Day 8 (Guayaquil)

Monday, January 22, 2017

Our day in Guayaquil was a treat, not only did we get to sleep in (we didn’t have to leave until 9!), the city proved to be gorgeous. I woke up on time (for once), and got around. I ended up waking my roommate up a few times (she was pretty tired), before I headed down to grab a very quick breakfast. Eating breakfast at the hotel taught me one thing, Ecuadorian men have something in common with the Peruvians, they sure love to stare. After being told it was time to go, I willingly got up and left without complaint, its distracting to try and eat with the heavy stares of men on you. 

We all left the hotel and loaded a city tour bus. This is when we received our first wave of heat. Although the sun had yet to appear, one thing was for sure, Ecuador is called Ecuador with reason. In case you didn’t know, Ecuador means equator in Spanish. Coincidentally, this meant that we were all slick with sweat within 5 minutes of sitting down on the open, upper level of the tour bus. 

The tour around Guayaquil was beautiful. Having lived in a loud, noisy, and a little dirty city for 5.5 months, Guayaquil seemed so different. With that being said, we of course only went through the touristy parts that were clean and beautiful. Additionally, I have never went on a city tour of Lima, so I’m a bit unqualified to depict the differences between my home and my first Ecuadorian city. 

After going down a few streets, we all exited the bus to climb up a slight slope. Here, we were able to see all of Guayaquil, and man was it stunning…

After some photos, we all walked down the hill and boarded the bus once again. The tour continued until we reached the coolest park I have ever went to. It was the conclusion of the tour and rightly so, as I am unsure of anything that could have topped it. The park was filled to the brim with iguanas. And by filled to the brim, I mean every two feet was an iguana crawling around; they were under the benches, wading through grass, and chilling in trees. Liv (Canada) and I, even petted the iguanas (after asking a park employee if it was allowed/safe). 

After the iguana park, we went to a church, and then headed toward lunch. After lunch, we all walked back to the hotel and boarded another bus to travel to Salinas, Ecuador.

The bus ride wasn’t too long (or over eventful) and we arrived in Salinas a little over an hour later. After some time, we all received our roommates. I was still with Leonora, but in our room also was Helena (France), Mara (Switzerland), Lareke (Denmark), Emilie (Denmark), and Pernille (Denmark). Once we got to our room, we realized a slight problem; there were 6 girls and 3 beds. Two of the beds, were singles, and the other was larger (but not large enough for 4 people). So, we ended up all going down to the front desk and explaining the situation. The staff was super nice and accommodating, and within 30 minutes, no one had to share a bed. 

With the bed situation relived, we all went down to explore the hotel pools and the beach. 

I always prefer to swim in the ocean or a lake as opposed to a pool, so I went to enjoy the sun at the beach with Elsbeth (Netherlands), Gracie (USA), Nina (Germany), Jeanne (France), Jared (Canada), Victor (Denmark), Levi (Netherlands), Liv (Canada), and Tiia (Finland). Nina, Gracie, Jeanne, Elsbeth, and I all opted for swimming while the others chose to start a game of volleyball (I got my fill of volleyball during colegio). The water in Ecuador was much warmer than the waters of Lima, and we all enjoyed our time splashing around. After a while, the sun began to set and the night began to cool down, so we all got out to dry. During this time, the volleyball matches had just concluded (Team North America won), and the others were now looking for their next game, fútbol. Victor ended up asking a group of nearby Ecuadorian men to play a match, so we all sat down to cheer on the exchange students as the sadly lost to Ecuador. 

After the match, we all walked back to the hotel and swam a little longer in the pools, before we got out to shower, go grab dinner, and go to karaoke. Before the karaoke, we went to the game room to burn some time (we played ping pong and pool), and after about 20 minutes we could hear the music going. This meant that the majority of the exchange students all came down. Karaoke night was a fun night. I of course got conned/pressured into singing (Adele - Rolling in the Deep), and Grace (USA) and Martin (Czech Republic) performed and acted a remarkable and dramatic duet. After Karaoke ended, we all danced the night away (until Charo and Felix told us we had to go to sleep).