I´m a bit tired of sightseeing today. Actually I´ve been a bit tired of it for a couple of days. Charming colonial architecture is no longer doing it for me. For that reason, I think I´ll have very few pictures of Cuenca, though it, admitedly is a very charming colonial town.
Guayanquil
Spent two nights in Qguil which is a sprawling city that´s actually hot and humid. It´s the first heat I´ve felt since leaving Georgia. I worked up a sweat before 10:00 am and it wasn´t even a sunny day. It´s an interesting city, but I didn´t love it like I did Lima. It´s a real city of contrasts, the area around the waterfront is absolutely spotless and shiny with modern architecture mixed in with the restored buildings. But, a few blocks inland and it´s a completely different atmosphere, noisy chaotic, dirty and congested. I think that I liked that area better. There´s a fantastic park in the middle of the city, fantastic because it´s crawling with iguanas, and not just a few, there are hundreds.
I reckon Gquil is probably one of those cities that you learn to love. I talked with a few visitors there who had stayed a while and learned their way around and they thought it was a fantastic city. I think it didn´t help that I chose a really crappy hostel in the suburbs. I chose it because I was flying in and then (I thought) taking a bus out in only two days. Thought it might be easier as far as transporting my stuff. Anyway, if you´re ever in Guayaquil, avoid the Dreamcatcher Hostal. I know, I know - I should have known by the name. The rooms are like tombs, the owner is annoying and they have really loud parrots that start squacking at about 7 in the morning.
I woke up yesterday to find that there was a general strike of some kind or another that was halting traffic through the place where I was supposedly traveling. My four hour trip was going to take me about 7 hours. Forget that, I went to the airport and, very luckily, caught a plane and got here in an hour. Scary plane ride, though, only 36 passengers and I could feel every bump and airpocket we hit. I never should have read that book by Critchon - Airframe.
Anyway, I´m now in Cuenca and I think I´ll force myself to do a little sightseeing anyway.
