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Published: March 30th 2008
Lighthouse hill
Stairway of 444 steps [
Hi. Where you folks goin'?
the taxi driver asked us. When we told him we were going to the Galapagos Islands, he said,
Whoa, you got me. I don't know where that is.
To give him an idea, we told him the islands were off the west coast of South America. The driver nodded and winked, saying,
I can't drive there!
And that was the beginning.
On March 20, after an all-day trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador, and arriving to the Hilton Colon Hotel at 11:00 PM, we were really happy to crash. Fortunately our hotel was a really nice one with all of the amenities one would expect from a Hilton. It was so luxurious to sleep in late, as we knew that most of the group of Lindblad travelers would be arriving very late that night and would have to turn around and get up very early the next morning to make the flight to Galapagos. But we were going to be fresh and rested because we arrived a day earlier. This is good advice to everyone......give yourself an extra day. You won't regret it.
The next day, a Friday which happened to be Good Friday, we spent taking a look at the city of Guayaquil. It sits alongside a large muddy river,
Lighthouse
Lighthouse and Ecuador flag and in the last 400 years has served as an important shipping port for Ecuador. The main sights are Santa Ana hill and the riverwalk called
El Malecon 2000
. There are 444 steps leading to the top of Santa Ana where there is a lighthouse and chapel. It only took 3 rest stops to make it to the top. Of course the stairway is lined with restaurants and small shops. We could tell that this area was probably THE place to be at night. The view from the top of the lighthouse is 360 degrees and spectacular. After we descended the stairs, we walked along the river. The Malecon is beautifully done with wide walkways and gardens. Also there is an Imax theater and the Museum of Archaeology. But the best thing we found was a small ice cream stand. If you haven't had a Magnum ice cream bar, you haven't lived! Nestle makes them, and they are a bit like a Dove bar but better. There were lots of people strolling on the Malecon with us, mostly families with children. They even had small tot-sized cars for the little kids. They were a very hot item and we really had to
River sidewalk
Malecon 2000 walk and gardens be on the lookout to avoid some of the bad tot drivers. But they were having fun. Our next stop was a park named Parque Seminario in front of the main downtown church, and it was crowded with people. As we entered we wondered why so many people seemed to be looking up in the trees. We soon found out why when we came close to stepping on a huge green iguana that was making its way across the sidewalk. There were at least 100 of these iguanas in this block square park. We thought mistakenly that the sight of iguanas would be so customary to the Ecuadorans that they would pay them no notice. The people, especially the kids, were fascinated with them and were eager to touch them and have pictures taken with them. Bob and I in turn were fascinated with the
people. Apparently I was amazing to them too, for people would stop dead in front of me and stare-----at my reddish hair! When light rain began to fall we quickly grabbed a taxi to our hotel. I commented to the taxi driver on the crowds of people in town. He laughed and said there was
Parque Seminario
Fascinating green iguanas hardly anyone there, that everyone had gone to the beaches for the long Good Friday and Easter weekend. Wow, I can't imagine what a real crowd would look like. We were lucky to get back just before the big downpour began. Later that evening when the rest of the group who were going to be our shipmates arrived, it was raining so hard that streets were flooded and traffic could hardly move. The Lindblad people were wonderful. There was someone to meet us at the airport when we came in, and then they handled every detail of the hotel reservations, rooms, baggage, bus transport, and flight to the Galapagos Islands. All we had to do was be there. Tomorrow we'll be in the Galapagos Islands---I can't wait!
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Stef
non-member comment
Sounds Amazing!
Sounds like you are having a great trip already and some yummy ice cream! I love the pics and can't wait to see what animals you find. Keep in touch.