adopted family : )

Yesterday, we took a series of buses from Montañita. We heard that one left there at 10 am, so we wandered over to the bus stop at about 9:50 and fortunately we were there early since it pulled up right as we walked up. We transfered in Santa Elena, where the bus to Guayaquil was convieniently leaving right away. As we approached the city through the slums, Ali and I looked at each other and decided we were already done with the city and we hadn't even gotten there yet haha. However, in the bus terminal, we called Tito, a friend we met in the Galapagos, to see if he could possibly meet up with us at some point that day. He said their whole family would be there in 5 minutes to pick us up. Basically they're the greatest family ever. We first went to the main Banco de Guayaquil and Annie finally successfully got her money. Then we walked along the boardwalk, which is one of the most pleasant urban spaces I've ever been in. Tito told us how that and everything else in Guayaquil is funded by Guayaquileños, because the national government (aka Correa, the president), doesn't give them anything. Guayaquileños are not fans of the current government, generally speaking...
We also visited a cute little neighborhood perched on the top of a hill (which is 450 ish stairs tall) and we had a beautiful view of the city. WE had already been disgusting because the showers didn't work at the hotel in the morning, and then we were drenched in sweat after climbing. That was not so pleasant.
We then drove around the city some, where we saw neighborhoods that look exactly like Florida suburbs, with large houses in gated communities that cost $350,000. That's very expensive for here, but that's so much cheaper than anywhere in the US for those houses. (They aren't exempt from traffic problems, though. That part of the city is across a river from the main downtown and there's only one bridge).
Their mom is also the regional manager for an ice cream chain, so we visted two of those stores (in malls; it appears that Guayaquil has at least as many malls as Quito, if not more) and I had the largest ice cream cone of my life :)
We decided that instead of heading off to Cuenca, so we went to their house and swam in their pool. The kids are ages 11, 13 and 15, and they all understand English perfectly and speak well. They're like our brothers. We then went on a night tour of the city. We saw a huge iguana statue, a huge parrot statue, several neat buildings, a city park with live iguanas, and probably a few more things, but I was so tired that I actually fell asleep in the car. I haven't done that in years haha

The next morning we said our goodbyes and went to the bus terminal. At 9:10 am, we bought tickets for a bus which they said left at 9:30, but then the ticket said 9:50. However, at 9:50, there was no bus. There were several bus station workers that told us not to worry, it was just running late and was on it's way. At 10:50, another bus showed up. I was disappointed; we haven't had any problems at all with buses until now. However, they accepted our tickets. We had planned on visiting some Incan ruins on the way to Cuenca, but the bus took FOREVER (they told us 3 hours and it was 6.5) so we decided we didn't have that kind of time. I enjoyed being back in the sierra and looking out the window; it's a really beautiful part of the country and I definitely want to come back and explore more some day.

We found a cute hostel and had a large dinner, given that we hadn't had lunch. I had a burrito. I can't wait to have Mexican food again!

3 days!
Love Alex