Entries about guayaquil

I made this trip into the city centre because I had realised that although I had been all the way to the end of the Malecon in one direction before, I hadn't yet been to the other. I saw on Google Maps that not only is there a market there but also a 'crystal palace' - I couldn't believe I hadn't ever got round to checking them out before! I remember seeing part of the 'crystal palace' on the waterfront from the ferry on my trip to Isla Santay last September and thinking 'I wonder what that building's for'.

The first thing I did in town, however, after buying a bottle of Coca-Cola Light to get change from a tenner, was have lunch at the same restaurant I had lunch at for the first time last Sunday; 'La Barca Azul'. There are no menus on the tables, like most places open for lunch; only a whiteboard outside and in this case, a row of pictures and captions on the wall inside. Last time I had a lovely goat stew (seco de chivo) with rice where the meat was so tender it fell off the bone, so this time I thought I'd try something else to see if the general standard had been a one-off or not. So I tried seco de gallina instead, despite not knowing what 'gallina' meant (hen, as it turned out); also very good.

After lunch I did something else I'd also done on Sunday; I walked round the botanic gardens in the Malecon. This time I'd brought my camera with me because I regretted not bringing it last time. As I walked up to the bridge across the 'moat' surrounding the entrance to the garden I saw a man in a blue council outfit standing in the water up to his chest, throwing white powder out of a bucket. Bizarre. Maybe some kind of water treatment?

Anyway, once I got into the gardens it was really pleasant to walk round. Colourful flowers, exotic scents and birdsong, the unmistakeable subtropical air.

I exited at the far end and walked back down the Malecon. As I passed by where I'd entered I saw that the man was still in the water throwing whiteness around, only this time he'd mixed some water in with the powder.

Soon after that I heard some band music playing in the distance ahead. This turned out to be the Metropolitan Police band, though I've no idea why they were playing. The only public holiday in January here is New Year's Day. It was a brass and wind band. One chap was playing a massive white sousaphone that curled round his back and rested on his shoulder. When rested on the ground it was very nearly as tall as he was.

They were playing next to the La Rotonda Monument, which represents the meeting of the two famous South American liberators, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, in Guayaquil 1822.

After listening for a while I carried on to the end of the Malecon I hadn't been to before. On my way down I noticed that there was an awful lot of riverweed floating in the River Guayas.

It was extremely hot and sunny by now so I was glad to walk through the little air-conditioned shopping centre on the way.

The crystal palace turned out not to be quite as big and grand as the name suggests, and was also empty - I couldn't work out what it is actually used for - but still looked quite impressive. There was a plaza on each side and these connected through a massive archway through the middle of the building.

There were a few hole-in-the-wall market stalls around the the sides of the left plaza but most were shuttered down - clearly not a market day. I thought I might as well leave having a look round them properly until it is! The area was so pleasant in the sunshine next to the river that I was still glad I'd come.

I'm writing this from Guayaquil, because I didn't have internet connection while I was actually at Heathrow.

I actually left St Albans the night before, on the 15th, because my plane was due to leave Heathrow at 6.35 am and I didn't want to go on a long, expensive taxi journey in the middle of the night. I caught one of the latest possible trains to St Pancras International - Mum, Kate, Emma and Mark saw me off at St Albans station - and got the tube from there all the way to Heathrow Terminal 4.

I sat down in a normal waiting seat, read and had a snack or two. After a while a female airport employee came up and said it was OK for me to go into the exclusive club lounge and lie down on the couch there, because it wasn't officially open so nobody else was in it. I checked that it was definitely OK for me to be there and she said yes, so in I went and set up my position for the night... Of course, after only 15 minutes or so two security men appeared on their round of the terminal and kicked me out! The fact that I'd been told it was OK didn't make any difference with them, so I had to go back to where I'd been sitting before.

The plane was about half an hour late leaving Heathrow so since I had a short connection time at the other end already, I practically had to gallop through Amsterdam Schiphol to get to the right gate in time. I had no time to look round any of the shops. While I was in the boarding queue I noticed that it said 'gate closing', but despite running over time they still let everybody in the queue on the plane, thank goodness. Then it turned out that I needn't have bothered rushing, because we spent an hour and a half sitting on the plane before it set off due to a problem with one of the computers!

Unfortunately on this flight I was in the middle of the middle row, not next to a window. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep and I also read a lot on my Kindle. We only arrived at Quito half an hour late because we'd made up an hour on the way (maybe the wind was behind us). I and the other people who were staying on the same flight to go on to Guayaquil didn't have to get out of the plane and go into transit at Quito, unlike what happened the other two times I've done this journey. We left at the right time so arrived bang on time at Guayaquil. I was apprehensive about whether my hold bag would make it on the same flight or not after the rush at Amsterdam, but as it happens my bag was the first out so you can imagine my relief!

It was just getting dusky when I stepped out of the arrivals lounge. 28 degrees, but also very lightly spitting with rain which felt quite refreshing.

Edit from January 2019: In this blog's original appearance, on Travelpod, I wrote this entry retrospectively on 20th January.

The first leg of my flight home for Christmas began in the evening - a night flight to Amsterdam. I took special care packing because some of the Christmas presents I had for people were quite delicate. So into bubblewrap went the bottle of Zhumir (aguardiente) and glass jar of chimichurri before they went into my hold luggage; into my hand luggage went the clay bowl handmade by a Kichwa-speaking tribe in the Amazon, the tagua nut tree decorations, straw angel tree decoration, polished stone llama and turtles, Montecristi (Panama) hat and the bag of yuca crisps. To protect the Montecristi even more, I put it inside the leather 'Rodeo Montubio' hat I'd got for Dave.

My emotions were pretty complex as I sat on the plane. My joy at the prospect of being home for Christmas was also tempered with some news I had received about Dad. The week before, I found out that his cancer had returned, this time to his spine; then a couple of hours before I left for the airport today, that it has also spread to his liver, lungs and abdomen. Chemotherapy was lined up for him in January. I suspected that this Christmas might be his last one, so I wanted to make sure that it was happy as possible. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when I gave him his Panama hat and told him that I had bought it directly from the source where it had been handmade - a famous workshop in Cuenca. It wasn't the standard kind either but the grade above. I knew he was desperate for one!

I was flying with KLM for the first time and I had a very positive experience. It did feel strange to hear Dutch being spoken after so many months of Spanish! The food was very good, I managed to get more sleep than I thought I would and I watched the film 'The Butler' which was excellent. However, although I had a window seat, it was directly over the wing, so I couldn't see much below.

So Christmas is creeping up quite quickly now, but I have to say that it feels a little bit peculiar being here in hot and sticky Guayaquil at this time of year when it is so alien to what I'm used to in the UK. Last Sunday I went to a Thanksgiving party two American colleagues of mine held at their condo and it felt surreal to be swimming in their pool in 30-32 degrees on 1st December, knowing that in the UK it was freezing cold!

The party was great, by the way. Company was typically amusing and the pool, weather, food and drink were all lovely. I brought fresh green beans as my contribution, fried with chopped red onion and leek in herby butter. Roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mini empanadas, shrimp ceviche, massive shrimps barbecued in their shells and sweetcorn made up the rest of the savoury dishes; there was lemon meringue pie and chocolate cake for dessert.

Last week I took a few photos of what I see on a typical day here in Guayaquil. I haven't included here any of the school, but here are three of Alborada Sexta, where I'm living - my street, the main street where I catch the bus, and a local hole-in-the-wall empanada counter;

There are a couple of others from my typical day - the place opposite where I get off the bus, and the outdoor food court where I often get lunch.

I began teaching three new classes three weeks ago, due to several teachers' timetables being moved about at the same time. My five-hour Saturday intermediate 1 class of public-school English teachers has been replaced in my timetable by a four-hour Friday upper-intermediate 4 class of public-school English teachers; in the evening I now have a pre-advanced 1 class instead of the intermediate 1 class I had before; from Tuesday to Thursday I now have a pre-intermediate 3 class between 4-6pm. Four of the students in the latter class are also English teachers. The Ecuadorian government recently said that all Ecuadorian public school English teachers have to attain B2 standard by a certain time next year, so that's why we're teaching so many teachers.

With the exception of a pre-advanced conversation class I had once a week for a month, in my first six months I was almost exclusively teaching pre-intermediate and intermediate 1 classes. I do enjoy teaching those levels but it's good to be getting experience of different levels now too.

I'd had my intermediate 1 evening class right from when I first arrived here in May. They were pre-intermediate 1 then. I was a bit sad to lose that class because I enjoyed the rapport and observing the dynamics between different students. I felt really touched in the last lesson I had with them but also a bit embarrassed because they were saying some really nice things and for a few seconds I didn't know how to react. Then, a few days later when their next course began, I happened to be passing through reception when two of my now -ex-students stopped me and gave me a present which they said all of their class had contributed towards. It was a wooden painted model boat and a doll from Esmeraldas province made from a coconut husk. They said that they got me those because they remembered me showing them a little llama keyring handmade from twisted reeds that I bought from a market in Cuenca and guessed that I liked handicrafts. I had not expected this at all so it was a really lovely surprise!

When I got back to my flat after work that night I put them on my bookcase. Now they have been joined by a little Christmas display, courtesy of an amazing parcel I received from Emma and Kate the other day! This was the contents (sorry to make another list of food, but I want to record this for posterity, so here goes!);

An Advent calendar card
A Christmas book ('Why was the Partridge in the Pear Tree? The History of Christmas Carols')
Two glass snowflakes that unfortunately got broken in transit
Three robin decorations
Strawberry milkshake poppets
Revels
Strawberry bonbons
Two Chocolate Orange bars
A bag of rum balls
Treacle toffees
A mini box of Quality Streets
A white chocolate Lion bar
Sweet peanuts
Two boxes of candy sticks
Candy cane
Chocolate coins
Two Dairy Milk mousse snowmen
Two 'Merryteaser' chocolate reindeer
Chocolate Father Christmas
Smarties chocolate penguin
Lindor Chocolate Moment
Milkybar chocolate penguin
Bag of 'Popping Puds'
Tube of strawberry Millions (a bit like Dweebs, but chewier and softer)
Dairy Milk Chocos (like Rolos)

I've just put the card, robins, snowflakes, candy cane and chocolate coins in the display. The book will join them once I've finished reading it! I'll eat the candy cane and chocolate coins on the day I fly back to the UK (the 20th). Everything else will probably have been eaten by then!

Before today I hadn't been to the city centre since the Independence of Guayaquil procession on 9th October, so I fancied a visit to the Municipal Museum and a chance to say hello to the iguanas nearby. On entry they asked me for ID, which I hadn't expected, but when I froze and I said I didn't have any on me, they said it was OK and I just needed to type my name into their computer instead.

That done, I was free to wander round. On the ground floor there was an interesting collection of pre-Columbian artifacts, including zoomorphic jars and jugs, money shaped like very flat axe-heads, actual axe-heads, 'La Mujer de Colonche' (a sandstone monolith fertility figure of a nude woman, made by the Guancavitca culture who flourished between 500-1533 AD), and more. There was also a case holding what I think are the thigh bones and a tooth of a mastodon!

In other rooms there was a display about three British pirates who attacked Guayaquil (William Dampier being one), colonial Spanish artifacts like guns and swords, a map of Guayaquil from 1741, republican artifacts, a room of colourful paintings by Ecuadorian artists and a separate room of religious paintings. I recommend this museum but I do think it could do with some information in English to accompany the artifacts!

The museum is very close to the cathedral and Iguana Square, so I headed there next.

I took a few photos of the iguanas, but then I noticed crowds spilling out of the cathedral, so I went over to have a look inside. It turned out there was a service going on; I was quite surprised because it was a Saturday. The altar was flanked by white-robed priests and choirmen. I hung around at the back while a hymn was sung (one I didn't recognise), took one or two photos and then left.

I didn't want to go straight home so I thought I'd have a wander down the Malecon and see if anything was going on there. A large crowd was sitting on some steps, gathered round some 'actors' (I use this term deliberately loosely) who were performing some kind of comedy sketch. I didn't understand much of what they said apart from at one point when I heard a list of fruits being mentioned! I walked past and climbed up a looking-out tower right next to the river. A plastic Christmas tree had been put up further along the Malecon. Took some photos and then got a bus home.