Final day in Quayaquil

Before I arrived in Guayaquil I was fortunate enough to make more than one contact here and yet I was still unsure if I would be able to meet more than one of them, so it was both a shame and a joy when my first friend told me that she had to go to work on my final day in Guayaquil while the other emailed to say that she had arrived back in her home town and would be willing and happy to meet me whenever I was able.

As the internet was down in the hostel, there followed a few phone unauthodox phone calls as I found out that my Spanish accent was terrible and I especially hated telephones so it was almost impossible for us to understand each other.

Her house was a bit far out of the city centre, so we agreed to meet near the Malecon, which was a good a place as any as it is easy to find and gave me another chance to spend a bit of time in my favourite part of Guayaquil.
My friend has a dentist appointment prior to meeting me, and although she must have been in quite a bit of pain she bullied on through and refused to let it prevent her from meeting me, which again shows how kind and friendly the people here are.

As a small point, as I couldn't really go too far away from the meeting place, because I was hungry, to kill time and because I like to try them everywhere I go, I popped into the McDonald right next to the Pirate ship on Malecon and was rewarded with one of the best Quarter pounder and fries with a coke that I have ever scoffed.

I am getting used to having to serve myself the ketchup in those tiny little throw away cartons, and like most places in South America they didn't speak English, which is normally a safe bet in a McDonalds elsewhere in the world, but the fries were long, crispy, hot and not overly salted, the burger just melted in my mouth with the right flavour and the coke was neither watery, syruppy or was more than Ice than coke and so overall it was one of the best I had ever tasted.

But all that aside, once my friend turned up it was nice to have a local who was fluent in the language to do all the asking of questions and directions and it didnt take us long to find both a bookshop, the post office and then finally a museum, despite the various local policeman giving us differing directions.

The road users of Guayaquil are quite a different breed, as between the manic taxi drivers, the insane wandering salesmen who seem to have no idea of highway safety, the small kids doing acrobatics in front of cars stuck at red lights in the hope of a tip and the beat up Datsuns used as mini buses for small families, I was surprised that I did not see any accidents.

Tragically although I did not see any collissions, that night during the news I spotted that there was a double fatality that very night on the roads. I also spooted a news article on the collapse of a section of seating in a nearby complex, that thankfully had not caused any deaths only minor injuries, and as fate would dictate I did actually witness the ends of as I was riding past in the taxi and saw loads of fireman, or Bomberos, around helping maintain order and safety.

Back to the museum, it was only US $1.50 for a guided tour that lasted just over an hour and thankfully was with a guide that was both bilingual and able to make jokes and fun of the whole learning process, a relief as my friend had only just told me as we were buying the tickets that she hates museums and had only come along to meet me and help out as my guide to the city!

The museum was cool, had a few props that we got to play with, although regretably there was a strict no photography rule inside and being chaperoned by our guide as we were there wasn't even a chance to sneak off a few quickies. The artifacts were good, the information easy to digest and not just a jumble of names, dates and figures, and the guide even went as far as carrying a few of the props to the exit, where photographs were allowed, which meant that it wasn't a total loss on the photography stakes.

After the museum we went off to grab a bite to eat, US $8 for the hugest mixed fish chinese dish I had ever seen, even both of us together could only manage half of, and then we almost popped off to visit another museum while we still had daylight, however for us the other place closed early during on weekdays so instead we had to make do with a game of billiards at a nearby market that happened to also have a pool table.

Weirdly you have to pay for the time rather than per game, there was plenty of chalk dust to get around the humidity and sweating of the hands and finally there were two balls missing so it was an usual game to say the least.

After the game it was time to say goodbye as I had to get back for around 6:30 and my friend was still in some amount of discomfort from her earlier visit to the dentist, so we planned to share a taxi back to her house before I continued on to my hostel.

The mosquitoes were out in force during the night, and just waiting for the taxi to arrive we both got bit a couple of times, and it reminded me that in England we take so many things for granted and should really be a bit more thankful for our lot, as compared to other places it really isn't all that bad after all.

Catching a taxi to my hostel was a mission, as it was rush hour home time and the fifteen minute fast paced taxi down to the Malecon was replaced by the hour long crawl that winded up and down side roads desperately trying to cut corners and save a little time, but this effort was hampered by every other driver thinking the same thing and the final insult was that, once again, because I had chose a small hostel and not a big time hotel the taxi driver had never heard of it and neither had anyone else.

This is something to consider when booking a hostel, despite the online reassurances of hostels that taxi drivers will know where they are, but my advice is to save time, effort and be assured of always getting back to your hostel in good time and first time, best reserve a room from a hostel that is centrally located and if it can be right next to a huge hotel or other impressive and well known landmark then even better.

Arriving back at my hostel a bit later than planned, my other friend was already there ready and waiting to meet me, and together we took another taxi to meet her family, which was again a conversation fully in Spanish and I can only hope that they understood half of what I was trying to say, before it was time for an early night and to prepare for an equally early bus ride to Manta the following morning.

Oh, and Barack Obama was also announced as president of the USA today, which hopefully means that being the first Black president will lead to lots of good stuff for the world and equalities, that is asuming he sticks to his pre-election speaches.