courtyard • 4 comments • While in San Salvador, we discovered a Courtyard, by Marriott. It was brand new and we loved the great service, amenities and clean suites. On the days that it rained, we hung around indoors. The heated, roof-top pool and a gym with the amazing view had us wishing we lived in the hotel.
malecón 2000 • 17 comments • Besides being a gateway to the Galapagos Islands, Guayaquil is also the major port of the Guayas River. Despite sounding like a robot from a bad 60's sci-fi movie, the Malecón 2000 is an extensive boardwalk built along the river, featuring shopping malls, museums, and other attractions. Guayaquil isn't normally on the tourist radar, it usually gets skipped in favour of Quito, but the boardwalk, parks, and restaurants make the city interesting enough to explore for a few days.
asia de cuba • 21 comments • We celebrated Mina's birthday in Guayaquil. As mentioned earlier, there was a strong Asian influence in Guayaquil so we chose a restaurant called Asia de Cuba for the 'festivities'. We noticed that people in Mexico, Central America, and South America eat dinner a lot later than us North Americans, so, often, we were the only people in the restaurants. It was kind of nice. The food was excellent - really fresh, and well prepared. The innovative menu offers several dishes from all over the world from salmon ceviche to sushi to steak. The restaurant housed brightly colored decor and furnishing and it was nice to get out of our beach attire, get dressed up and have a proper meal in a trendy restaurant. We finished the night off with 4 different flavors of crème brûlée - our favorite dessert. - Alex
parque de las iguanas • 20 comments • One of the main tourist attractions in Guayaquil, Ecuador is Seminario or Simon Bolivar park, or Parque de las Iguanas, as it is colloquially known. Located in the heart of downtown Guayaquil, in front of a cathedral, the dozens of iguanas (and the free admission) entice tourists and locals alike to visit the park. These reptiles are harmless and lazy. However, there was a fellow on a bench who would occasionally throw a banana on the sidewalk and they would come scurrying from all over the park - which can be quite the startling experience when you're standing in the middle of it.
groceries in guayaquil • 11 comments • From the small, family-owned corner stores to large chain super markets, we love grocery shopping anywhere while traveling. Yes, grocery shopping. You find the most unusual things: Maybe it's wrong to make fun of the culturally different items... but some of the stuff we find keeps us quite amused. We searched online to find a reason as to why these Japanese peanuts, in Ecuador, were called 'Manitoba' (the province in Canada that we're from) and couldn't find a suitable explanation. There have also been several occasions where we have purchased various items that we wish existed back home. Also, we know it's common in a lot of places - but, buying wine that's next to a bag of Doritos seems wrong.
japanese in ecuador • 11 comments • We're not too sure why there was such a Japanese influence in Guayaquil, but we were glad there was. Stores, shoes, and sushi - Mina was especially happy about the sushi. She thought she would have to wait a lot longer until she was able to have some quality sashimi again.
