La Playa and Colonial Guayaquil

The most fascinating visit of Guayaquil and the Southwestern Coast was the drive to the Pacific Coast. We rented a car with the most amicable Peruvian taxidriver I've ever met who drove us two hours to the coast one way and also back (80 dollars for the entire trip for the 4 of us). Our drive took us across rural/suburban landscape of the Southwestern Coastal Ecuador. One easily sees the income equalities of a Latin American country - Ecuador is already better than most but it still obvious. Tons of gated and completely walled communities featuring rich people's own shopping malls, parks, apartments, mansions in contrast to the slums right outside the walls. But these poor towns have their own specialties - with pigs, cats, fowls, dogs roaming free; children using the most basic equipments to play basketball and soccer. Large plantations of bananas, arroz, moras, maize fill the landscape - and unafraid of being crushed by vehicles, peasants surround your vehicle to sell their fried bananas and fruits.

We were stopped at a makeshift roadside checkpoint by police who "wanted to check whether the Peruvian driver's license" - luckily we didn't have to bribe the police to get out of that ordeal. On the way, I managed to practice some Espanol with the driver - using my little pocket dictionary and phrasebook. The small quaint town of Playas is basically a town empty of tourists during this off-season. Stray dogs roam the colonial cottages..and you only hear the crashing of the waves, the chirping of insects and some children on the streets.

We were shocked to find this resort-like beach – hundreds of yards – perhaps hundreds of kilometers long – with beach huts dotting the landscape - completely empty!! As far as the eye can see, there was one two local men carrying a fishing net in the distance and one men jogging on the beach. The beach huts were likewise completely deserted. Not for a thousand years could we eve imagine that we would have a private beach to enjoy…especially in our early 20s - with a driver waiting for us while we were taking a long time absorbing as much of the equatorial sun’s radiance, the soothing breeze, the song of sea birds, the crashing of waves, the soft sand and the tranquill beach huts!!!!!!
In addition were lucky enough to catch the last hour of sun before sunset – to exclaim our joy to the rest of the world, we learned how to say sunset in Spanish – puesta del sol. The beauty was speechless…

We at dinner at a local beach restaurant - only now do I realize how spoiled we were. We spent 7 dollars each gorging on crabs, oysters, lobsters, clams etc....This meal is basically a 500 dollar seafood deluxe meal in the States on a beachfront restaurant. The restaurant owners were stoked to serve us for sure.

Late at night, we strolled around the lakefront of Guayaquil and climbed 400 steps to reach the Santa Maria chapel on top of a hill in the center of the city. The top of the hill features a gorgeous panorama of the entire city – and on the way, the pathway winds through the local communities – with quaint and colorful little stacked rows of adobe/brick/colonial houses sometimes featuring bars, small shops, and cafes. The local people even were playing “bingo” on the steps.
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Most amusingly, that area of the city has a preponderance of security officials. And I had the feeling that each time we pass a security official, they would page the next one reporting that they are monitoring a group of Asian tourists. Thus we felt extremely safe strolling around the lakefront/the hill late at night ☺