Exploring Guayaquil, Ecuador

One of my favorite views from my explorations of Guayaquil. This is the view as you enter Parque Seminario, with the Metropolitan Cathedral behind it.

Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest port city, is often referred to as the 'gateway to the Galapagos.' In fact, it is for that reason that I am here. But that is tomorrow. Today I spent the day exploring the back streets, and main streets of Guayaquil. It is a city rich in history, architecture, and parks, mixed with a thriving pulse of the 3 million people that live here.

After 12,000 steps, and covering a good portion of the waterfront and historic district of Guayaquil, I feel like I got a good taste of what the city has to offer. One of my favorite sights was the Parque Seminario, aka Iguana Park. The beautiful Metropolitan Cathedral towers behind the iguana-filled park. Fig trees gave a natural frame to the entrance gate to the park. It was such a zone of calm, compared to the hectic marketplaces along the streets outside the park. But the hectic streets and markets were awesome to experience as well.

Also worth exploring is the Malecon 2000. It is like an ocean-front promenade, although in reality is borders the huge Guayas River, which leads out to the ocean. We walked for miles along the Malecon today. There are different sights around every corner, from an amusement park, to statues and monuments, to hundreds of eateries. We even had some parrots flying over us among the mango trees.

The best exploring we did came at the behest of a local security guard as we were walking back to our hotel. As we were exploring some of the steep steps and little alleys, a security guard beckoned us to follow him the other direction. He took us to more steep steps, but these had numbers on them. We started climbing, and 444 steps later we made it to the very top of the hill. An old fort, lookout tower, and church were up at the top, and the view was magnificent. It was actually so great that we climbed the same steps again later in the day to try and get sunset from the top, but they had closed the entire fort top of the hill area. Guess its time to head down and choose which amazing eatery to try next!

View from the top of 444 stairs leading strait up from the Malecon.

Lighthouse, or lookout tower at the very top of the steep hill. There was historical remains of a fort with canons up here as well.

My brother-in-law on a search in the streets of Guayaquil for the most ridiculous glasses.

Tram going way across the river.

Taste testing street empanadas from a literal hole in the wall. There were some snazzy dressed business men eating these so I figured it was a can't miss.

Interesting stained glass window in the old lookout tower from the top of Santa Anna Hill. A small church can be seen sharing the top of the hill, just outside the window.

Just in case you forgot where we were.

This is the view from our seventh floor hotel room, overlooking the Malecon2000 here in Guayaquil.

Celebrating 25 years of the Malecon2000 waterfront area.

The tall buildings of Guayaquil's historic waterfront district.

Barely made it up the 444 steps to the top of the hill. Ok, I may have been playing this up a bit, but it was still a lot of steps leading up from the water's edge to this amazing lookout from the top. Cute little homes, bars, and empanada shops lined the narrow, windy stairway on our way up.

I waited until this worker stood up, ontop of the bottom ring of the ferris wheel, so it was show how big this ride really is.

Looking down the Malecon2000.

Narrow side street filled with vendors. They were mostly selling mobile phone cases. A couple of cars even tried to drive down here, which was more impressive than scary.

This was a tiny McDonalds that only served treats. As far as I know, we don't have this back in the States.

I love the old architecture along the stone streets here.

Coming back down the 444 steps.

The historical architecture comes with some fun colors. I almost felt like I was back at Riverstreet in Savannah where I grew up.

Looking back towards our hotel from the waterfront promenade, known as the Malecon2000.

Park Seminario, also known as Iguana Park, was an awesome find. There were many iguanas here, just chilling on the grassy parts. Someone had left some lettuce for their food. But the really cool part were the historical buildings around the park which made a wildly unusual scene.

The sign says that there is a cafe somewhere down this homely looking alley.

This is one of the many hills in the Santa Anna district of Guayaquil. The homes go right up the sides of the hill, connected with little side streets, steep steps, and narrow alleyways.