3-16-2008


Up at eight we begin are day. Breakfast downstairs. First meal in Ecuador, eggs and ham. I don’t know if they did that b/c its normal here to like back home, but whatever. The fruit juice they give at lunch is pretty good. You could tell it was pretty natural even thought you could also tell it was watered down, if that makes any sense. Because of the climate here there is lots of fresh fruit, and its all cheap to buy. We were told not to eat any from street venders. I’m curious if I should listen to the warning because my last times in Mexico we ate stuff from street venders quite a bit and I never got sick. But then again there is nothing to say I just got luck back then, but hopefully I just have those immunities built in even thought I was born or raised in Mexico. We’ll see. Our Ecuador experience began with a short walk to the river but lengthy tour for the boardwalk. I can definitely say it is a lot hotter and humid here than in Florida right now. Our host here in Ecuador is Camilo. Seems like an nice man who is very proud of his country, and happy to see all of us here. He gave pretty much the whole tour of the fairly new board walk at the beach called something 2000, I can’t remember. From the part we entered I could see to the right there were all sorts of eateries like a food court, with shops underneath. To the left was are tour with along most of the way was filled with lots of historical information about Ecuador and Guayaquil. The board walk was very nice, and pleasant. Lots of stature and monuments the people who founded what would be Ecuador. It was interesting hearing Camilo talk about other countries that impacted Ecuador and made it what it is today. The influence of American culture and old traditions. He took us over to a hill to a spot where once stood an old fort. Also right in that spot was also what he told us was the first paved street in Ecuador. When that tour was over went to a historical park, which was also a small zoo. The first part was the zoo. It was pretty interesting because we didn’t just see animal and they just told us what they were and what they eat. A lot of the animals had some history about them consering Ecuador, along with most of the plants there. We saw some interesting animals there, like a very big eagle, deer, tam pier, ocelots, and of course monkeys that like to defecate when people are around. After the zoom part we took a tour of an old house and bank that date back a hundred years. The cool part is that a lot of the house and bank were original and they showed how they were restoring certain part of the place. Very cool, but also very hot. For dinner instead of trying to take in the local dishes we opted to go to the continental hotel. We thought we were going to a simple hotel but then we realized we were very under dressed. What I’ve really come to enjoy here are the prices of most things. Five of use got a five course meal for twenty dollars, and it was all very good. Next time however I need to trying a local dish.