7 Feb 2010

Welcome to Guayaquil!

With over 2.2m inhabitants, this is the largest city in Ecuador.  Our hotel was right in the middle of a bustling downtown area:

So I did a little bit of exploring:

Government buildings:

Important meetings:

Metropolitan Cathedral of Guayaquil:

But my favorite spot was the park just across the street:

which was full of iguanas!!!

I love when they lay all derpy with their arms out behind them:

Look at those claws!

There were also turtles:

and giant snails:

I see you…

A quick picture of me from Steve on my camera during breakfast:

and we were off, making our way out of the city:

past some interesting vehicles:

(I think the fan makes him go faster)

and up into the mountains, where houses were often elevated on stilts because of frequent floods:

I’m not sure why this helicopter landed here…

On a previous trip, the road was washed out by a mudslide, and while roads were passable today, there was still a lot of water on the roadways in Puerto Inca, where we stopped for snacks/bathroom break:

Brian was quick to make friends with the kids:

who thoroughly enjoyed seeing themselves in pictures:

Then, we were back on the bus and back on the road.  Well, kind of…

We eventually made it past, though this guy was no help:

Snaking our way up the mountain:

And up:

Until we came across this waterfall on the side of the road:

and we all got out to take pictures:

and back on the bus again until we got to Dos Chorreras Restaurant, where we stopped for lunch:

I don’t have a picture of the restaurant because they also had llamas and I got distracted 🙂

Pre-meal drinks:

I think this was a type of canelazo, a warm, cinnamon-y spiced beverage.  It was delicious! and nice way to warm up a bit since it’s been cool and rainy up in the mountains.

Turner opening a fava bean:

Post-lunch dessert buffet:

And finally, after a long day of driving, we made it to Cuenca.  We did drop all our bags at the clinic and at least staged them close to where they needed to be, but those pictures will have to wait because we have dinner (and a football game) to get to!

Then it was off to bed- we’ve got a busy week ahead of us!