Guayaquil, Ecuador population 3.5 million

Guayaquil, established by the Spanish in 1538, is the largest city in Ecuador and also its financial center.  The cities name come from the name of the indigenous "Guayas" who dominated the region at the time of the Spanish arrival.  The wealth of the city is attributed to the fact that the Guayas river passes through the city on its way to the Gulf of Guayaquil and eventually the Pacific Ocean, and is now the largest port in the country.  Many of the natural resources (bananas, oil, shrimp, gold)  exported by Ecuador and foreign goods imported to the country pass through the port at Guayquil.  Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world (list of top banana growing and exporting nations: http://suite101.com/article/top-ten-banana-countries-a8403).  The United States receives about 45% of all of Ecuador's exports.

The relationship between the U.S. and Ecuador have weakened some under the current administration under the leadership of the left-leaning president Rafael Correa, who has criticized U.S. oil companies operating in Ecuador, the U.S. military base on the coast of Ecuador, the U.S. attempts to prevent Ecuador from offering asylum to WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange, the U.S. war on drugs, and the U.S. banks that help fund the Ecuadorian media. (http://rt.com/usa/news/correa-assange-us-latin-318/).  “I love and admire the American people a great deal. Believe me, the last thing I’d be is anti-American. However, i will always call a spade a spade,” Correa told Assange during a recent episode of the his television program on RT. “And if there are international US policies that are detrimental to our country, or even to that of Latin America, I will denounce them strongly. And I will never, ever allow my country’s sovereignty to be affected by them.”
Asylum is defined as:
a refuge granted an alien by a sovereign state on its own territory; a temporary refuge granted political offenders, especially in a foreign embassy



Guayaquil, like most large cities in Latin America, has a large disparity between the rich and poor and a notorious history of violence and robberies.  The Ecuadorian government has invested large amounts of money in developing and securing the Malecon (meaning 'pier') area, the city's historic waterfront with a heavy police presence.  Many foreign travelers only pass through Guayaquil on their way to or from coastal beach towns, and few stay more than one night.  I of course heard many stories about "the friend of a friend" who was robbed in Guayquil, and to avoid the city at all costs.  Out of curiosity, I opted to stay for 4 days and see for myself what the city had to offer (and carry very little cash around with me just in case).

What I found was a city not really accostomed to foreigners, but a beautiful city that is enjoyed by its residents and visiting Ecuadorians.  Guayaquil is viewed, especially by Ecuadorians from Quito, as lacking history and culture, but from what I found, most of this can be attributed mostly the "Great Fire" of 1896 that destroyed most of the city's colonial architecture.  Guayaquil was a very important city for the colonizing Spanish for exporting goods and shipbuilding.  It was also often targeted by pirates who plagued the Pacific coast during the development of Ecuador.  The Las Penas neighborhood and Santa Ana Hill that overlook the city and the Guayas River are still covered in stone forts and cannons used by the Spanish to protect themselves from pirate attacks.  Guayaquil is also historically famous for being the meeting place of the two leaders of the South American Revolution movements, Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, who met and held a conference to both celebrate and set the guidelines for the newly independent nations of South America.  A famous statue in the Malecon marks this famous event in South American history.  Guayaquil, not coincidentally, was also the starting point of the famous conquistador Francisco Pizarro for his conquest of Peru and the Incan civilization.  A proper setting for reclaiming the colonial lands, but ironically all of those who reclaimed these lands came from Spanish or mixed heritage.  The indigenous peoples, similar to the history of North America, had very little reclamation.

The city has a very significant history and I learned alot about the area and how it differed greatly from the interior or Andean history of Ecudaor that I was most familiar with.  I only spent 4 days, but I did pack in as many activities as possible.  Including watching the local professional football team, Barcelona, play a game at what I thought was a restaurant/sports bar across the street from my hotel, but may very well have been a brothel.  I left as soon as the game ended to avoid the change in atmosphere from "gametime" to "gaaaametime", but the locals definitely got a kick having a random gringo to watch the game with.  Gringo is a much debated term, but today is very common in Latin America and has lost some of the deragotary connotation it once had.  I mistakingly (like many others) thought it orginated in Latin American countries wanting the U.S. military out of occupied areas, and would infamously say "Green go home" in reference their green uniforms. Apparently this explanation is somewhat of a an urban myth.

Gringo is defined as:

Word History: In Latin America the word gringo is an offensive term for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person. But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being. In fact, gringo may be an alteration of the wordgriego, the Spanish development of Latin Graecus, "Greek." Griego first meant "Greek, Grecian," as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language," as a noun. The saying "It's Greek to me" exists in Spanish, as it does in English, and helps us understand whygriego came to mean "unintelligible language" and perhaps, by further extension of this idea, "stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language." The altered form gringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language," "foreigner, especially an English person," and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher." Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called 'Gringoes.'"

Monument and painting marking the famous meeting of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Path along the Malecon (pier) in Guayaquil.  The city you can see to the left, the Guayas River is to the right. Malecon along the river and some familiar scenes.  Next to the guy who may or may not have been doing some afternoon drinking is a recycling bin.  The poster in the far background is for Batman 3 playing at the nearby IMax Theater.  The next picture is a poster of "Papa Noel" the name for Santa Claus in Latin America.  Still wearing winter clothes despite the fact we're near the equator and these children have never experienced cold weather. Stairs up to the Penas area of Guayaquil View from atop the Penas barrio (neighborhood) overlooking the city.  The waterfront district or Malecon runs along the bank of the river.  The financial district can be seen in the background. The same viewpoint (Penas) looking west from the river.  The hillside neighborhood of Santa Ana to the right is becoming safer with much effort, but still ill-advised to visit at nighttime.    Remains of the Spanish fort now the Penas neighborhood overlooking the city of Guayaquil.  The Spanish used the high ground to protect the city from pirate raids which were common along the Pacific coast in the early years of the city's development. A painting showing the indigenous Guayas of the area and their fishing hooks.  Next a Spanish colonial statue depicting a Catholic saint, next to a religious statue of the Guayas people. A model depicting the "Great Fire" of 1896 that destroyed much of the city and robbing it of the colonial architectural beauty seen in other Ecuadorian cities such as Quito and nearby Cuenca. Plaza de las Iguanas in front of the Guayaquil Metropolitan Cathedral or Cathedral of Saint Peter.