Our alarms woke us at 5.30am and with small cabin bags packed the night before, and a quick cuppa, we met with our group of 28 fellow passengers before stepping off the ship at 7am in Manta - to rejoin the ship in Lima in 3 days time.
Jaime, our tour leader from Patagonia Shore Excursions, greeted us all and after our bags were loaded into the big bus, were on our way to Machu Picchu.
It took 3 hours to Guayaquil (pronounced Whay-a-kil). There wasn't much scenery along the way, as it was mainly uninhabited and scrubby, but there were a sprinkling of cotton trees, rice and corn fields. We quickly realised that the occupants of any of the dwellings, since leaving the ship, were not well off, to say the least. We've been to countries before where the custom is to pay taxes, only if your home is complete in construction – hence all the dilapidated, dirty and shoddy buildings…. everywhere!!! We passed through a few small towns with 'interesting' food and souvenir stalls and did have a comfort stop at a decent café/garage and ate a corn patty and coffee.
Our guide in Guayaquil walked us through the city and as it was a Sunday, it was easy to move around. We got off the bus at Seminario Park and were bemused by the number of iguanas living there, all loving the attention and posing for the tourists. Right across the road, It was nice to see a beautiful packed cathedral, with service in progress and such a passionate congregation of family members. We wandered around the foreshore where many modern structures took pride of place, but the hunger pangs were setting in!!
We had a late lunch at a very nice restaurant, called 'Lo Nuestro', and filled two long tables – sadly alcohol was not recommended for the duration of our trip because of the high altitude!!!!... so it was 'water' for us. Our lunch was interesting and consisted of two very runny 'sunny side up' eggs, rice and a small piece of steak and some potato bits… not what we would have chosen but it was traditional and hit the spot.
Shortly after we were taken to the airport to check-in and had a lengthy wait for our flight to Lima at 6.30pm. On arrival we were flabbergasted that a huge bus had arrived to take us literally across the road to our Holiday Inn hotel…. the reason being that there were no traffic lights and it would have been impossible to cross that extremely busy road at night… even the bus had its work cut out to get across.
The room was perfect, but we were exhausted and after a shower, and setting our alarms for 3.30am, it was a very quick sleep for all.
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