7/5: I’m sick of freezing up here in the mountains. I’m heading to the coast!
7/6: Arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. Although Quito is the capital of Ecuador and gets all the attention for being the center of arts and culture (and generally being a prettier city), Guayaquil is the economic hub of the country. It’s brasher and louder than it’s northern sister, and home to the large port through which so much of Ecuador’s commerce passes. Hardly any tourists come here, and for that reason I like it. It reminds me of Tegucigalpa in that way, which will probably get old but for now I like it. And the weather, ahh, so much better – I can leave the hotel without wearing three layers or really thinking about what to wear at all.
7/7: The trade-off to no tourists coming here is that there is very little tourist infrastructure. Most of the hotels are geared towards business travelers on expense accounts; it’s taken me a couple of days to find the cheap places. I thought cities were supposed to be cheap, the economy of scale? But I guess the wages are higher in cities, therefore the market can bear higher prices. Harumph. And for a country that is so wired, it’s largest city has a dearth of internet shops. Apparently the price of computers and home internet connections has fallen so much in the last couple of years that residents no longer have need of the net cafes as they do in the rest of the country. Great for the locals, but sucks for the traveler.
Why is it that coastal people (no matter what coast – the Caribbean of Panama, the Atlantic of Colombia, or the Pacific of Ecuador) always play the game of, “let’s see just how few consonants we can get away with pronouncing.” I really can’t understand most of these people – I swear, some of them sound like they have speech impediments.
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