WATCHING MOVIES IN GUAYAQUIL

23. February - 27. February 2011 

Before leaving Ecuador I went with Carlos to Guayaquil - the largest city in Ecuador - for a few days.

The first two nights we stayed with a friend, Jimmy. His apartment is in the same street as the presidents house and is good western standard with paintings and a lot of glassware. But the best thing in the apartment was the huge TV. For the last months I haven't watched many films and not been to the cinema once. Luckily DVD's are very cheap in Ecuador (pirate copies sold everywhere for 1$) and we bought more than one movie to take advantage of the TV. Jimmy – Muchas gracias for letting us stay at your place. We also went to the IMAX cinema twice and once to the cinema. I had only been to an IMAX cinema once before (more than ten years ago in Stockholm) and really enjoyed it.

Besides watching movies we spent a lot of time walking along the Malecon 2000 – Guayaquil’s riverfront walk. It's a nice area with parks, shopping center, museum, restaurants… I enjoyed walking along the river a lot. It was nice, clean and safe. We also went on a very touristy boats tour on the river. Although the beer was very expensive, it was relaxing and fun. And it was nice to see the city from the river. 

We also went to the historical neighborhood of Las Penas, which is located on a small hill. Stairs are leading up to the top and along the stairs are bars, little shops and clubs. During the day there were tourists climbing the stairs to get to the lighthouse and enjoy the view over the city. At night there were a lot of people enjoying a night out. It's a very nice neighborhood and I liked the atmosphere.

If you read or hear about Guayaquil, the first thing mentioned is, that it is a dangerous city. Well, I never felt unsafe and actually liked the city. At least the parts that I saw.

After four days it was time to take the bus to Peru and to say good bye to Carlos. Gracias por muy bien tiempo en Guayaquil y mucho mas. Te extrano.