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Published: October 3rd 2011
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Sunday 25th September
The time seems to be flying by so fast now!
We arrived in Guayaquil on Friday at the Hostel Suites Madrid - a quaint, roomy, very clean and most importantly to one of us, very cheap place in the heart of the discoteque district it seems.
We have booked our Galapagos trip AND a trip to the Amazon from here. Mucho exciteda! We have secured ourselves 5 days/4 nights on a luxury catamarran called Millenium for Monday 26th. Poor Sixto is still looking a little pale having had to empty the wallet and the bank account to pay for these 2 treasures. Never fear - he'll get on that boat tomorrow and see that it was all worth it. LOL
Shane says: Pale's not the word. This girl (Rio) justs loves spending. I've told her a million times, that money is supposed to be collected and stacked in a pile. Not just frivilously spent. haha
To be honest it does look like a nice boat. Also 'The Amazon' trip looks fabulous too. We will see. Lol.
Guayaquil gets a pretty bad rap in most of the guide books. Its basically a sea port and is
Guayaquil
La Rotonda Monument tipped to be seedy and a little unsafe. We found it to be completely the opposite. The big wide city streets are clean and bustling with tourists and locals alike. At the end of
Octubre Street, you walk directly into the Malecon, or the foreshore. It is beautifully paved with lush green gardens along the river. There are parks and play areas for children all the way along the river as well as little restaurants, cafes, icecream and drink vendors. It is brilliantly lit of an evening and has a real romanticism about it.
Our hotel is perfectly located, and the staff are so helpful. The guy we have been dealing with is Christopher. He walked us down to the bank to get approval for our bank withdrawal, showed us which banks didnt charge fees, walked me around to his computer guy to fix the laptop, and even sent staff to purchase us an electrical adapter.
The roof top has a lovely garden and it also provides us with most of our entertainment.
Our hotel appears to be in Disco street! Every 2nd shopfront is a discoteque! Well they SAY they are, but if you could see the blokes hanging
Junk
Because I could outside these places with their shady shades on, you might also wonder :-)
The same girl has been selling her goods on same corner the last 2 nights. She seemed to have had a good night Friday night, but last night the police ute was parked in the street with its lights flashing, so no one was biting. She moved along to another corner.
I must add here that I have honestly never in my life seen as much 'muffin top' or 'junk in the trunk' as I have since we arrived in Ecuador! These woman are seriously chunky. They are also very short. I feel as though I know what its like to be 5ft 9 !!!!!
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