Guayaquil

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Jepp, back in the big city. Arrived to the biggest city of Ecuador late Saturday night. You can really tell that this is a big city from the rythm of life and the stressed out faces of the people here (well... not as in London or Paris - everything is relative, but you get what I mean).
The busride that took me here seemed to last forever. With the traditional music at a very loud volume (I am not quite sure, but I think that they played two different songs over and over for a couple of hours - but thank God I did not have to bear with the usual violent/porn movies on the TV that all buses, even the chabbiest ones seem to be equipped with), the dust flying around from the open door, used as an advertising channel by the busboy (Guayaquil, Guayaquil in a high squeaky voice) and the non-closing windows, it was nice to arrive to the really neat hostel in one of the northern suburbs.
Yesterday was a national holiday, celebrating Bolívars b-day, so festivities were happening everywhere. I explored the beachwalk, the Santa Ana area and the churches and parks with an American. One of the highlights was the enormous cemetary. I know that is does seem quite weird to go to a graveyard when visiting a country on the other side of the world, but this one was definitely worth a peak with its ancient gravestones and gothic areas.
After a lot of sighseeing we decided to go to a park, sit down to have an ice cream. When we sat down we discovered to our surprise that there seemed to be tons of sculptures of iguanas in the park - "Strange, is that the symbol of Guayaquil, maybe?". We enjoyed our ice creams until suddenly I felt a stroke on my foot, look down and face the eyes of a giant live iguana, staring at me like he is A - gonna eat me or B - threatening me to bite unless I give him my ice cream. It turned out that the park was full of iguanas (I still wonder how they do to make them stay in the park) that you could touch and feed (but of course not ice cream).
The rest of the day was spent listening to Ecuadorian music and looking at traditional dancing.
Today I am just waiting for my plane that leaves for Lima tonight. I am quite tired of Guayaquil - it is just, as I said, another big city.

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Comments

[julien]

j espere que tu te regales et que tout va bien pour toi. plus qu un mois avant ton job !!!!! ju