A holiday weekend in Guayaquil

November 1-3, 2014 — The E.dúcate CSC team remained in Guayaquil for our final weekend in Ecuador. While the remainder of our colleagues went to the beach or to Quito, we chose a slower-paced weekend. We spent some time struggling through unresolved complexities of our project. Most importantly, we also soaked in some of the ambience of the locale that served as home during our four-week stay.

Panorama of Guayaquil looking north from Cerra Santa Anna.

Ecuador aspires to become a recognized destination for tourism. Its government set the goal for tourism to generate around 64% of the country's total service income. We repeatedly saw billboards with the words "Ecuador Potencia Tourística" (Ecuador tourism power) on our road trips through the countryside. These messages encourage Ecuadorians to be polite and honest in their dealings with visitors. They also seek to promote pride in the country's cultural and natural treasures.

Ecuador's main touristic assets include destinations in the highlands (e.g., Cuenca); clean, sandy, Pacific beaches; the Galapagos Islands of Charles Darwin fame; and its own corner of the Northwest Amazon basin. Guayaquil is less prominent among Ecuador's tourist destinations. It serves not as much as a magnet for expats or for tourists.

Guayaquil is a working city:  An economic engine. It contains Ecuador's largest seaport. Refineries and tankage for petroleum — Ecuador's largest export — sit outside of its suburbs. Guayaquil is a city where people come to work. 

The local newspaper estimated that as many as 120,000 residents would travel away for the long holiday weekend inaugurating the month of November. Some are headed to beach resorts. Many are visiting family and friends in the homes they left to seek economic improvement in the big city.

Looking down Avenida 9 de Octubre — one of the main streets in Guayaquil's center — from the Parque 9 de Octubre towards the Malecón 2000 river walk.

Guayauqil is, nonetheless, genuine Ecuador. If pursuit of a glimpse of life through the eyes of others is part of the reason we travel, then we have to see places like Guayaquil. Guayaquil is genuine. 

I am ironically just beginning to feel comfortable within my clean, well-policed corner of Guayaquil's downtown. I've found the two places in the neighborhood at which I can get a good cup of coffee. I know where the good places to eat are — as well as those fraught with gastrointestinal peril. I can find my way to the Malecón 2000 river walk, and to the Parque de las Iguanas without getting lost.

I have somewhat adapted to Guayaquil's sweltering heat, its grittiness, and its erratic traffic. Crossing the street requires a certain degree of vigilance. I learned to look past the not-so-attractive parts and see the city's beauty. And I've become acutely aware of the warmth and friendliness of the people.  

And the juice:  Don't forget the juice. Ecuadorian cuisine certainly does not follow the principals of ayurvedic diets. It involves lots of starch — usually in the form of rice — served with meat. "Seca de (insert your favorite meat here)" consists of meat with gravy and lots of rice. Nearly every meal includes a side of plantains prepared in one way or another. And the portions are usually large.

But the Ecuadorians love their fresh juices. And their many juice bars serve exotic, tropical fruits from the Amazon. I've become a big fan of lucuma batidos, freshly blended smoothies containing milk (soy milk optional) and fresh, exotic fruit. Many places also have yogurt shakes.

The corner juice bar — a convenient place to get a quick, light, relatively healthy meal. I probably ate here for about one in five of my meals in Guayaquil.

E.dúcate-project members Aideen Dunne, Sophi Asmus, and I spent our final weekend in Guayaquil taking in some of the local scenes. We first returned to El Mercado Artesanal to finish souvenir shopping. We patronized for the second time one particular vendor, whose day we probably made.

Sunday was our busiest day. We first took an ill-advised stroll through one of Guayaquil's less-policed neighborhoods to get to the historical central cemetery. This location has provided the final resting place for nearly two centuries of Guayaquil's elite. It resembles New Orleans' cities of the dead. 

Many well-off Guayaquileños spared no expense in memorializing their departed love ones. The grounds are filled with classical, gothic marble sculptures. Many are quite touching. They can be very personal expressions of grief.

A memorial from Guayaquil's central cemetery commemorates a mother's grief over the loss of her son.

We then took a taxi to El Parque Historico. This contains three parts. The first is a combined zoological and botanical gardens. We emerge from the stroll through the gardens into a partially restored or reconstructed slice of nineteenth-century Guayaquil. The park walk concludes with replicas of villages for both indigenous and earliest-colonial occupants of the coastal lowlands. 

Finally, on Sunday, we took a river cruise. We rode on the Captain Morgan's Pirate Ship. It was a cocktail cruise that lasted for about an hour. We circled around the river between the two major bridges that cross the Rio Guayas. Our 7:30pm cruise appeared to be a popular date activity. It was filled with young couples enjoying their evenings together.

Guayaquil from the river by night.

Overall, downtown Guayaquil is quite different on the weekends than what we experienced during the rest of the week. The city is abuzz with families out doing things that families everywhere do on the weekends. They are out shopping, dining, and enjoying the beautiful parts of their city. Families — including children — remain out on the Malecón until late in the evening. In these regard, perhaps Guayaquil doesn't seem quite so exotic after all.