Enroute and in Guayaquil Ecuador, June 2008

Since we had to fly on AC points, from Lima Peru, we used this as our opportunity to see some of Ecuador and Peru enroute. Sorry for the quality of some of the photos. Some were taken through the bus window.

Ecuador is an extremely poor country.
Even though some of these children live in very poor conditions, they are always neat and clean. In fact, we could say that about almost all the people we saw.

This is difficult to see, but many of the wires have these little plants growing on them. They look like insects.

This is a teak tree plantation. Very broad leaved skinny trees. We never would have thought they looked like this.

As in other Central American countries, there are lots of "tricyclos" with either bikes or motorbikes.

A very cheap mode of transportation, either as the family vehicle or taxis.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!! Many of the little shops or stands had hammocks...all well used. Obviously, in the tiny houses, this must be the bed of choice--pull it out at night; hang it on the wall in the day.

In Guayaquil we found another of those tiny Japanese fire trucks. You might wonder why the fascination with fire trucks...well, our youngest son, Jeff, has just been hired to the West Vancouver Fire Department and our oldest, Greg, is also on this career path and working paid on-call for Maple Ridge.

This is the outside of the firehall, a very old and beautiful building. Here, we chatted with a firefighter who ran his butt off finding badges, hats, and t-shirts for our sons.

This was possibly the most beautiful church we had ever seen. It had been rebuilt and was very colour-co-ordinated and magical.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Look hard, can you see the iguanas?? This park was absolutely "crawling" with iguanas, which are fed and protected here.

Unfortunately, they should be protecting all the visitors. We saw several people get dumped on...not a pretty sight!! The iguanas are very large and very well fed...enough said!!

I found it all kind of creepy!!!

It is difficult to see them in the photos, but we found it just as difficult in person.

Guayaquil has one of the most beautiful malecons (boardwalks) that we have ever seen. This is the view from the McDonalds...possibly the most beautiful location in the world.

Another beautiful spot in Guayquil was this newly renovated area. Cerro Santa Anna used to be one of the poorest areas of town. It is now a lovely area full of restaurants and shops. It was also FULL of policemen. Ralph, of course, wanted to walk down a lane for some different views. We were called back and warned that going there would not be a good idea.

At the top, was a lighthouse and tiny church. The view was quite impressive.

In another park, Ralph found this beautiful butterfly!

There are actually two malecons, this being the smaller one. Another beautiful job and a very interesting walk.

Along the way, we passed these houses. All of them have been refaced to fit with the new malecon.

After seeing the model boats on the walls here, we walked off the malecon to these houses to see if we could purchase one for Ralph...too much $$

This was the alley to the houses above.

On the side streets, backing onto this malecon, there were playgrounds for the children and these decorative anchors. Very well done!

Another view of the main malecon from our favourite restaurant, Resaca.

This is also the view from the restaurant...lots of flotsum in the river.

This is Resaca...great appies!!