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Published: June 13th 2007
So here I am in Lima 25 hours later after leaving Guayaquil.
Guayaquil is not a place for backpackers. There are no "hostels" so to speak and the downtown caters mostly to rich business people. I found a "hostel" just outside the centro about 20 min by taxi in the suburbs. The thing about Guayaquil is that ALL the suburbs are gated communtiies. It is a rich city the richest one in Ecuador. Ecveryone drives SUV´s or some sort of luxury car. Strip malls line the street and the shops in the mall are astronomically expensive.
I did go to a place called the Malecon briefly with Jen before she left to go back home, she cut it early ..homesickness. It´s all good though I have been having a hell of a time travelling by myself.
So the Malecon is like a giant boardwalk/pier. It was made in 2000 and it is where the governement dropped loads of money to reinvent Guayaquil. It was nice. It´s a pleasant walk and at one end is a black market. I didn´t go. Otherwise I may have left with a lot of things.
We went for dinner and the fettichini I had came with every bloody type of seafood possible, but the worst part was the brown sauce. They do it very weird here. The salad was good though.
After dinner we went to find a bank machine to get some money, it decided it wanted to be a bastard and not cooperate. I got mad. Anyways, I eventually got money and then Jen left. After that I wander the downtown for a bit and then took the Metro Via back to the terminal where I could catch a cab back to my hotel. The metro via was fine, it was the cab driver. Oh my god..... I mean he was playign awesome music but he had no idea where we were going despite the lady writing the directions down and IN SPANISH...I´m sorry but what a douche bag. Anyways we are driving for awhile and I think that we may have past the turn off. Yup we did! So we turn around find the turn off and then I gave him the instructions saying the primero garita en la izquiredera (the first gate on the left) nope he thinks that´s not it and keeps driving. After 15 minutes of driving back and forth I tell him to go there, he does and I was right. We drive through the gate, he drops me off at the house. The first thing I notice is that the gate is closed. Crap. The driver points to the buzzer ok good. Nope no answer I yell a bit no answer. (The driver left). So I go back to the gate and try and squeeze through, no dice, then I see the wire at the top. Yes. I take it off and get through the gate. I walk to what I thought was my door and it was locked, shit. Wait my door is next. Oh man not a good day.
I get into my room and want to collapse. Instead I calm myself with a cold shower and a hand held shower head that barely works. Awesome. After that I hear a knock at the door, it´s Andrea the owner. She takes me inside and I find out she was there the entire time, wicked. So she shows me the interent and the tv, and helps me find the bus station to get a ticket to Lima. Her and her boyfriend invite me out for drinks and food bu I am tired I decline.
So the next day was my birthday. Weird it didn´t feel like it. I got up early had breakfast and then used the internet and got in touch with my Dutch friends that I met in Quito. We decided to meet up that evening to give Timo time to get his stomach in order and Ramon and Paco had a family lunch.
So I went to the Historical Park and saw animals from all over Ecuador, kind of like working in the jungle minus the fun. It was also wickedly hot and humid. Yuck.
I did the tour obligingly and then went off to the mall. I needed shorts. No dice. Off I went to buy my ticket to Lima. That was the biggest fiasco so far. Wandering around like a chicken with no head, asking for help. Finally I find the freaking place. It is outside the bloody terminal, how do they expect people to find a place like that on their own. Luckily people are nice in Ecuador and helped me find it. 50 dollars later and a bit flustered, I go back to the domestic terminal and hop on the bus that will drop my off at my hotel. I buy and ice cream and settle in for the ride...until an old man gets on and sits beside me and stares at me like he as never seen a woman before. Eww barf, I gave him some really dirty looks, he eventually moved. It sounds bad, but it wsa gross, and I was sort of blocked in because I was the window seat.
I get back to the hotel after a 1 km walk in from the road and some threats on my life. People in Guayaquil drive like out right maniacs. They drove about 2 1/2 feet from me doing about 80 k. Jerks. I got back to the hotel sweaty and dusty and then there were guests there of the father of the owner Andrea. (She´s turned her guest house into the ´hotel´) they are having a bbq. I get to my room and am I running for a pee when Andrea knocks at the door and invites me to the bbq.
I go and have a lovely bean and rice mixture and fried plantains. Yum. Oh and some sangria.
After a little while they ask me soem questions about my travels and my age. I mention its my birthday and the old men bust out in "Happy Birthday" how nice. They also ask me about my "look". Pretty much most people here either ask first or second what my background is, or they just stare like I am chubacha.
So after the meal and some chatting I relax and do some internet work.
Around 6 I am off to the downtown area to meet up with my friends. Just as I am leaving, two of the friends are leaving for home and offer me a ride down. Awesome. I get there with 30 min to spare so I check out the crystal palace and walk up to the meet point. So the night was nice and breezy and not too hot. Much nicer than the day time. So 20 minutes late I met up with my friends and we walk the Malecon and chat and take in the view. Not much was open on Sundays so we mostly walked the Malecon and hung out at Santa Ana hill the area where the first neighbourhood in Guayquil was made. It was nice to have people tp spend my birthday with.
Overall it was a good night. The following day I was off to Lima on my bus ride for 25 hours. I got to the bus office and it was packed with backpackers. Ohhh that was nice to see. They all came down from the coast to take the bus. I should have brought food with me, but I didn´t. Thankfully, they offered 3 meals and we could get stuff at the borders.
the borders were the most stressful parts of the journey, the Peruvian officer stamped my passort on the same page as my entry stamp for Ecuador..what a dork. It should have had its own page. Whatever. I just hope it doesn´t cause any problems.
So we watched some chick flick with the guy from Desperate Housewives in it, the lawn guy. And then 300, that was good. Then King Kong and that was it for the night. I slept from about 10ish pm to about 830ish. Lunch was rice and beans and chicken, dinner was pork and potatoes and rice. And breakfast was a bun with some sort of meat. (I was able to pick around the lunch/dinner meat but no dice for the breakfast. Luckily a very nice French Canadien offered me a cinnamon roll. Whew.) After Dr. Do Little 3/2 (played in that order and in SPanish, the others were in English) and about another hour we arrived in Lima around 1pm. A very helpful man from Nevada that was living in Lima helped me get a taxi and took it with me because it was on his way. gringos are so nice.
So yup I am in Lima, I bought my ticket for Cusco to leave at 9am and then did some shopping at the supermarker. Wow huge. I also wait for it!!
WENT TO STARBUCKS: can you believe it. In ALL of South America the only Starbucks is in Lima. I had a grande soy vanilla latte. The ones back home are better, it was neat having it there. But I like the cafes better but they aren´t as abundant in Ecuador so I had to breakdown. But Buenos Aires should be packed with them = me 😊.
SO tomorow I head to Cusco and start my tour to Mannchu Pichu. The train up to MP goes on the 14th so I have a dya to check out Cusco and do laundry.
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Good thing you have street smarts!
I think it helps! Thanks for adding some pics of you to the blog so I know it's not some imposter posing as my daughter all this time. 25 hours on a bus - I couldn't do it.