Today I moved to a different hostel in the city center and started exploring downtown Guayaquil. Walking along the Malecón, the waterfront promenade, I stumbled upon a small military parade. I stopped to watch and listen for a bit, and found out that the event was held in honor of the Chilean national hero Arturo Prat. I found this is highly interesting: the countries that have borders with Chile - most notably Peru and Bolivia - are usually not big friends with Chile due to territorial losses they suffered in wars with Chile. Ecuador, on the other hand, without border disputes with Chile, seems to be very friendly with them. One speaker emphasized the friendship between the two countries' armed forces and claimed Arturo Prat to be an important role model even for Ecuadorians.
At the end of the Malecón, I took the stairs up to a small hill, Cerro Santa Ana. The staircase seems to bee a big tourist attraction. Each of the 444 steps is numbered, there are separate lanes for ascending and descending people, and the entire thing is lined with bars and restaurants. Luckily, it seems that it is not high season right now, so the place wasn't overrun, and I had enough peace and quiet to enjoy the colorful houses on either side of the stairs.
At the top, there is an old lighthouse that serves as a tourist viewpoint today. Climbing it reveals a beautiful view over another hill in the Las Peñas neighborhood, also covered in houses of various colors. The contrast between old houses and modern collections of antennae on top is also fascinating:
My next stop was the Parque Seminario, also dubbed iguana park. The reason for this became obvious very quickly: there were iguanas all over the park. Living in an inner-city park, they were not shy at all and regularly seemed to stop what they were doing and pose for photos for a while.
They seemed to consider the park their home, and rather graciously allowed humans to use it too - for example to sit on the park benches that had surely been installed to give them shade ;-)
The pigeons, however, were another story: whenever one of them was picking on food, it was quickly chased away by an iguana wanting to inspect the food. A very funny sight!
At the end of the Malecón, I took the stairs up to a small hill, Cerro Santa Ana. The staircase seems to bee a big tourist attraction. Each of the 444 steps is numbered, there are separate lanes for ascending and descending people, and the entire thing is lined with bars and restaurants. Luckily, it seems that it is not high season right now, so the place wasn't overrun, and I had enough peace and quiet to enjoy the colorful houses on either side of the stairs.
At the top, there is an old lighthouse that serves as a tourist viewpoint today. Climbing it reveals a beautiful view over another hill in the Las Peñas neighborhood, also covered in houses of various colors. The contrast between old houses and modern collections of antennae on top is also fascinating:
My next stop was the Parque Seminario, also dubbed iguana park. The reason for this became obvious very quickly: there were iguanas all over the park. Living in an inner-city park, they were not shy at all and regularly seemed to stop what they were doing and pose for photos for a while.
They seemed to consider the park their home, and rather graciously allowed humans to use it too - for example to sit on the park benches that had surely been installed to give them shade ;-)
The pigeons, however, were another story: whenever one of them was picking on food, it was quickly chased away by an iguana wanting to inspect the food. A very funny sight!
