We arrived in Guayaquil (via the bus) and stayed for a couple days. It is the largest city in all of Ecuador and it was beautiful. The above pictures are of Malecon, a riverfront promenade (much like Vancouver´s seawall) with beautiful scenery as you stroll down the walkway. This area is one of the most extensive urban renewal projects in all of South America. It has ponds, playgrounds, sculptures, gardens and river views. Many of the ponds contain tons of goldfish and ducks, and has gumball machines filled with pellets so you can feed them. It was beautiful.

We then went to the Mercado Negro (aka the black market). Here you could anything your heart desired (from rolex watches, I-Pods, DVD players, any movie known to man, underwear, shoes, sunglasses, etc). Obviously, the majority of the stuff was fake or stolen but it was crazy as there was even police officers in the market buying stuff. The market was huge and must have encompassed at least 4 streets by 4 street blocks. It was interesting to see but we didn´t buy anything, just browsed.

We then caught a plane and headed out to Quito, the second largest city in Ecuador today. We are looking forward to going to all the markets and shopping our hearts out!!