Guayaquil

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* Beautiful misty mountain scenery, with tiny homes scattered throughout the hillside on our luxury bus ride (with movies!) through the national park, bit too windey for tarn!

* As there are no public trains in Ecuador, transportation relies on their bus system...of which Guayaquil being the biggest city here has embraced 150%!a(MISSING) mall, a 3 level bus terminal, thronging masses of people and a flock of yellow taxis....

* Lovely hostel - "DreamKapture" on the outskirts of town....meant we got to enjoy the adventure of taking a local bus that speeds its way through the streets honking constantly with people literally jumping off the bus...as well as escape the big smelly city when we needed to, and chill in the comfort of the hostel complete with a couple of avaries

* The day we arrived was a festival to celebrate "Simon Bolivars" birthday (who liberated Ecuador, Columbia & Venezuela from colonial rule) so we.....

* Visited the ¨Disneyland´ of Guayaquil - the fancy, clean, gated waterfront with a tourist vibe, that has been done up for tourists and locals alike.....known to most as ´Malecon 2000´("Waterfront") - with an amazing kids playground, boot camp ´playground´, plant market with bonsai workshops, an IMAX showing the latest Harry Potter (we were very tempted, but thought the non english subtitles for the spanish screening might be a bit above our spanish level!)

* Visited Las Penas - historic streets with refurbished colourful homes, climbed 466 steps to look over the city - where we were greeted with fake animals that moved, a neon church and lighthouse, a pirate ship cafe and the cannons that once used to protect the city from pirates!

* Had an adventure getting to Bosque Protector Cerro Blanco - 6000 protected ha. of tropical dry forest. Grabbed a taxi there - nice driver who spoke extremely fast, drove fast, and yelled at any taxi driver we passed on the way to check his directions....having finally gotten 15 km or so out of the city he couldnt find the entry and at one stage REVERSED about 100m on the motorway to ask a security guard at the cement factory (who own the park) where the entrance was and even HE didnt know!

* Finally, a lovely spanish guy who spoke a bit of english at a village down the road jumped in his car and led us and the taxi to the entrance of the park....which is bolted and locked, with a security guard!

* beautiful park, heard howler monkeys, saw vultures and random birds as well as a MASSIVE iguana as we finished the walk, by the cafe

* excited to leave the big city though and head for the coast...finally...for some sunshine.......or so we thought!

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