Ecuador's Biggest City You've Never Heard Of

Yesterday, I arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest and mostly unheard of city. Most people only stop here as all flights to the Galapagos Islands leave from international airport and I, like everyone else, am only here cause it's the quickest major bus teminal to Peru. Arriving late yesterday with nowhere to stay, I lucked into a hotel room on the most popular shopping street in this urban sprawl of over three million people, Blvd 9 de Octubre (9th of October for non-Spanish speakers). Named after the street, the hotel is an eight story high rise with no internet and no hot water but at $15 with A/C and a KFC next door with killer WiFi signal, so needless to say I've been eating a lot of fried chicken.

I have found that the city actually has several noteworthy sites and have enjoyed my stay. In a major revitalization project, the city has created a two mile long gated park along the waterfront of the Guayas River complete with a botanic garden, Imax theater and shopping mall called the Malecon.

Welcome to the Malecon, Seaport Village without the cheesy tourist shops...

At the far east end, Las Penas is a long staircase amongst Mediterranean colored buildings leading to a light house and sweeping views of the city. Each step is numbered and 444 agonizing, sweaty stairs later, you're at the top.

They don't tell you it's another 50 to the top of the light house... But the view is worth it!

At the west end of the Malecon are blocks and blocks of crowded, chaotic shops that sell anything and everything.

And if you wind your way through the maze to a far-away street on the other side, you're greeted by hundreds of iguanas roaming Parque la Catedral. 

Feeding frenzy!! (They're herbivores, don't worry!)

As I left the park, I came across Banda Blanca, Ecuador's army band putting on a free show. Unlike your stereotypical military band, this group had seven singers out front taking turns leading songs, all dancing and pumping up the crowd. At one point, they even grabbed random spectators to dance with!

Another interesting observation is that traffic is so thick, police direct people through stop lights rather than let the lights control car flow. Between this and pedestrians playing real-life Frogger, taking their lives into their hands crossing the street between moving cars, one would need nerves of steel to drive here. Not to mention, first rate parallel parking skills- on many streets cars are parked so tight that drivers leave them in neutral so that others can push them around to make room to come or go!

An awesome city and well worth the day layover, but my stopover ends tomorrow as I head further south to cross into Peru.