To Galapagos via Guayaquil

We left our apartment Friday, catching a cab to a van service office.  After waiting half an hour past the stated departure time (and with no explanation...were we being taken into white slavery?), the four passengers going to Guayaquil were ushered (squeezed, actually) into yet another cab.  A fellow traveler, a lovely young Russian woman, told us that the transit police are targeting transport vans (as opposed to taxis and buses) and will not let them come into Cuenca proper—although she didn't know the reason for this.  So the van took us about 25 miles out of the city to a scenic overlook in the Cajas National Park where we were met by the van and driver who would take us on to Guayaquil.

The Ecuadoran mountains are fantastically gorgeous.  From Cuenca to Guayaquil, we climbed up to a pass that is over 4300 meters—more than 14,000 feet.  Twisting and turning around steep curves, we passed through a cloud-shrouded landscape, dotted with hundreds of small lakes.  The vegetation, seen from a careening van, is varied--friom shades of green to gray, along deep gorges and gigantic peaks.

Cajas National Park--formed by a melting glaciers thousands of years ago, it is filled with over 200 lakes.

Our new Russian friend, Mila, had met an Ecuadoran student in Moscow when she was 18, married him, and immigrated to Ecuador.  Now divorced, she has two grown sons who both speak Russian, Spanish and English, and she herself speaks lovely Spanish and a delightfully accented English.  She was so nice to us and gave us lots of helpful Ecuadoran related travel and survival hints.

The park is filled with many twists & turns, giving our loco driver plenty of opportunities to pass on blind curves.

Private travel van drivers all over the world must be cut from the same cloth—macho men who must constantly be testing themselves by going too fast and passing when and where they shouldn’t. Our driver, a seemingly nice young man, became a crazed idiot behind the wheel. We survived, but just.  It was bad enough when he passed on blind curves in the mountains, but getting to the flat countryside leading into Guayaquil, he decided to test all limits and began passing on double lines with oncoming traffic well within sight. 

Just outside of the city, he started around yet another long line of traffic, with an equally long line coming towards us. It was inevitable that something bad would happen—we squeezed between the first car in the oncoming line and the line of vehicles on our side of the road, but the second oncoming vehicle, a mortocycle, could not see us and the driver swerved into our driver's side mirror, taking it completely off.  Did anyone stop ? Not us.  Was that driver injured?  Who knows ?  Looking back behind us, it looked like an accident scene but we couldn't tell for sure as we just kept flying down the highway.  From then on we held our breath until safely reaching the airport.  Insane !

Outside of Guayaquil--a huge agriculture center--fresh fruits are sold by the roadside.

As our flight to the Galapagos didn’t leave until early the next day, we had to take a taxi into the city.  Approaching Guayaquil, through huge farms and bedraggled towns and villages, it clearly looks and feels (hot and humid) like the last place on earth one would like to visit.  Downtown is choked with traffic, as so many cities, large and small, in the world seem to be these days. Our modest little hostel, Casa de Romero, was on the 7^th floor of what looked to be a high rise apartment building-- once we got to our room, we found a Spartan but comfortable and clean room, with a tiny balcony overlooking the city.

One thing to recommend the hotel is that it is just five blocks from the Malecon—a many miles long river “boardwalk” (though made of concrete) along the Guayas River, that has been upgraded and modernized so that it is a delightful place to stroll,  enjoying the refreshing evening breezes wafting off the river. 

We were really pleasantly surprised by the Malecon, the weather, and the people we met and saw along our walk.  Lined with children’s parks, restaurants, bars, exercise trails, and benches, the Malecon is truly a treasure for the city and its citizens as well as for weary travelers like us, romantic young lovers and international tourists (we could identify folks from many countries).

Guayaquil's Malecon is a delightful place to stroll & relax & at this season enjoy their new Christmas Tree.

As we were walking along, we were delighted to come upon a free concert by a Navy Band—La Banda Blanca. (We thought it was an Ecaudorean band but have since been told it was visiting Nicaraguan band.) Anyway, it made us think fondly of our niece, Susie, who sings with the U.S. Navy Sea Chanters—although there seemed to no women in the band or in its singing group.  Still, we very much enjoyed the hour long concert and it was a nice way to relax after our harrowing across the mountains van ride.

It was Thanksgiving Day, so we celebrated by eating the only American food we could find--KFC ! Reminiscing about the many wonderful Thanksgiving holidays we have share with family & friends--hope you had a good "Dia por La Accion de Gracias".

We were slow getting this--connections in the Galapagos were not always the best, as might be expected.