Day 3 in Guayaquil

Today was a lazy day it seems. We didn´t do much, but were very productive. We packed our bags and said goodbye to our night guard and double steel doors and walked ten or so blocks to our new hotel with the sketchy elevator. I don´t know how its possible because I haven´t bought anything, but my bag is getting more full and heavier. By the time we reached our hotel I was tired. We had a list of things we needed to do before we went to the Galapagos on Friday which we tried to get done. We accomplished most of our list, walked downtown since our hotel is downtown, went to catch up on some emails and made a goos outline for the rest of our trip. We have a plan! (Are you excited dad?)

In our plan we had to cut out some of the things we wanted to do because there just isn´t enough time. So if anyone wants to come back with me and hit the places we have to skip...let me know. I am getting really excited for our trip to the Galapagos tomorrow...I can{t wait! We will be on a cruise for 8 days and 7 nights. Then stay on the islands for some extra days. We will be in the islands from January 25 through February 5th. Still trying to overcome the whole shark thing...

So we planned the rest of our trip, ran some errands, caught up on emails and tried to let our blisters heal. It was a slow say, but like I said productive.

01/23/08

Day 2 in Guayaquil

We survived the first night in Guayaquil, even the second night, despite the sketchy elevator. On our second day here we explored and explored and explored. We walked the entire town it seemed like. We started by going to the museo de antropologico. We received a guided tour...in English...that was very interesting. The girl showed us the types of pottery, tools, ceremonial masks, chairs and vessels. It was a great tour. We also say a bunch of jewelry, nose and face rings and ceremonial face plates. None of the pieces were complete because in the 80s someone had broken into the museum and stole some of the artifacts and then set fire. So many of the metal items began to melt. The whole excursion cost us a dollar each.

We then walked around the town through many of the parks, parque centenario, which was great with all of the statues and surroundings. Next stop on our walking tour was the waterfront. We walked the whole thing...approx. 30 blocks one way, which we did multi0ple times today.

Then we went to the Museo municipal. We got in free for being tourist I guess. These people did not like us. We were in one of the rooms and my sunglasses were on top of my head. This is a museum...I sneezed and my glasses flew of and broke. Hearing something break in a museum is not usually a good sign. Everything was fine, the guard just got a little jumpy. This museum we had a self guided tour. My spanish isn´t that great but we picked out some key words. This museum had many of the dame types of artifacts as the other. This one had more paintings and artifacts from the leaders of Ecuador. We went upstairs and there were contemporary art pieces and real human shrunken heads!! It was so weird. They were smaller than dolls heads! they had hair and all their facial openings, nose, eyes, mouth were all stitched up. It was bizarre. Then I stupidly followed Sarah into a room, which she thought was a movie. I then followed her closer to the front! Big mistake on my part. It was not a movie. It was a guest lecture by some men from the geology department at the college. There were maybe six people in there besides us. (probably student trying to get credit) As the man started talking we had no idea what he was saying. Sarah wanted to get up and leave but I made her stay for a pause or a break because its rude to leave in the middle of a presentation. Well...laughing uncontrollably in a presentation is rude too. Sarah started laughing because we had no idea what was going on...I then laughed at her..and then neither one of us could stop. It was horrible. It got worse when a lady working for the museum came up and asked us what was so funny about what the man was saying. Sarah didn{t hear her and I told her that we were so confused because we couldn´t translate fast enough and we were trying to keep up. I appologized and we waited for the break until we left..still having a giggle fest. We felt so bad, but it was a great and amusing story.

Then we decided to walk the waterfront again, all the way to old town called las peñas. This was the old part of Guayaquil that had multicolored houses on the hillside housing the light house. Long ago the city was attacked by pirates. We walked up to the light house...500 plus stairs and had a great view of the city. But it was hot and I was sweating and it was nasty, but worth it.

We then walked back to our hotel along the waterfront and had a smoothie then took showers. But before going to bed, we were watching our English channel on t.v. with Spanish subtitles. Sarah saw a UNICEF commercial with a boy and a llama and a caption saying "Llama ahora" she was excited for learning some Spanish and said she new what it meant..."Llama now" I laughed at her for a while and then told her that "Llama ahora" actually meant "call now". It was amusing. Thats how the trip has gone so far... amusing. I didn´t think we would have to rely on my being the interpreter. Anyone who knew me back in Spanish class is probably scared now. But it is definitely on me, because Sarah isn´t with the Spanish yet. She also warned me about her bad sense of direction. Her friends even warned me about her bad sense of direction. Somehow I didn´t believe them, but they were all right. I don´t know how many times we either get to our hotel or leave our hotel and she consistently walks the wrong way. She has redeemed herself at times when I have been turned around, but again...its amusing.

So day two consisted of museums, walking a ton, blisters and ridiculous amounts of sweat. What a great time.

01/22/08

Day 1 in Guayaquil

Well, I have arrived. After a long travel time and a few bumps in the road I have spent my first night in Guayaquil Ecuador. On my way to L.A., my flight, the next morning to Georgia was cancelled due to snow. So Day 1 of my trip was spent being a tourist in LA. I went to Beverley Hills, Santa Monica pier and plazza, ate at Pink´s hot dog stand, went shopping on Melrose and cruised sunset. It was a great day. I was going to go to Disney land, but knowing me I would blow a lot of my money before I even left the states...so we opted out and did the other tourist thing instead.

The next day, Day 2 I spent the entire time on an airplane. I had to check my backpack, which made me nervous but all came through. I spent 4 plus hours on a plane to Georgia, 4 plus hours on a plane to Quito and almost 2 more hours on a plane to Guayaquil. It was a long day.

We arrived at our hotel after midnight. The security guard at the front unlocked the gate, and pulled up the steel door to let us in. (not the best neighborhood?) Then of course, he locked us in. That was a little freaky, but at the same time made us feel pretty safe because we were double locked in and we had a guard outside.

In the morning we decided to stay in this hotel a few more nights, but we were warned to be back befote dark or take a cab…No problem here. We went and explored downtown a little today which was really nice. There are not many tourists around, but we seem to do ok. We went to Iguana Park today, called something else in spanish of course, and there were trees with hundreds of iguanas. They were walking around, climbing trees, swimming, it was amazing. You had to becareful walking under the trees because they have a tendency to let it flow if you know what I mean. We then went to a great church arccross from the park with tons of stained glass Windows and tombs. The church had to be 500 feet tall. We also saw a man polishing a statue of Jesus. Then we went to go and look at another hotel for later in the week, where we almost died in the elevator. It got stuck and the man we were with started banging on the door…the elevator began to drop little short drops. He then bangs some more. My aunt and I thought it was the end. Finally the doors oponed and we took the stairs and booked the hotel for later in the week knowing to never take the elevator. The perks where it was closer to downtown and in a nicer area. I hope to post some pictures soon so everyone can look at them.

Its hot and humid here and I think I smell. Cars move at a fast pase and if you aren´t careful they will run you over. The horns honk and streests are a little dirty. You see people begging and working in the street, which is really hard for me not to notice. However the architecture is spectacular. It is very stereotypical movie seen. I´m not screeming to come home yet.

We leave for our cruise to the Galapagos on the 25th of this month and come back on the 5th of February. I am so excited. However I am trying to overcome my fear of sharks so I can go swimming with the...might not happen but I hope I overcome my wussey ness by then.

Sorry if there are any typos, but I´m using a spanish keyboard and the program keeps telling me my words are wrong and trying to change them. Hope to write again soon. I hope everyone is well. Keep in touch.

Mags

01/21/08