Guayaquil highlights

Our first stop in Ecuador was the city of Guayaquil. The guidebooks don't have much good to say about this city so we arrived with low expectations.  When we first walked out of the airport the heat and humidity welcomed us as we found a taxi to take us to our hotel, which actually ended up being an apartment. The taxi ride took awhile because of so much traffic.  My first impressions of the city reminded me of Manila, Philippines, a big, sprawling, crowded, polluted city with a mix of old and new. 

Rich and one of the streets. Now imagine all the cars honking horns

The view from our apartment window

After a nap in our air conditioned apartment, we all felt better and were ready to go explore a bit. First on the agenda, food. Near our apartment is an area known as the Malecon 2000. It is an area along the riverfront that has shops, statues, food, and entertainment.  We picked a place and spent $19.25 for the five of us to all get dinner, which also included bottled water and Inca Cola (a soda we loved in Peru last year). We ended up eating at these stalls every day

Jenna and Seth 

Joe's dinner

On along the Malecon we found statues, and some activities. Jenna and Seth tried the water balls. Neither one was able to stand up for very long in them.

Seth, this might be the only time he was actually standing

This is what they looked like most of the time.

Jenna along the river

Joe and one of the statues. Our apartment was in the tallest building above the statues head.

The rotunda is an impressive monument to the meeting of Bolivar and San Martin

Jenna imitating the pose in the statue

View along the Malecon

Some cool trees along the Malecon

Near the Malecon is a city administration building with a large plaza that contains more monuments, statues, and fountains.

We were able to find a Church to attend on Sunday and we also made it to the Guayaquil Temple.

The church

Jenna on the temple grounds

But I think the most unique thing we found was the Iguana Park. It is a park across the street from a large cathedral and it has 100's of Iguana's. Jenna wrote a blog post about it so I won't go into much detail but I will add a few more photos. We first went in the evening and most of the iguanas were in the trees. At first you couldn't see them but once you figured out they were there you saw them everywhere! We returned in the day and then the iguanas were all over the park. My kids all thought it would be really cool to have an Iguana Park in American Fork!

The Iguana Park with the Cathedral in the background

Iguanas in the trees

And on the bushes

And on the ground

And on the benches.

Overall we really enjoyed our time in Guayaquil. But three days was enough for us and we are ready to head to the Galapagos Islands. But first we need to get out of Guayaquil the same day the Pope is arriving!