While here we stayed in a hostel, which although it had pretty good reviews, was fairly ordinary.
When we got there, again at night, we were greeted by an ugly dog that sounded like it wanted to kill us. We rang the bell a few times and like some dog owners do, they just beckoned us to walk past this thing. In the end they came and got the dog so we could walk past it.
Then we got to our room and it was about 30C with not much air circulation. After the cold of Quito, the air in Guayaquil felt really hot and humid. So we dumped our stuff in the room and went out for a cold beer and something to eat. The beer was really cold and tasted pretty good. Kim had a 'Shawarma' to eat, which is a bit like a souvlaki only made from chicken. The chicken is cooked vertically, rotated in front of a gas-heated grill. The bloke who was grilling the chicken's name was Antonio so he must have been a good bloke. He didn't leave the grill for the hour or so that we were there. He tended it almost obsessively, turning it a bit, cutting off a few small burnt bits. It was almost tiring just watching him.
After that it was time to hit the sack and try to sleep in the sweltering heat. Outside there were alarms going off and inside there were mosquitoes buzzing around our ears for most of the night, apart from when they were biting us. While we were here the charger for the laptop decided to pack it in. But apart from the accommodation, Guayaquil was quite nice.
Kim organised our trip to another place called Puerto Lopez. The trip to Puerto Lopex was on a bus driven by a maniacal, if not suicidal bus driver. Lots of the travel reviews for Ecuador speak of the maniac bus drivers, none of these are exaggerated. Buses seem to race each other, overtake on crests of hills, and seem to go even faster once one side of the bus leaves the road. People get on and off the bus while it is still moving. Some of the people that get on and off try to sell stuff, like coconut water, cakes and drinks.
There is a bloke up the front of the bus that helps to throw the kids out the door as the bus moves. Somehow everyone accepts this as normal. On the side of the road is heaps of rubbish, nothing like you could imagine back home. By heaps I mean that in some places you can barely see a patch of dirt in between bits of plastic, paper and glass. There is rubbish everywhere on the side of the road, it just varies from lots of rubbish to total rubbish. People on the bus were throwing their plastic bottles and papers out the window, as if it was completely normal to do so. Bits of rubbish were blowing around the floor of the bus and would eventually get sucked out the door. People didn't even look at it as it went past. So much for the tropical paradise.
After four or more hours of this, we arrived at Puerto Lopez, which is a small village on the coast with a distinctly 3rd world look and feel to it. We got in a rickshaw and it took us to our accommodation which had the look and feel of a resort on the coast.
The gardens were immaculately tended and full of tropical plants. Out the front were coconut palms and small shelters where you could relax in the shade. However, we never did see the sun the whole time we were here. It was overcast and occasionally we had misty rain, but it was still nice.
Much of our time here was spent relaxing. Sleeping in until about 9:30 became a priority, fruit salad and eggs for breakfast, a bit more relaxing, then a walk along the beach up to the village, sitting beside the beach drinking beer or fresh juice, walking back to the hostel, the evening meal, then a few games of cards became the ritual of the day. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it. All this with meals and drinks included cost us about $AU190 for four nights.
The walk along the beach was both interesting and disappointing. Each day large open boats would come ashore and blokes would run out and carry back crates of fish and prawns. This would attracts hundreds of birds. Some of the birds would swoop down and steal fish from the crates as they were being carried. Occasionally the birds would drop the fish and pelicans would be standing underneath waiting to grab anything that was dropped. Sometimes the pelicans would fight over these fish and you would see them having a tug-o-war. A third type of bird that looked a bit like a vulture stood around the outside waiting for any left-overs.
Once again the disappointing thing was the rubbish. Bits of plastic, rope, bottles forming a big line along the high-tide mark - a pretty big contrast to Tasmanian beaches. I guess all that having to pick up papers in the playground in primary school has had some impact on our culture back home.
Ecuador has lots of potential but the glossy magazines do tell a lie.
Click here to see Guayaquil
Click here to see Puerto Lopez
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