Day 2, Sightseeing in Guayaquil

August 7, 2013

This day taught me a valuable Ecuadorian, and possibly life long lesson.  Don't always bank on there being toilet paper in the stall.  The only problem with this lesson is remembering to remove said kleenex from one's pocket if one doesn't use it, before throwing one's clothes into the wash.

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our hotel, Hotel De Alborada.  This was our first fresh juice experience and the most earthly love from our trip.  F-R-E-S-H juice!  The restaurant was on the top floor of the hotel.

The breakfast area was also open concept (like open-to-the-outside open concept). 

The breakfast area also gave us our first daylight look at our surroundings in Guayaquil.

Here's the view of the little restaurant from the entrance.

This breakfast fueled us up for a day of sightseeing in Guayquil.  We had been in GYE (airport code for Guayaquil and hereon in, how I will abbreviate Guayaquil instead of writing out Guayaquil every time) ten years ago, but were still keen to see the Malecon 2000 area and the Santa Ana Staircase and other downtown sights. 

Malecon 2000 (The waterfront in Guayaquil)  Looking up to the Cerro Santa Ana

The first step is the hardest, so they say...

Step 200.... Brent blew past it.

300... starting to weaken...

Whoo... 400.  Breathing a little harder.  Glad we're at sea level.

We made it!  (At this point some locals wanted us in their pictures, the zany tourists...)

There are little stores along the way, so we bought $0.25 fudgesicles and $0.50 bottles of water.  We wandered around the top where there is a little chapel and a lighthouse.  And took some photos of the city around us.

As we wandered back down the stairs, I looked into an alley and saw this and had to snap a photo:

If your Spanish is rusty, it says "God is love".

After the stairs we wandered down the Malecón (google helpfully translates this as pier or boarwalk), snapping photos as we went.

We decided to find somewhere for lunch and wandered through the underground mall of the Malecón and found a little place called "Coffee & Lunch" and we each ordered the "El Ejectuvo" which was a bowl of chicken soup, and avocado, lettuce, tomato salad, a piece of chicken and rice.  With lovely fresh squeezed juice.  All for a mere $2.50!

El Ejectuvo!

More sightseeing followed lunch.  We wandered back down the boarwalk and then headed up el 10 de octubre (The name of a major street).  We really wanted to see the iguanas that congregate in a park on that street.  And see them we did!

We continued on to see the majestic sights as well.  And some cool vegetation and a crazy lady in a ball on the water.

 We decided to see "Wolverine Inmortal" at the Malecon Imax.  Mostly this was motivated by the need to enjoy the reprieve of  a highly air-conditioned environment for 2 hours!  The movie was in Spanish, but we thought... "It's an action movie, we'll be able to keep up..."  ha ha!  There's a lot more dialogue and plot subtleties than we could have guessed.  It was still fun.  And blessedly cool!

After the show was done, we decided to walk back and get something to eat (I was hitting my tired wall, and we didn't find anything quickly but we survived).  We decided on Menestras del Negro.  Sort of Ecuadorian "fast food".  Rice & lentils (loads of them), fried ripe plantains (maduros), quarter chicken and a drink for $4.25. 

We took a cab back to our hotel and crashed hard!  Day  2 done!

Trip to Ecuador - Day 1 - Travel Day

I'm going to post about our trip to Ecuador, one day at a time.

August 6, 2013 - Travel Day

Tuesday saw us up catching a taxi at 4 am from our friends Kevin & Cheryl's home in Ottawa.  We headed to the airport in a taxi so fast it almost flew!  We had to fill out US customs forms stating that we were in transit through the US, cleared security, and then went to our gate to wait for our first flight to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC (which is technically in Northern VA).  We boarded, took off, landed all in under 2 hours.  We had about 3 hours to kill before our connection to Panama City.  We had breakfast and wandered around our section of the airport (this airport is massive... more on that on the last travel day).  I had really hoped that there would be a Chick-Fil-A, but that didn't happen...

We returned to our gate to charge our electronics (didn't do that ten years ago).  About an hour before our flight was scheduled to board we heard in the middle of a Spanish announcement our last name being called.  The announcement was repeated in English and yes, indeed, we were being asked to report to the desk.

The COPA airline agent informed us that there was a problem.  Ecuador requires 6 months on a passport before expiry to visit their country.  Our passports were expiring in 5 months.  YIKES!   I prayed my little heart out.  I know also that many prayers were said by as many folks as saw the post on FB.  The agent was on the phone for a good 40 minutes trying to get us special permission, which did finally happen a few minutes before the boarding call.  He reprinted/stamped our boarding passes with the words "DOCS OK" and we got onto our next flight.  Praise the Lord!

We arrived in Panama.  Here are my two photos from August 6, both at the Panama Airport:

The most surreal part of the Panama airport was this upstairs food court where every company was North American-based and every single sign & menu were in English.  It was just strange.  Obviously, it's a hub and a major jumping off point for flights to North & South America and there will be lots of tourists, but WOW!

Our flight to Guayaquil was delayed because the plane was late arriving at the gate, then it was delayed further by the fact that somehow an extra passenger was on the flight and they had to sort that out.

Flight was good, COPA is a nice airline that feeds you ;-)  We were fed on the flight to Panama and again on the flight to Guayaquil.  We got to customs with our little form filled out, praying that our 400 toothbrushes, multitude of toothpastes, candies and other treats would make it through the baggage check without any problems.  At the first desk the passport expiry issue came up.  Or at least we assume that's what made the lady leave and come back several times with other lady customs agents.  We had three ladies taking care of us at one point.  Two left and a third stayed and chatted with us.  We told her a little of what we were going to do, visiting a church and a school and she asked us what religion we were.  We shared that we were evangelical Christians and she declared that she was too.  Then she said lots of stuff in really fast Spanish, that we didn't catch, but there was lots of smiling and nodding.  The other two came back and we were sent on our way to the next security check point.  This is where the bags came into play.  Essentially we had one bag for ourselves and two bags full of toothbrushes, toothpaste and other gifts for our sponsor kids in in Ecuador,  including two queen-sized quilts.  One of our "gift" bags got pulled out for inspection.  The inspector lady asked us how many toothbrushes we had.  "400", we said. "Huh?" (Maybe it was "mande" or "que", but the intonation was there).  "We're visiting a school and a church in poor areas and these are gifts for the children".  At which point she takes a bag of lollipops and one toothbrush over to another inspector and they chat and giggle a little, but then she comes back and sends us on our way.  Thank you, Lord!

So we arrived in Guayaquil a bit later than our original 5:30pm and got to see that it's dark there by 6:30pm every day of the year.  (Right by the equator, you know ;-)

We found a taxi and made the tourist mistake of not settling on a price before getting in. The hotel was only supposed to be a 5-10 minute ride from the airport, but he seemed to take us a long way & we later learned that we got overcharged by the cabbie, big time. Live and learn.  Our memories were also jolted back 10 years, when we remembered how crazy driving is in Guayaquil, the taxi drivers in particular being the craziest.  Ecuadorians communicate with car horns.  Beeps for "Coming through", "let me merge", "pedestrian get out of the way", "Hey, buddy, I'm your second cousin!",  or, if you're really ticked off at the other driver, you lean on the horn continually and tell them they are nothing but an animal when they cut you off or try to turn left illegally and block the lane that you are trying to drive in.   We were also impressed that to get us to our hotel, which was at the end of a one way street, he backed down it so that he wasn't technically breaking the law.

We were relieved and thankful to check in to our hotel after a long day.

Compassion Bloggers in Peru!

If you've never followed a Compassion Bloggers' trip, I highly recommend that you do.  This is a way to see Compassion's ministry on the ground, follow bloggers to Compassion projects, see the children in their homes, hear their stories.

This trip features bloggers Angie Smith, Jennifer Schmidt, and married couple Layla & Kevin Palmer.  From a quick glance their blogs are very different, so it will be interesting to read their reactions to everything they see in Peru.  Shaun Groves is leading the trip, his thirteenth to the developing world with Compassion.

If past trips are any indication, you'll want to have a box of tissues while you read.

Praying for the team as they are in Peru now!  Hope to read their first post later tonight.

Dear Sponsor

As part of Blog Month, we've been asked to write from the perspective of a sponsored child.  I got this assignment on Monday and I've been mulling it over all week.  This is definitely the hardest assignment yet.

As of last Friday, 2006 children have been sponsored, that means there are still 1102 children left to go by Sunday night.  Please, please, please, if you have been thinking about sponsoring a child for some time, please do it now.  You can make a huge difference in the life of a child living in poverty.  With Compassion, you can release them from poverty in Jesus' name.  Please click here to view children in need of a sponsor.  Older children need sponsors too!  If you're not sure that you can commit to sponsoring for many years, choose an older child, as their time left in the program is much shorter, and you can make a huge difference during their last years at the Compassion project.

The following letter is fictional, but based in reality.  The children named and linked in the letter are not related to my knowledge, but they have both been waiting a long time to be sponsored.

Dear Sponsor,

I want to greet you in the name of Jesus Christ and thank you for being my sponsor.  My name is Erika  and I am 10 and the oldest child in my family.  I have 3 younger brothers.  My mother works at the market and my father works as a farmer, but often there is no work.  I pray that you will write often.  I have had 3 other sponsors and none of them ever wrote to me.  It made me very sad when the letters arrived month after month and lots of kids got letters, but I never did.  My little brother Andres  just got sponsored for the first time and he wanted to know when his sponsor will write to him.  I told him that hopefully it will be soon.  

I am responsible for some chores at my home, like getting our drinking water, doing laundry and cleaning the house.  I love going to the Compassion project because there we get to learn about Jesus, the tutors help us with our school work and we get to have a snack.  It takes me 20 minutes to walk to the Compassion project in the afternoon and usually it is hot and dry but it is so good to be there.  My tutor's name is Elena and she helps me with my mathematics homework.  I don't like mathematics, it is very hard, but Elena helps me every time at the project, so that is good.  Please pray for me that I will do well at school.

What is it like where you live?  We live in a city and it is always noisy and smelly.  There are many people and animals everywhere.  People keep chickens in their yards and that is good except when there is a rooster... then it is loud every morning and night.  My favorite food is chicken and rice.  What is your favorite food?

Please tell me about your family and please be my sponsor always.  I will pray for you everyday.

Strong hugs,

Erika

Life in Rural Nicaragua Video

Because we sponsor Katherine in Rural Nicaragua, Compassion sent me a link to the following video.  I want to share it with you!

Bring Christmas Joy to Unsponsored Compassion Children

Yes, you may think it's a little early to be posting about Christmas joy, but in the time frame it takes to get letters & cards to children in the developing world, it's not too early.  Candy Entingh of Compassion International shared the following message with the Advocates in the North East Region;

"Sponsors may again write Christmas cards for unsponsored children this year. Unsponsored children will receive a Christmas gift (via the Christmas Gift Fund), and Christmas cards are a great way to send a personal blessing to children without sponsors. Christmas cards will be mailed to the field by the Sponsor Correspondence team.:

Cards should be received by Compassion by November 5, 2012 to be mailed to the field before Christmas. Cards received after November 5 may be held until next year.

An individual sponsor may send up to 25 cards without attachments (i.e. photos, stickers, etc.)."

Cards should be mailed to:
Compassion International
Attn: Suzanne Hall. 
12290 Voyager Parkway, 
Colorado Springs, CO 80921-3668

Michelle at Blogging From the Boonies also has a post about these cards with some additional guidelines that she's used in the past.  Please check it out!

Compassion Pinterest Contest

So the newest twist to Compassion's September Blog month is a Pinterest Contest.

So head on over to Pinterest and look up boards called My Sponsored Child.  If you repin the "Pin it for my Sponsored Child" 15 bloggers will win prizes that are gifts for their Sponsor Children and their families.

Thanks for your support!