Unproductive day, at least it was cultural

Monday, September 4th

So today we pretty much did nothing. Alexey got some business stuff done, I think.

We spent most of the day in a cyber cafe. After eating at a local eatery where they serve the whole menu for about a buck 25, we head back to interneting.

Nothing much to report until we decide to go visit the city´s landmarks in the centre. Guayaquil has been renewed recently and is much nicer and pleasant to the eye than it was a decade ago. We walked through the center and reached the Parque de las Iguanas where you will find an impressive quantity of Iguanas that just hang out and watch you pass. We actually saw a male Iguana (or so we suppose) trying to hook up with a female (or sowe suppose) on top of a bush.. The position was so unstable that they nearly fell! They must have been about 20 pounds each so it was kind of scary.

Next we went through the Bahias. This is an area of tiny shops where you can find all the piroted CDs you want, Colombian knockoffs of Nike shoes, etc.. We reached the new Malecon Simon Bolivar which is the city boardwalk. This is about 2km, I think, of nice structural architecture and breeze coming from the Guayas river. After finishing our walk through the Malecon, we headed for the Las Peñas neighborhood. Las Peñas is the first real neighborhood that was here in Guayaquil. In this small mountain was also where the city was founded. There are nearly 500 steps to reach the top where there is a lighthouse and a small church. We reached the top and took pictures.

On the way down, we get a call from my brother reminding us that there is a concert at the ESPOL campus.. which is actually just down the hill. The concert is free and the guys performing are a group of rebel musicians playing a mix of cuban son and local rythms. The lyrics, an important component of their music, are incredible and penetrating. The group is not always the same mix of people. The guys performing change depending on availability but they are all friends. The leader of them all is a guy named Hector Napolitano. We had to line up a-la-food-stamp-line. We were given a numbered coin when we arrived and we were supposed to enter on a line ordered by the numbers on our coins.

The concert was great and the guys had to keep playing for a while after the concert was scheduled to end, due to popular demand.

We then went back home, I think.