Greetings from Guayaquil Ecuador

The flight from San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos landed in Guayaquil a little after noon and I immediately hiked a dozen blocks to the main bus station. There it quickly became clear I needed to wait a day for a good connection to Cuenca, my next chosen destination. A simple hotel on the city bus route served for my one night layover and a brief chance to reacquaint myself with the city visited a decade earlier. Gone are the giant green jungle iguanas I found so fascinating in the central plaza a decade ago. Guayaquil is no longer a quaint little city mostly used by foreign tourists as a jumping off place to the Galapagos. Today it is an ultramodern metropolis. The shiny new three kilometer Malecon Promenade along the Guyas River is now a popular place to bring the family for a cool evening stroll, an ice cream cone or a fine dinner at one of the up-scale restaurants. 

The next morning I grabbed an early bus for Cuenca (rhymes with wink-ahh) some seventy-five miles to the southeast. Bus stations in Latin America commonly require anyone wanting access to the actual boarding dock to deposit a small coin (worth about 3 cents) in a turnstile, presumably to limit casual access... but a problem for anyone in a hurry without the proper change! The recently renovated central bus terminal is curiously located within walking distance of the airport. 

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy