of dengue fever. That is one of the
tropical diseases for which there is no vaccine. So, discretion is the better part of valor. I just about took a bath in insect repellant but it turned out to be unnecessary. I never saw an insect.
The centerpiece of the Malecon area is the Anthropology Museum. It is new, modern and air conditioned! I took mucho pictures because it was allowed. Bill enjoyed the museum, too.
Human sacrifices but didn’t happen here. Ecuador’s macabre addition to human history is shrunken heads. In the Andes area, they killed their enemies, sometimes with poisoned darts. Then, they shrunk their heads and posted the heads on top of fence posts as a warning not to trespass or annoy them in any way. Today, they only shrink animal heads for the tourists.
We saw some indigenous people in the park. They are camera shy but I got a few pictures from a distance. They wear black wool clothes that are very distinctive. This was appropriate clothing where they originated in the mountains but it looks uncomfortable on a hot day like today.
We drove by the Cerro Santa Ana District which is the old colonial core of the city. The barrio or shanty town is a section of homes that has been redeveloped. The city fixed up the homes and installed 444 steps as there are no roads in this
section.
The owners who had their homes repaired owed nothing if they agreed to get a job or start a business. They also had to agree to follow many rules, such as not hanging out their laundry in public view. Each home has a picture in front of it showing what it looked like before restoration.
Now, it’s a charming, productive area. The houses next to the street and the stairs contain restaurants, little shops and art galleries.
There is an island on the other side of the river that was once inhabited by pirates. The pirates captured local women and held them for ransom. No one paid the ransom and the women were soon pregnant. Then, they all became one large family. Our guide found this very amusing.
We also stopped at the Seminario Parque which is dominated by a huge statue of Simon Bolivar, as well as a statue of wild boars fighting. There are supposed to be parrots in the trees but I only saw pigeons. However, there are many three foot long iguanas. Since school was out, children were playing with them and feeding them.
We are on our way to Manta, Ecuador but I don’t think we will go into town. We would have to take a shuttle and then just walk around by ourselves. There were no easy ship tours for this port. Ecuador is a dangerous place for tourists. I will have to hear what people say when they come back to the ship.
