Came down from Cuenca to Guayaquil yesterday. Stunning ride. Left Cuenca in a public van service ("furgoneta"), at 9:45. Straight uphill for almost an hour to about 14,000 feet, then straight downhill through a cloud on a very windy road. Visibility was very poor as we descended, but the driver knew what he was doing and the road was very good. I had some bad sinus congestion which really started to hurt as we descended so quickly. After an hour of descent we were in the tropics. Flat as a board for the last hour and a half through fruit plantations and into Guayaquil, the temperature now easily twenty degrees warmer and now very humid. Unbelievable how much can change in the course of a 3 1/2 hour ride.
Didn't get much of a chance to see Guayaquil, but what we did see reminded me of a sprawling third-world version of Miami. The city has a terrible reputation for safety, according to just about every Ecuadorian we've ever met (even those from Guayaquil), and there's supposedly not much to see, so we didn't feel much need to venture out.
In fact, the entire purpose of going there was to meet up with my brother Gordon and his family. They just returned from a week long trip to the Galapagos with my sister-in-law's extended family, about 20 people. It was great to see them for an afternoon at the Hilton where the kids hung out in the pool and we all got a taste of fancy hotel life for a few hours.
As I write this, we're now with Gordon's family out on the beach, in Ayampe, a few hours north of Guayaquil, preparing for 2014! More to come...
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