Guayaquil - Heat and Humidity

My next stop was Guayaquil in Ecuador. Finally! I was somehow looking forward to Ecuador for a long time, but that is part of a future blog entry.

Guayaquil is the most populous city in Ecuador, more than 2.5 million people live in the city and the surrounding areas. It lies at the confluence of the two rivers Río Daule and Río Babahoyo, which together form the Río Guayas, approximately 200 kilometers south of the Equator. It compromises 72 barrios and the climate is usually hot throughout the whole year (with a rainy season between January and April). For me it was a pleasant stopover in order to get to the Galápagos Islands.

Fancy a small virtual tour of the city? Here you go, I promise I keep it short (I kept it short because it was really hot and the cold beer was waiting in the hotel room).

I started at my hotel in Calle Escobedo. From there I headed south to the Parque Seminario. The special thing here, the park is home to many iguanas which you can feed but should avoid to touch. In the middle of the park there is a big statue of Simón Bolívar. Leaving the park on the east side, I turned towards the river and walked to the Malecón 2000, a newly refurbished boardwalk which features several plazas, museums, an IMAX, a clock tower and much more. At the north end of the Malecón 2000 I headed up the stairs of the neighborhood Las Peñas, climbing towards the lighthouse to enjoy a great view of downtown Guayaquil. Las Peñas is a barrio transformed into an art gallery and many artists live and work there. From the bottom of Las Peñas I fought my way back through the heat and humidity to the cold beer waiting in the fridge of the hotel room!

And again: pictures are worth a thousand words... so here they are!