May 2, 2019

May 2, 2019

We woke in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador and its major port. Ecuador is a particularly easy country for Americans to visit. They no longer have their own currency but use the American Dollar. Humorously they actually use the dollar coins that most Americans shun. Also electricity is 110V with the same outlet. No adapters needed.

After breakfast we joined a guided city tour. Our first stop is at the Historic Park. It is well done and seems analogous to Tucson’s Desert Museum. It shows the flora and fauna of the equatorial mangrove jungle in natural habitats. We see all the endemic animal species. The blue, green, and scarlet-colored Macaws and Parrots are beautiful and the Harpy Eagle is huge. Ecuador has lots of rodents from small to the cow-sized Tapir. There are also lots of beautiful tropical flowers including Hibiscus and Bird of Paradise and many we haven’t seen before.

Another section illustrates the plantation crops vital to the economy of Ecuador. The country is one of the biggest exporters of bananas and cocoa beans. We saw how they are grown commercially.

Our next stop was a small city green space called Seminary Park. Besides being next to the Cathedral, it is has a nickname of Iguana Park. Visitors feed these large lizards of Tropical America so they are very tame. There are hundreds of them in all sizes and colors. They look very prehistoric. Maybe this place should be renamed Jurassic Park.

We then headed to the nearby riverside boardwalk, stopping at the La Rotonda or Memorial to the Liberators. This monument continues the history that we learned on our South American trip last Fall. After Jose San Martin liberated Argentina and Chile, he came north in 1822 to Guayaquil to strategize with Simon Bolivar who had recently liberated Venezuela and Colombia.

We stopped for lunch at a bistro. Aimee and I ate a trendy Ecuadorian pizza of shrimp, beans, cheese, and guacamole on a Plantain crust.

After lunch we walked along the river exploring Barrio Penas, the hilly historic center of Guayaquil. We tried to shop for local Panama Hats, but the very humid weather of the equator is draining. We are both happy to return to the refreshing A/C of our hotel.