Guayaquil, Ecuador

We arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador this morning and we will spend two days in this port of call. Some passenger’s are leaving the ship to visit either the Galapagos Islands or Machu Picchu and will meet up with the ship in a few days. We have chosen to stay with the ship.

This morning we disembarked the ship at 9:00 AM to participate on a four-hour shore excursion. The excursion is called “A Walk in the Park: Discovering Guayaquil’s Culture & Wildlife. We thought this would be a nice excursion to begin to explore the surrounding area. We saw a variety of wild-life including monkeys, wild pigs, iguanas, macaws, horses, deer, owls, and eagles. We also saw a variety of plants many beautiful flowers. We visited a church and some historical buildings. A nice snack (we would have said it was morel like a lunch) was provided along with various cold drinks. The tour guide was wonderful.

On our way to the Park, we drove through Guayaguil. This city is home to almost 2 million people. We passed a variety of areas from very poor areas to upper class areas. Unemployment remains quite high at 30%. The major exports of Ecuador include the cocoa bean, bananas, and oil.

We had very nice weather today. It is still considered winter here which is their rainy season and where the overall temperature is warmer than in the summer. The summertime is considered the dry season.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the ship. We had lunch back on board the ship and then we worked out in the fitness center.

This evening after dinner we plan to see the movie “The Queen” which is about the behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair, following the death of Diana. Before we left home this movie had just premiered in our local movie theatres so we were surprised that it was already being shown on the Crystal Serenity. Crystal always had a nice variety of recent movies.

Keith & Anne Marie