We arrived in Guayaquil on July 5th. Guayaquil is Ecuador’s major port, and as such, is the center of much of its industry, and is the largest city in population. But it also seems to have a kind of second-city inferiority complex because everyone always compares it to Quito, and finds it wanting. This is still true as far as we can tell…. So, we used our first two days in Ecuador to go to Quito.
Dawn and I and two friends from the ship (a UVA faculty member Brian Owensby and his daughter Amanda) engaged a taxi just outside of the port to take us to the airport. Cesar, our driver, (see below) was an affable man and eager to chat. He was also a taxista negro (or black market taxi-driver). They abound in Central and South America, as there is an informal economy for almost every good and service. Governmental oversight of these things of course varies from country to country and even from city to city, but in Ecuador at least they seem to thrive.
The drive to the airport seemed to confirm a lot of what we heard about Guayaquil… lots of traffic, and a dense, industrial, hot, polluted and dirty city. So, it was with great relief that we got off the plane in Quito, stepped on to the tarmac, and stepped into…. Southern California (near the beach)! Or at least that’s what the climate felt like. Sunny, 72 F, low humidity, relatively clean air. It’s funny how much those environmental factors can affect your perception of a place… From the moment we got off the ship, we were prepared to be disappointed with Guayaquil… and from the moment we landed in Quito, we loved it!
We selected a hotel in El Centro (the old, Colonial part of the city) named Hotel Patio Andaluz, and after settling in, went on walk-about through the main plazas. We visited the Plaza de Independencia, which is the focus of the city in many ways. The Presidential Palace fronts this plaza (and the President still resides here, despite the sidewalk out front being the site of the assassination of President Garcia Moreno in the 1800’s) as well as a number of government buildings and the Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de Quito.
We selected a hotel in El Centro (the old, Colonial part of the city) named Hotel Patio Andaluz, and after settling in, went on walk-about through the main plazas. We visited the Plaza de Independencia, which is the focus of the city in many ways. The Presidential Palace fronts this plaza (and the President still resides here, despite the sidewalk out front being the site of the assassination of President Garcia Moreno in the 1800’s) as well as a number of government buildings and the Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de Quito.
We then set off for the Plaza San Francisco, and saw the following scenes of Quito street life on the way. Giving credit where credit is due, the following three photos were taken by Dawn.
The shoe-shine boys were everywhere in Quito, and generally quite intent on working to earn money from the Quiteños and the tourists. I really didn’t want/need my shoes polished so we ultimately agreed to pay them for this photo instead. I hope that we didn’t start them on a new marketing plan, but I fear we did…
The legacy of the Spanish colonial era lives on in many ways, not just the architecture. As was true of the shoeshine boys, and this woman selling fruit,
The legacy of the Spanish colonial era lives on in many ways, not just the architecture. As was true of the shoeshine boys, and this woman selling fruit,
most of the people living on the streets or at least working the streets seemed to be either indígenas or were mestizo with lots of indígena heritage, while the wealthier folks we saw flying on the planes to/from Quito tended to be taller with lighter complexions (indicating more Spanish or European ancestry). We did see evidence of some upward mobility among the indígenas, so it is far from a “race”-based caste system (ala apartheid-era South Africa), but is rather evidence that the effects of oppression and marginalization can last for many centuries.
But speaking of the architectural influences… the Iglesia San Francisco is one of the oldest churches in the Western Hemisphere, and it was very impressive, especially as the sun set. Indeed the whole of San Francisco plaza had a spiritual air about it that Dawn and I tried to soak up.
Walking back to the hotel that evening we also passed Iglesia del Sagrario, and some interesting political graffiti. I will let my dear readers draw their own conclusions about the latter….
The next day we took the TelefériQo up into the Andean peaks surrounding the city of Quito. It was breathtaking… literally…. The air is thin at that elevation! Most of the peaks surrounding Quito are volcanoes, including Cotopaxi in the third picture.
After we came down, we headed off to the Museo de Oswaldo Guayasamín, who became justifiably famous for his beautiful attempts at capturing the pain of the entire indígena experience in Latin America. We really wanted to bring a piece of his original art home, but his fame has exceeded our bank balance! So I took pictures of Dawn instead…
After returning to Guayaquil on the evening of the 6th, we went with a Semester at Sea trip on the 7th to Salinas to look for whales. I had a great time. We floated with a small pod of three right whales (mother, three year old calf, and a male escort) for about two hours, watching them breach, blow, and dive multiple times, sometimes within 20 yards of the boat.
Our guide on the water was a marine biologist, so she knew her stuff and was good at explaining their behavior. I also liked the six-eight foot swells. It was fun practicing my balance. About half of the rest of the group was pretty sea-sick. Dawn was fine but for the money and time she would have stayed in Quito (and I would tend to agree, but… whales!).
On the 8th, Dawn and I braved the heat and humidity to walk about in Guayaquil. While we walked around the downtown a fair bit, we spent most of our time along the Malecón (a walk fronting some water, the river Guayas in this case) and in the restored section of an old hill-top community, Las Peñas. The restoration of both the Malecón and Las Peñas was mostly complete by 2000, and they now are Guayaquil’s major tourist attractions. I don’t know how successful they are at drawing folks from other countries, or even other parts of Ecuador, but they certainly were popular with Guayaquileños.
Las Peñas was pretty interesting as a piece of cosmetic urban renewal. While the exterior of buildings, electrical infrastructure and stairs (480 some steps all the way to the top of hill and lighthouse) have all been beautifully done
Las Peñas was pretty interesting as a piece of cosmetic urban renewal. While the exterior of buildings, electrical infrastructure and stairs (480 some steps all the way to the top of hill and lighthouse) have all been beautifully done
the interiors of most homes still provide pretty rough living conditions for the residents (like the baby above), and if you happen to wander off the intended (and well-patrolled) path through some of the tucked-away gates, you’ll see that the rest (which is a majority) of the hillside community is still in the same condition it was pre-2000. I suspect that the idea is that money lured from the tourists in the small-shops and kiosks will trickle down and eventually there will be enough money (private and public) to extend the renewal process. We’ll see… The kids that came through this gate to play with us however were wonderful (Dawn’s photographs again)….
At the top of Las Peñas, the city seemed to redeem itself, at last offering up cool breezes from the river and some relief from the smog. We met a wonderful family (with homes in Guyaquil, Quito and Los Angeles… old family money apparently, on the father’s side) who were playing host to nephews who came from the US to study Spanish for the summer. We also met Cueva Morales, a nationally ranked distance runner, training for his next race by running up and down Las Peñas, and Narcissa who turned the photographic by approaching and asking for a photo with me (she liked my eyes… they’re blue. Is it just their rarity here, or is it still status-linked?).
Finally, on the 9th we were back out in Guayaquil for another organized(?) trip, but this one was a bust… the focus of the trip was the art-scene, and the principal destination was a very esteemed museum at one end of the Malecón. The problem? The 9th was a Monday and the tour agent, a Guayaquileño, somehow neglected to remember that the museum (like almost all museums around the world) is closed on Mondays… We wondered about this when we signed up, but assumed the agent had arranged special permission for us. He hadn’t…. But, I’m trying to let it go… really!
Despite this last little reminder to be unattached to expectations, we had a lovely time in Ecuador, and will definitely want to see Quito again.
Despite this last little reminder to be unattached to expectations, we had a lovely time in Ecuador, and will definitely want to see Quito again.
