Day 13 (Malecon & Lighthouse)

Saturday, January 27th

Everyone was woken up and ready to go explore the Malecon the next morning by 9 am. After dousing ourselves in sunscreen, we all set off for the walk through the city to get the riverfront. It looked quite different in the daylight, with a completely different atmosphere. We walked down, taking in the views, before we started our descent up. I’m not quite sure if this was technically a part of Malecon, because parts of the area were quite residential, but we all walked up 444 steps in sweltering heat so that we could get to a lighthouse with an amazing view of the city. Even though we were all revoltingly sweaty, the views were worth it…

After descending the lighthouse, we all sat down for a break in the shadow of the church and took in the view. We all chugged water, discussed the trip, and how these last few days together would be the last ones for some of us. It was kinda depressing to think about, and on this note, we all set back down the 444 steps (which was much easier). 

After we got back down, Rotary told us all that we had about an hour and a half to explore the area a bit further. Gracie, Els, Victor, Jared, and I all decided that we were going to walk further down in search of cool tourist shops. We accidentally pondered through a garden/park, before correcting our path. As we wandered around just looking (and playing on park teeter-toters), we slowly began to run out of time. The tourist shops were much further that we had been told, soy after admitting we wouldn’t be able to get to them, we walked to the next best thing, Wendy’s. Now I don’t even go to Wendy’s often in the U.S.. But with the heat, we all thought Frosty’s were a good idea (it also helped that no one wanted to eat chicken and rice for lunch). We were getting really short on time, so we ended up getting a giant bag of Wendy’s (it had handles) and walking to the hotel. Upon arrival, we dug into it with much gusto. 

After our lunch, and all the other students met back at the hotel, we all left Guayaquil and set off for home, aka Peru. After a little time on the bus, we crossed the bridge, putting us in Peru, and shortly after, we stopped at migrations. Entering Peru was definitely less nerve racking than leaving, as I wasn’t illegal. Afterwards however, some others and myself had to talk with a migrations officer because they hadn’t given us enough days in Perú. After that, we all boarded the bus once again and set out for our hotel. We all got into our rooms and ate a dinner of Pollo a la abraza. After dinner, Jeanne and I decided we should give Tiia her birthday gift. Tiia’s birthday is in February, which means Jeanne and I won’t be with her. So, I went to buy her gift before the trip so we could still celebrate with her. 

There was one problem though, when I went to go get the gift, I peeked inside to see if everything was still fine. To my disappointment, the card I had made had been destroyed. Something in Jeanne's suitcase was wet, and had leaked onto Tiia's card. So Jeanne and I ended up making a slightly less pretty card and giving that to her instead. Tiia was really surprised and happy, which completely made my night. She really loved her two shirts we got her, one was a surfing shirt and the other had a cool pineapple. After we gave Tiia her gifts we all hit the packed up and hit the sack. 

Sunday, January 28, 2017

The next day we all ate a breakfast before we boarded the buses and headed to the bus station so we could all get back to Lima. The bus station goodbyes were a little emotional, and I had to say a few tearful goodbyes (even if it was only for a month). After recovering, we all took the bus back home (or at least to my home).