Across to the Pacific coast, on the ‘Ruta del Sol’

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We have finally reached Guayaquil, the takeoff point for our flight to the Galapagos this Sunday, and the largest city (2 million pax) in Ecuador (you ignorant sods thought Quito was, didn’t you?). Along with being the largest city, it has the largest crime rate, and those that warned us there was little attractive to the tourist about Guayaquil weren’t wrong. It is a big bustling city, and frankly has few very attractive parts, and we have not seen a single person in native dress, as we have in all other parts of Ecuador, including Quito.

Given that we had a couple of days to kill, we decided to take a fleeting trip up the ‘Ruta del Sol’ (or the ‘Route of the Sun’ - haven’t you guys learnt any Spanish yet?), which is on the Pacific coastline. Not that we saw any sun, but that’s another story. Rather than carting all our luggage up and down the coast, we set up a base at a resort town called Salinas, which resembles Miami right along the seafront, with its high rises and tall white condos, and yachts docked nearby, and Guayaquil (or perhaps Mexico City) from the second street back, with dusty, potholed streets and run down houses. It is apparently the place where all the well-heeled Guayas come on vacation or for the weekend (its less than 2 hrs drive away), but it was off-season while we were there, so pretty quiet and not hugely appealling. I don’t know how many of them there are in the high season, but all along the beaches (and hassling you over meals) are masses of hawkers pushing hammocks, jewellery, videos, wooden ‘dustcatchers’ etc - brought back old memories of Kuta Beach.

First stop on our tour up the coast was at a town called Ballenita, in which we called in at the maritime museum called Farallon Dillon, where we were hosted by Yolanda. As well as having a fascinating collection of relics from a shipwreck and other nautical items, they had very attractive rooms for rent in a whitewashed complex perched high on a cliff, with a lookout point for whales and a great general beach view. With hindsight, we wish we had stayed there instead of Salinas, as the rooms looked very clean with the cost being similar but the hospitality far better.

We then travelled some 60km up to the very popular Montanita, a haven for the surfer/hippy set, who can hang out there at very low cost and soak up the Rasta/laid back vibe. I must say we were a little surprised at the backdrop to the beaches, which are generally quite clean and attractive all the way up the coast, but the landscape inland is an uninspiring mix of dry, dusty scrub and sprawling cactus, punctuated by the occasional crumbly property, and the occasional very flash one. On the way home, we stopped off at a much more attractive resort town called Ayangue, which has multiple outdoor seafood restaurants lining the beach, selling amongst other things a very attractive lobster dish for an equally attractive USD4! On the way back, I could see tears in Joan’s eyes when we heard on the radio the old JPY singing “Love is in the Air” (you can see she doesn’t set the bar too high for her kicks!).

So it was then back to Quayaquil for a final cleanup (clothes and bodies) before our cruise. We were staying at a pretty flash hotel close to the river and overlooking the Plaza Seminaria and the cathedral. The claim to fame of the former is that it has a number of iguanas that freely wander around the park, seemingly oblivious of people and birds. While the river than runs through Guayaquil is very wide, it is not overly attractive, but it does have an attractive promenade called the Malecon running most of the length of it that adjoins the city.

So that basically takes us out of mainland Ecuador. So what are our thoughts? Well, the infrastructure and lay of the land was pretty much as we expected, with fantastic scenery in the Andes region and as one travelled west into the Amazon Basin. But we were a little surprised at how dry and desolate it was as we moved across to the Pacific Coast. But our greatest disappointment was with the attitude of the people. Perhaps it was because its out of season, or perhaps our sample is too small, or maybe we are just not lovable sort of people, but most Ecuadorians seemed to have a New York attitude (every man for himself) albeit in a third world environment. This appeared the case with most hotel staff and taxi drivers, with the latter, as mentioned in a previous blog, appearing to have an ongoing minor case of road rage. Perhaps we are being too tough on them, because I accept living conditions here are tough, and I will be awaiting James St James message of condemnation for my views!

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Photos

Cathedral on Parque Seminaria
This is actually a shot taken from our hotel room. You can see we have gone up market!