Glorious Guayaquil

On Tuesday morning I woke up early and got my bag packed for my trip to the coast. I called Naomi one more time and got some vague directions to her uncle´s house in Guayaquil…these directions ended up being almost useless, but that part of the story comes later. I ended up leaving Riobamba on an 8:30 AM bus…I had a nice window seat, very spacious. The bus wasn´t crowded at all. The 5 hour bus ride to Guayaquil is quite beautiful. After passing through Cajabamba, we climbed high up onto the páramo before descending down toward the coastal plain. As we went down, paramo changed to green farmland, which in turn changed to cloud forest, which became more and more jungle-like the lower we got. As we arrived in the Andean foothills, I saw more and more banana trees next to houses and farms. After about 3 hours, we reached the coastal plain and the air became very warm. We passed by dozens of banana plantations, with the occasional sugar cane or palm plantation mixed in. Before long, we were crossing the long bridge into the city of Guayaquil, and I was getting off the bus in the hot, dirty bus terminal.

I headed to the line of taxis outside the terminal and stupidly chose the oldest taxi there….this taxi didn´t even make it outside of the parking lot before stalling just before a speed bump. The taxi driver advised me to find a different taxi, which I did right away. My new taxi driver asked me the direction I wanted to go to, and I showed him the paper on which I had written Naomi´s directions. All I knew was that I needed to go to a gated community in a place called Los Cedros, and that the number of the house was 163. My taxi driver quickly figured out that these directions weren´t good enough, and was happy to hear that I had Naomi´s cell phone number. He was less happy to hear that I didn´t have a phone. He said I could use his. Excellent.

We tried calling Naomi´s number and she didn´t pick up. I accidentally hung up the phone too late, so my taxi driver was charged for the call. He started getting very upset (all while driving on a four lane road, full of traffic) until I assured him that I would pay him for the phone call. The taxi driver pulled over, and we tried calling Tamie (who also didn´t answer) and then Naomi again. The taxi driver already suspected that Naomi´s uncle lived in Los Ceibos, not Los Cedros, and when we got through to Naomi the second time, this was confirmed. The taxi driver got all stressed out again, and explained to me that Los Ceibos was ¨muy lejos¨ and that it would cost me 10 dollars to get there, including all the phone calls. Bueno.

Once in Los Ceibos, we still had no clue where we were going. The taxi driver called Naomi´s cell phone again, and he talked to Jose, the security guard at the house. We pulled over on the corner and two minutes later Jose, Naomi and Tamie arrived in a big, black pickup to rescue me! Despite the complications, I made pretty good time, and very soon I was taking a tour of Naomi´s uncle´s house.

The house is pretty large. There are at least 6 bathrooms, a tennis court, indoor pool, huge television, exercise room,…Naomi´s uncle is not there right now though, so it´s just been the 3 of us (Naomi, Tamie and me). I met Naomi and Tamie four weeks ago when they came to Black Sheep Inn, and when they told me they´d be in Guayaquil, I decided to join them.

After I got settled in, we went swimming for a while (yes, I´ll put it on my chart) and then eventually got a ride from Jose to the big mall which is just a 10 minute walk away. At the mall we used internet for a bit, walked around, ate some delicious ice cream, and then shopped for groceries for our dinner. For dinner we made Italian pasta with sausage, spinach and beans and some caramelized onion pizza (but without the cheese and tomato sauce). We also bought a bottle of cachaca and a ton of limes for caipiriñas. Limes are super cheap here…we got about 20 for 26 cents! On Tuesday night we just chilled at the house, watched TV and had an excellent meal. I slept very well and was ready for a busy Wednesday in the city.