Valentine’s Day in Guayaquil, Ecuador
View from the top of the lighthouse on Cerro Santa Ana.
Valentine's Day - Our plans to wake up early were disrupted by the lull of heavy rain on our window, so we slept in until about 10:30. Today was our only full day in Guayaquil, and we had decided on checking out Cerro Santa Ana (Santa Ana Hill) and Malecon 2000 based on suggestions from locals.
We got ready for the day and before we left, our hotel gave us lovely red roses. We ventured out around 11:30 after the rain subsided, taking our first international Uber. I've gotta say, Ubers in Guayaquil are very easy to use and inexpensive. Our 15-minute ride cost us $5, and we chose the comfort option. You can easily take Ubers for $2-3, and tips aren't requested. I wouldn't recommend foreigners take the local transit in Guayaquil. Every bus we saw was crammed full, no matter what time of day it was. All the seats were taken and the aisles were overflowing with people.
Our Uber driver dropped us off right next to both Malecon 2000 and Cerro Santa Ana. Malecon 2000 didn't look like our cup of tea, so we chose to only explore Cerro Santa Ana. If you enjoy shopping and county fair-esque carnival rides, then Malecon 2000 is for you; however, we're trying to travel for the full year, so we're not interested in shopping and spending extra money.
Standing at the base of the Cerro Santa Ana stone staircase aligned with colorful, straight-lined buildings, we could tell we had a long way to go up. Within less than 5 minutes, we were both sweating, not because of the stairs, but because of the heat and humidity. It was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit with 80% humidity. I'm used to being cold most of the time, so I struggle with the heat more than G. He's almost always warm, so this felt typical to him.
Not long after beginning our ascent, we noticed the stairs were numbered. This helped guide us to the right place because there were multiple places where you could choose which direction to go, sometimes with more staircases. Other directions would take you to different corridors of the neighborhood.
About halfway up, stair number 200 something, we decided to hydrate with some Powerade we bought at a shop. When we were close to the top of the hill, we became distracted by an outdoor naval museum. There were quite a few old canons, remnants of old ships, a mosaic mote, and a pirate bar. We found a spiral staircase in one of the ships that took us to the very top of the hill, so at that point, we didn't know how many stairs there were.
The walk up was worth it. A blue and white striped lighthouse, a pale yellow, small, old fashioned Spanish style church, and a park area were waiting for us. We walked around the park, finished our Powerade, walked in the quaint church, then made our way to the lighthouse where we were able to climb to the top, which offered a spectacular view of all of Guayaquil, including the colorful Santa Ana neighborhood. We took in the views for a while, then decided it was time to go, as we were still sweating.
We made our way down the hill, descending from the steps, learning there were 444 of them. Back at the base of the hill, we were waiting for our next Uber, where a cute gray and white, green-eyed, street cat wanted to be my friend. I wanted to be its friend too, but I also don't want fleas, so at the plea of G, I didn't pet it. It waited with us for our ride though.
Our Uber driver found us, thanks to Google translate which helped us specify our location for him. When we made it back to the hotel, we decided to check out a nearby Colombian restaurant, in hopes of finding Colombian empanadas (if you've eaten them before, you understand. For those of you who haven't had the opportunity, Colombian empanadas are pure golden crispiness on the outside with a cooked delicious inside with choices of cheese and potatoes, meat, meat and potatoes, etc.). We were successful! After eating a late lunch with a side of empanadas, we went back to the hotel and drank some coffee.
After the caffeine kicked in, we spent quite a bit of time planning more of our trip and working on our social media, having a quiet evening at the air-conditioned hotel.
-T