Since October 2010 (read my post: The beginning) I haven’t been full time in my city, just couple of days or maybe if I was lucky 3 weeks maximum and every time I went, I felt like a stranger. It was like I was living abroad and I simply arrived to visit my family and friends.
At the beginning, it didn’t bother me at all, I was happy with my job at the rainforest and the new friends I made and hangout with. I guess I started missing my city the moment I knew better my company how they recruited, transfer employees, how it operates, etc. also when I saw moments that I was missing because I was working at the field. Some of this moments were unique and when you put on the balance work and family+friends, it wins always what is in your heart. Now it is a little dramatic and I hate drama, I just share with you my mind and my feelings started to change back in 2012. The best way to honor my city is to share with you some details and why Guayaquil is too special to me.
1. Beautiful sunsets and sunrises
I know you could find the same at the beach, but not everyone lives at the beach. Most of the people work and live at the cities, therefore find a place where you could enjoy the sunsets are difficult to get also the spots. Even the people who lives in this city doesn’t know where you could watch and admire the sunsets. I will enlist some of my favorite places where you could watch a great sunset (La Perla, Monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the lighthouse located in the Barrio las Peñas)
2. Great places to visit
My city has lots of sightseeing for every kind of people. You have 2 piers or as we known in Spanish (Malecón), the most visited is Malecón 2000 situated at the northeast of the city, it covers a section of the Guayas river. There are restaurants, small shopping center, you can run, you can have quality time with your family, it is a perfect place to go with your kids because it has children’s playground and space to exercise too. Now there is a new attraction call “La Perla”, like the London Eye, but is smallest and the length of the ride is just 10 minutes; that’s the beauty of this attraction, in 10 minutes you must be able to take the most amazing pictures of the city, the river, and the old neighborhood “Las Peñas”. Close to “Las Peñas” is Santa Ana’s port, a place that is turning to an entertainment center, now there are couple of building and some restaurants with great food. One of my favorites restaurants is “Rincon del Libano”, I know isn’t local food, but it has the best shawarman in the area and the preparation is authentic as in the middle east. They have more specialties like kippes, hummus, falafels, etc. and for an affordable price. Other restaurant that I will suggest is "Mami-T", is next to “Rincon del Libano”, they served local food, as meat with rice + beans (known as moros), also they have burgers. There is some special dishes called “Patacon Pizza”, “Patacon Sandwich” and Burritos. In others words you must go and eat their food, 100% you will not regret it.
Guayaquil has lot of sightseeing to offer, continue with the tour there is a place in the city a National Cultural Patrimony, the one you must see, The General Cemetery, also known as the white city. It is a town inside Guayaquil, with streets, roads, stairways which connect to the big wall that faces the city. In the cemetery are buried important citizens as: revolution heroes, presidents, and artist, it has mausoleums and statues with different architectural style, you will find: Italian, Spanish, neo classical, baroque, Jewish and Arabic.
We have different parks inside the city where you can run, do some exercise, have contact with the nature (flora and fauna). The most visited parks are: Seminario Park, Centenary Park, Guayaquil Park, Kennedy Park, Forestal Park, Saint Agustine Park, Historical Park, and the newest and big park we have is the Samanes Park. To find more sightseeing click here.
3. Direct contact with the nature
Guayaquil is situated on the Guayas river, our city is surrounded by mangroves. There are many of them and some fun activities that you can do, also the man eliminated hectares because of the expansion of the city. I like to live in a city that have places where you can disconnect from all the noise, traffic and toxic. The first place that you can go, have contact with real nature, and do some exercise is “Santay Island”, the total cost of experience this journey is less of $10 dollars. I can add that you will have a great view of the Malecón 2000 too. The options to arrive to “Santay Island” is walking or riding a bike. For more info click here.
Other way to have an adventure with the mangroves and the opportunity to watch crocodile too (I haven’t seen any crocodile yet, but some people say that there are 1 or 2), is by do some Paddle boarding at Puerto Azul pier (for more information or book a class follow @Paddlerider). I started this activity in June of this year and I love it. The benefits of this are: you are exercising your body, you have contact with pure air, and watch the mangroves. If you are lucky you can watch a crocodile too. I encourage you to take at least 5 lessons of this sport or just go one time and experience to be away of the crowded city for 2 hours. To me is the best exercise, I used to run 3 years ago, and I didn’t run more than 2km. However, since I started doing some SUP (Stand Up Paddle) I did almost 10km. The cost of this Paddle Boarding is: $30 dollars per class (if you are not a fan of this but you want to have the knowledge and enjoy to be outdoors, go on the beginners’ class every Saturday).
4. Awesome weather all year around
Guayaquil is one of the few cities with the best weather all year around. As you already know Ecuador is in the equator that’s why it features a tropical savanna climate. We have 2 seasons: From December to May, the climate is hot and humid with lot of rain, the average temperature during this season is approximately 40C / 104F during daylight. The rest of the year (June to November), it has cloudy mornings and afternoons, sometimes it will be warm during midday (an average of the temperature is 35C / 95F) and at evenings it will be a little windy; the temperature will drop to 19C / 66F . For people that are used to -10C / 14F it’s the best news.
I love warm weather that’s why living here doesn’t bother me the temperature. Sometimes I don’t like when it is windy, but with a light jacket I’m fine.
5. The Best People – Madera de Guerrero
The principal characteristics of being a guayaquilean, (I prefer to write in Spanish Guayaquileño) are: free spirited, outspoken, entrepreneurs, willing to help, always positive no matter the circumstances, and an amazing passion for soccer. The guayaquileño likes to speak fast that’s why it is difficult for foreign to understand us, even the people from other provinces couldn’t understand our slangs. Another characteristic of the guayaquileño is: first we love our city, then we love Ecuador. Explained in other words: you can mess with the Ecuador but you don’t touch or talk bad about our city. You will watch in the video below, when our major convocated for a march against the Ecuadorian government, our people went out with white and light blue colors, representing our city. This is the way we demonstrate how we love our gorgeous city Guayaquil. That’s why one of our nicknames is: Guayaquileño Madera de Guerrero.
BONUS: Most common Guayaco’s Slangs
In Ecuador, the people from the coast and the people from the highlands have different expressions and unique words or phrases. I will write about the most popular words.
Caleta: it means home in our language.
Mono: this is how people from other provinces call us. The meaning is monkey, there is also a monkey monument near to “Las Peñas”.
Coco: it has two meanings: one is the fruit (coconut) and the second is virgin. Pay attention to the context.
Pelucón: wealthy person.
La / El man: here is confusing for everyone that haven’t a strong background of Spanish. We use “el man” to referred to a guy and “la man” is the female version or the exact translation will be “the chick”.
Canguil: popcorn
Choro: thief
Acolitar: to help
Chuchaqui: hangover.
