Day 39 Sunday 30 May - Tourism in Guayaquil city

The next morning I get up early, fresh and fruity, to do some tourism in the more southern part of Guayaquil. A friend of one of my roommates takes me to the bus station, from where I take a bus down south. This city has, just like Quito, a fast bus line called metrovia. The difference is, that if you’re not from around here, and you don’t hear the name of the next stop (which is only called out once, very unclear) you have no idea where you are, because the names of the bus stops are not written anywhere. And that’s the reason I end up a little on the other side of the Malecón 2000 (the new and modern riverside walk).
But, no problem I think: I can walk in the other direction as well. I come to the conclusion that not all of Guayaquil is ugly. However, the Malecón is the only region which is slightly interesting for tourism. You can see enough of the city in just one day. No wonder that I’m the whitest, blondest person in the whole place. I even get called ‘gringo’ here for the first time by some kids. ‘Gringo’ is a usually negative word for North-Americans. So you can see how Guayaquil is charming me even less than before. I tour the place a bit; visit a vegetarian restaurant (Acuarius) for lunch and eat an ice cream later. I take 2 busses back and relax the rest of the Sunday. Tomorrow awaits another day of hard work. I realize I have to get my interviews finished soon, so if I’m lucky, I can go back to Quito earlier.

Day 38 Saturday 29 May - Borachas

The Saturday is a lazy workday. We start later and we finish later. Additionally, not everyone works this day, so I can’t do all the surveys I still need. Result: I get bored. And finally decide to go home too, after most of the people have gone already. Ingrid is still at this party, so I take a bus alone without any trouble. The rest of the day I read a little and watch old episodes of HIMYM.

At night, when I’m already off to sleep, the girls are drinking a number of bottles of Zhumir. A popular drink in Ecuador, consisting of alcohol, sugar, water and a fruit essence. The watermelon (Sandía) taste is the lightest (15%) version of it. What is even more strange to me is the habit among the young people here to rest until midnight and then start drinking until they are drunk. At least they looked pretty hung-over (‘brak’, ‘chuchaqui’) the next morning.

Day 37 Friday 28 May – Volcanic eruption

When we were walking back from lunch today, we were suddenly covered in soot. Around us, people were covering their faces with masks and the collars of their shirts. It was raining ashes from the volcano Tungurahua. This volcano is quite long way from Guayaquil, but still the ashes are blown in this direction. Back at the office, we are given dust masks. When I go out later to the supermarket, I don’t see any ashes falling on my shoulder, so I leave the mask off, but when my eyes are prickly and I’m walking along the main road, I decide to put it on anyway.