After a long bus ride (with no more bad experiences thus far) we are in Guayaquil for an overnight stay until we get to the Galapagos Islands. I can't believe we are nearly in the Galapagos but I will contain my enthusiasm. . .well for a while.

Upon arrival at the bus station we were surprised to see how large and full of 'western' type shops it was compared to all the other bus terminals in the other towns. Getting a taxi was surprisingly easy as the woman controlling them had enough english to understand us.

Leaving the bus terminal we got our first good look at building, Ecuador style.  They were building a new overpass and we were both in shock at how minimalistic the supports were and of course the lack of OH&S which in another way was almost refreshing. They just get things done.
 
After spending this short amount of time here we have determined Guayaquil is not a place either of us are keen to spend more time in. The main attraction is the Malecon 2000 and Parque Bolivar.

Parque Bolivar gave us our first look at land iguanas. The park was a nice respite from the grey and ugly buildings that appear to be Guayaquil. The park was full of trees and a nice place to sit and watch the world go by, which a number of locals were doing.

Onto the Iguanas. They really werent bothered by humans and pretty much sat, walked and slept wherever they liked. Although we were intrigued and amused by the tree they all decided they wanted to be in.

Consideration of the day;
How heavy or bad would it be if an iguana shat on you?
We never saw it happen in the tree but could you consider it to be lucky if an iguana shat on you like birds do?

Parque Bolivar is also home to a monument of Simon Bolivar. In actual fact there are numerous statues of Simon Bolivar. He is certainly considered a hero here. He was an political and military hero who played a key role in the independence of South American Countries from the Spanish Empire.

Phil was pretty happy with the Iguanas. It had been some time since we had seen animals, which did surprise us for Equador. Really we hadn't even seen many birds other than pigeons which like home are everywhere. Also being a reptile person, Phil was intrigued especially as he had never seen one before, even in a zoo.

It was then onto the Malecon 2000. The Malecon is the boardwalk which runs the length of the foreshore of Guayaquil. A huge clock tower is the focal point as we approached. We decided it was time for a coffee and some cake as it was still early and found this in the air-conditioned shopping area on the Malecon. We stopped at a place called Coffee and Sweet. Coffee was good and Phil was particularly impressed with his Volteado de Pina (Pineapple upside down cake). The shopping area is quite modern, mostly like back home although the shops were tiny.

We then decided a stroll down the Malecon was a good idea before finding somewhere for tea. We were pleasantly amused when a navy band started up and the lead singer was hilarious in his rendition of 'do you think i'm sexy'.

After watching the band in their synchronised dancing we tore ourselves away and wandered down to look at a large rotunda. The rotunda called La Rotonda was built to commemorate the meeting between Simon Bolivar and San Martin, both of whom were resonsible for a number of South American countries gaining independence from Spain.

Guayaquil is an interesting place in that there are no real restaurants in the downtown area other than take away places. This is so very different to everywhere else we have seen so far.
We tried our luck at the only restaurant we could find, CoColon. We shouldn't have. The name (colon) should have indicated we needed to look elsewhere. After a truely horrible meal, loads of salt and way overcooked meat and undercooked bacon we walked it off hoping we wouldnt get sick. Luckily that was the case.

After a truely horrible sleep, we don't recommend Suites Madrid due to the huge amount of noise coming from the street and the thin walls, it was into the taxi to the airport and the Galapagos Islands.