Long week! After snorckelling we took an afternoon bus to Ecuador, Guyacuil. 3 months without a week and I am out of Peru.
20-23/09. Museums, cinema and sightseeing
Guyaquil is the largest city of Ecuador. It is port city, big commecrial center. It is also grey, expensive and ugly. The only bright spot there is Santa Ana hill with one narrow touristic street going up to the light house. Every 5 meters - policeman with a gun, tourist is not allowed to wonder left or right from the street: there are dangerous for gringos) slums. Looks sad really as one can see real life behind these closed gates to tourist paradise.
Apart from the hill (and neighbourhood hiil that we tried to visit, but were stopped by policeman. He could not really explain why 'that people' could go there and we not), we visited local museum, where there were a few modern art expositions together with archeological museum.
We have seen Spanish movie about hard life of street sellers in Quito (bonus: it was free!).
Rest of the city is grey blocks of buildings and markets selling cheap chinese cloth.
Fun part started when we decided to move to another, cheaper, hostel for a night before leaving. This hostel has been recommended by Liza's (my Russian travle companion) couchsurfing contact. So we head off taking the address off their website.
Unfortunately, address only stated a block where it was situated: no house number, no street. We were running around thic block for a few hours, trying to ask locals. It is important to mention that people of Guyaquil either did not understand our accents, or were having fun: they always sent us to a wrong direction!
After a few hours of pointless running around the block, checking online on a tab generously offered by taxi drivers, we gave up and found dodgy hotel nearby. Enough to spend a night and still cheaper then our hostel.
I was glad to leave this city finally: except Starbuck's replica cafe with cakes there is nothing in this place.
'The other hill' from the lighthouse
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Liza is making photos of real life behind the bars
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The Park with iguanas
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Guyaquil city center
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20-23/09. Museums, cinema and sightseeing
Guyaquil is the largest city of Ecuador. It is port city, big commecrial center. It is also grey, expensive and ugly. The only bright spot there is Santa Ana hill with one narrow touristic street going up to the light house. Every 5 meters - policeman with a gun, tourist is not allowed to wonder left or right from the street: there are dangerous for gringos) slums. Looks sad really as one can see real life behind these closed gates to tourist paradise.
Apart from the hill (and neighbourhood hiil that we tried to visit, but were stopped by policeman. He could not really explain why 'that people' could go there and we not), we visited local museum, where there were a few modern art expositions together with archeological museum.
We have seen Spanish movie about hard life of street sellers in Quito (bonus: it was free!).
Rest of the city is grey blocks of buildings and markets selling cheap chinese cloth.
Fun part started when we decided to move to another, cheaper, hostel for a night before leaving. This hostel has been recommended by Liza's (my Russian travle companion) couchsurfing contact. So we head off taking the address off their website.
Unfortunately, address only stated a block where it was situated: no house number, no street. We were running around thic block for a few hours, trying to ask locals. It is important to mention that people of Guyaquil either did not understand our accents, or were having fun: they always sent us to a wrong direction!
After a few hours of pointless running around the block, checking online on a tab generously offered by taxi drivers, we gave up and found dodgy hotel nearby. Enough to spend a night and still cheaper then our hostel.
I was glad to leave this city finally: except Starbuck's replica cafe with cakes there is nothing in this place.
'The other hill' from the lighthouse
Liza is making photos of real life behind the bars
The Park with iguanas
Guyaquil city center
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