Entries about guayaquil

Yesterday I only saw Emma, Kate, Mark and Andrew in the morning when I met them at the language school and took them to the bus terminal. They were going to Playas for the afternoon. It turned out that the night before, after they got back to their hostel after taking part in the first part of my lesson, they went swimming in the hostel's pool; on getting out of the pool Kate put her foot through the filter cover by accident, cutting and bruising her foot quite badly.

Today, while I was teaching in the morning the others looked round the Malecón, complete with botanic garden and the Museum of Anthropology & Contemporary Art. As soon as work finished at 1 o'clock I caught a bus into the city centre to meet them for lunch. I was held up considerably in traffic but we eventually managed to meet up. I wanted to take them to the restaurant E and I went to about a month and a half ago that sells delicious 'Encocado' (fish or shrimps in a creamy coconut sauce with rice), but unfortunately I couldn't find it, so we went somewhere else instead for lunch - the place on the Malecón that Mum and I went to in February. Kate, Emma and I all had sea bass which had been lightly breadcrumbed then grilled, which was amazing. I'm pretty sure it was the best breadcrumbed fish I've ever had!

Suitably refreshed, we headed over to Las Peñas to have a good nose around.

We popped into a little art gallery and also saw at least two artists at work in their studios.

We then took the side way up Cerro Santa Ana, the same way I'd taken Mum in February. We met this amazing dog on the way;

Once at the terrace at the top we went up the lighthouse and had a look inside the chapel.

After that the others went back to have a lie down and a swim in the pool. Later on we met up with 'E' at a nearby restaurant for dinner. The others were slightly shocked to find a security guard armed with a shotgun outside, but 'E' and I are used to it so we didn't bat any eyelids. Once inside, Emma and Kate had a lovely surprise because they saw Encocado on the menu! I was craving steak so I had that instead; it was delicious.

After we'd had dinner, we set off via taxis to a karaoke bar in Las Peñas that I've been to before. Kate and Emma were desperate to try the famous 'Alexander' cocktail I'd told them about (which in Ecuador is made from brandy, creme de cacao, condensed milk and crushed ice), so they and I had ones.

I had intended for us to join my colleagues at a nearby bar for a drink or two before we carried on to the Captain Morgan, but as it turned out we didn't have time. We didn't want to be late for Captain Morgan!

The walk down the Malecon to where the boat was moored was very atmospheric in the dark, with the La Rotonda Monument and the Moorish Tower both lit up.

After buying our tickets and waiting a while, we were allowed up the gangplank. A short while after the ship started to sail, a couple of guys with pirate hats came over and insisted on us posing for photos - he took photos with our cameras for us and if we'd wanted to we could have bought an official photograph from him for $5, but we chose not to.

A lot of the music they played was salsa and merengue - and luckily for the rest of us, 'E' gave us an impromptu lesson in both! It was really, really good fun.

We came back in to land at about 2 am. E rang for two taxis for us, one for me and her and one for the others.

Today was very exciting for me because my sisters and brothers-in-law arrived in Guayaquil! They had arrived in Ecuador on Tuesday the 8th in Quito and had spent the rest of that day and all of the 9th resting in the hostel and exploring the city before catching a local flight to Guayaquil this morning. I met them at the airport and we took a taxi to Urdesa, where their hostel is. (Credit to Kate for the following photos of me.)

It felt so surreal, but lovely, for me to have them with me!

After they had dumped their stuff and we'd cooled off in front of the fans for a bit, we caught a bus into town. This was a novel experience for them because the Selectivo buses in Guayaquil are very different to any bus in the UK. Mostly very ramshackle both on the outside and inside; streetsellers hop on and off with all kinds of goods; the fare is only 25 cents; the doors are nearly always kept open while the bus is moving; the aisle is usually very narrow; and the bus will stop anywhere (apart from on bridges/overpasses) for people to get on or off. The destinations are usually written on stickers stuck on the front windscreen.

Our first destination was 'La Barca Azul', a restaurant I've been to a few times that sells a lot of 'Platos Tipicos' (traditional dishes) and is very untouristy. Emma, Kate and I had seco de chivo (goat stew), Mark had Ecuadorian ceviche and Andrew had seafood rice.

Then we walked down part of the Malecón, the rejuvenated waterfront by the River Guayas. Some of us climbed up one of the lookout towers next to the river and we also passed by the Moorish Tower.

Then we turned right and carried on to Iguana Square, a park within the square in front of the cathedral. Even though I have seen iguanas many times now, they still look quite a novelty to me. They look so prehistoric that their presence in the city centre seems incongruous. We enjoyed wandering round spotting iguanas on the grass, on the paths and in the branches of one of the trees.

After iguana- and turtle-watching for a while we carried on into the cathedral. Due to Lent, nearly all of the statues and paintings were covered with purple drapes. One of the only ones that wasn't was a big statue of Jesus carrying the cross and wearing the crown of thorns. Most of the cathedral was quite dark, with the exception of a spectacular, tiny chapel with beautiful stained glass and natural light, which we looked into but didn't actually enter because lots of people were inside it praying.

After this we needed to get another bus, this time to my workplace. On our way to the right place to get it from we spotted a couple of parrots sitting on a ledge at the top of the front of the Town Hall!

The bus took us back along the Malecón and past Cerro Santa Ana.

There were only a couple of hours until my evening class. I really enjoyed showing them round the place, introducing them to my colleagues (both teaching and admin) and then introducing them to some of my students and including them in the first part of my lesson! We were working on past simple & past continuous within the context of childhood memories.

They took a taxi at 7.30 (that I had asked reception to order for them) back to their hostel. The plan is for them to come back to the language school tomorrow morning at 11.30 am, just as I get back from my Spanish lesson. Then we'll go straight on to the bus terminal together so I can help them get their tickets to Playas, where they're going for the day. I wish I could come too, because I've never been to Playas, but I have a conversation class between 7-9am, my Spanish lesson between 9.30-11am and an upper-intermediate class between 4-8pm.

Update from January 2019: The boat is still there, though officially known as 'Barco Morgan'. I didn't mention it below, but it did and as far as I know still does more normal daytime river trips during the week and I assume at weekends as well (don't quote me on this though).

At the Malecón in Guayaquil there is a wooden boat docked called the Captain Morgan, which on Friday and Saturday nights becomes a floating bar. It leaves at 11.30 pm and sails up and down the River Guayas for a couple of hours; you pay $15 to get in and then it´s all you can drink for free.

A group of us decided to give it a go. Before we went got on the Captain Morgan we had a few drinks at Las Peñas. We met up in a bar called 'La Taberna', somewhere I had never been to before. It was a very interesting place because the walls were covered with laminated photographs and framed newspaper pages and articles that looked decades old.

There were also antique telephones and gramophones, old Latin American records in their sleeves, a collection of empty cigarette packets stuck onto part of one wall and two flatscreen TVs showing some very eccentric and low-budget-looking cumbia, reggaeton and merengue videos and some recordings of salsa nightclub performances. Part of a U2 concert was also shown. There was a giant inflatable Pilsener beer bottle outside the entrance.

There were no drinks menus; the owner simply brought over pitchers of beer and some chilled glass mugs. There were some bottles of spirits behind the bar but I decided to leave it and not bother having anything to drink considering the free bar I knew I'd have on the Captain Morgan.

After leaving La Taberna we walked down the Malecón to the Captain Morgan. I saw this bird on the way (apologies for the rubbish quality: I didn't want to scare it away by using flash).

We'd arrived half an hour early so some of us went looking for food... For some reason the only food I'd had that day so far was a couple of empanadas in the morning and a chocolate brownie in the afternoon, so I was starving.The only open place nearby was McDonald's, so we went there. It was only the second time I'd been to a McDonald's in Ecuador. I had a small fries and a 'Thick & Crispy' burger because it looked like a plain double cheeseburger with a bit of special mayonnaise and what I assumed was crispy bacon inside... Once I bit into it I discovered that it wasn't bacon at all but pieces of pork scratching!

The boat trip was a great experience. It was interesting to see Guayaquil from a different viewpoint and after dark.

We did a lot of dancing and took advantage of the free bar. Aside from beer they didn't have much else apart from vodka, whiskey, rum and mixers, so I had a rum & Coke and two whiskey & oranges.

The boat came back to port between 2 - 2.30 am. I got a taxi back with some of the others who live in the same end of town. Unfortunately when I arrived back I realised I didn't have my phone anymore - I think it must have fallen out of my pocket in the back of the taxi or when I used the facilities just before we disembarked.

I have always wanted to go to a football match in Latin America. This might seem strange considering that although I've loved playing football whenever I've had the opportunity, I have never been much of a football watcher. I've only ever been to one professional football match in the UK, when I was at university in Swansea (Swansea City vs. Blackpool; Swansea won 3-2) and although I love watching international matches, I've never really supported any particular club. I like to see Arsenal, Manchester United and Swansea do well when I check the football results online, but I cannot in any way be described as a 'real' supporter. Yet football matches in Latin America have such a reputation for flair and for passionate support that I've always wanted to go to one just to experience it first hand.

With this in mind, when I had the opportunity to go to a match today I simply could not let it pass. The match was Emelec vs. Liga de Quito; Emelec is one of the two big teams in Guayaquil (the other is called Barcelona) and is named after a former Ecuadorian electrical company called Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador. It's extremely popular not only in Guayaquil but in the country as a whole. Currently Emelec is at or near the top of the Ecuadorian Serie A, the top professional league in Ecuador; Liga de Quito is further down the table.

The match certainly was an experience and a half! I went with some colleagues and an Ecuadorian friend of ours, 'G', who had got the tickets for us in advance. Only $8 for a terrace ticket, the cheapest kind. The match was at home in Guayaquil so we didn't have to go far; we got the Metrovia bus rather than one of the standard Selectivo buses which stop anywhere people want within the set route (Metrovia buses stop only at set stops and go on different routes to Selectivos). That was the first time I'd ever needed to use a Metrovia bus.

The stadium is pretty small and had a lot of street vendors outside it selling things like bags of water, grilled plantains and meat skewers. As an aside, I still find the sight of liquids being sold in bags quite funny, even after nearly a year... milk, yoghurt, cream, oil, vinegar - these are sold alongside bottles of the same things in supermarkets and smaller shops. I'm surprised I haven't yet seen a punctured one.

We entered through a tiny side door and found a place on the terrace, which was a series of concrete steps for people sit/stand on. Vendors walked past constantly with soft drinks, bags of peanuts, Emelec flags and so on. There was a wire fence around the pitch and netting attached between the top of the fence and the top of the roof over the stadium seating/terraces - to prevent things being thrown onto the pitch, I assume.

The standard of football was good, quite pacy and exciting; Emelec won 3-0 and you should have seen the reaction when each goal was scored. Some people climbed up the wire fence in celebration; the volume of the band and of the fans' singing and chanting, which was already loud, exploded; everybody who wasn't already standing up jumped to their feet; massive flags were waved behind each goal. Other flags were waved all the way through the match.

The atmosphere was great all the way through, just like I had hoped it would - very passionate but without any violence or other trouble.

Some of us went ten-pin bowling at San Marino shopping centre after work this evening; it was the leaving do of one of my colleagues, but I would have been really keen to go even if it hadn't because I love bowling and hadn't been bowling in any country apart from the UK before. To be honest there wasn't much difference between the bowling experience here and in the UK, apart from the TV screens between the scoring screens that showed highlights of Copa Libertadores football matches. There was a lack of large bowling balls for the European men of the party, too.

I had a good time and this continued to where we went next, a Lebanese shawarma restaurant in Urdesa. Guayaquil isn't known for its range of international eating options, but it does have several Middle Eastern shawarma places, mostly concentrated on a particular stretch of road (Guayacanes) in Urdesa. I had a 'shawarma combo' for $4.50 - a chicken shawarma wrap, a 'kippe' (a fried object with beef or lamb mince, herbs and what I think was potato in the middle and breadcrumbs on the outside) and a bottle of Coke. The wrap was very wide and contained lettuce and cucumber as well as herbs and still-hot meat. We were given complementary bowls of white yoghurt with our food so I put some in my wrap - delicious. The kippe was nice too, if more fattening. Definitely a place I will return to!