On Wednesday, July 7th, I flew from Nashville to Guayaquil, Ecuador. I had a layover in Miami. Monica met me there and came with me to Ecuador. When we arrived, my grandma and aunt (mom’s side) picked us up at the airport and they had yogurt and pan de yuca for us at home. We stayed with my grandma and grandpa, Karen and Shayler, my aunt Julie, and my cousins, Sammy and Becky.

The following evening, I met some of my aunts and cousins (dad’s side) for dinner. Monica is working while she’s here and had clients that evening, so she wasn’t able to go with me. This ended up being the only time I was able to see my dad’s side of the family on this trip and it was great to catch up with everyone.

On Friday, I took Monica downtown. We walked along the Malecón, a boardwalk along the Guayas River. There is an area with statues of important figures in Ecuadorian history. One of them is my great great grandfather, Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, who was president of Ecuador. We left the Malecón for a bit to go to the Parque Seminario, also known as the iguana park, so Monica could see iguanas. They are the squirrels of Guayaquil. The cathedral is across the street from the park, so we stopped by to see it.

We went back to the Malecón and walked to the other end of it, where the Cerro Santa Ana is. We walked up the 440 steps and then to the top of the lighthouse at the top of the hill. When we got back down, we had lunch at Puerto Santa Ana, which is also along the river.

Friday was proof that my road trip has been good for me. Last time I was in Ecuador, I was terrified of driving. The country isn’t very safe and it’s possible, though unlikely, for someone to point a gun at you at a red light and ask for all your valuables. Ecuadorian drivers are also terrible. If you follow the rules of the road, you will likely get hit. You need to be both a defensive and aggressive driver if you want to get anywhere. Everyone honks at you for any little thing. Last time I was here, I was stressed and praying the entire time I was driving, and anytime someone honked at me, I would overthink it and think I was a terrible driver, when really, everyone is a terrible driver.

This time, I’ve been very relaxed when driving. I’m still aware of my surroundings and careful, but I haven’t been stressed, haven’t had to pray while I drive, I’ve actually enjoyed the aggressive driving, and I don’t care if anyone honks at me. I actually anticipate people will honk at me when I cut them off to merge into their lane. I just apologize to them in my head and move on with my life. I’m going to have to remember to go back to proper driving when I get back to the US.

Saturday was a packed day. Monica and I had lunch with Joti, Gigi, and Laurita, some of my closest friends from high school. Gigi’s eyes had been red for a few days, which is why she’s wearing sunglasses in the picture below. I had been craving moros, rice with lentils, for a long time and I was finally able to satisfy the craving.

After lunch, we met the Camachos at the Parque Histórico. We grew up with the Camachos and often went on road trips together. We met up with Fátima and Alex and their son, Alex, who we call Lito to avoid confusing him with his dad. Maria Daniela, who I stayed with in Lansing a few months ago, is also their daughter. They have 2 other kids, but Ana Cristina lives in Canada, and Rafi decided to hang out with his friends instead of us. His loss.

The Parque Histórico is a combination of a zoo and a historical park. Since it’s by the Guayas River, they also have boat tours. The zoo part of the park is covered in mangroves. The historical part of the park has some old houses that they moved to the park from downtown. One of them belonged to my great grandfather, Julián Coronel. In the past, you could go into the house and upstairs, but now they’ve converted it into an event space and don’t let you in. I tried telling them that they should let me in because my great grandfather owned it and therefore, the house is basically mine, but they didn’t budge. In the evening, we went on a boat ride on the Guayas River and got to see the Malecón and Cerro Santa Ana from the water. After visiting the park, we went to the Country Club for dessert.

I have to mention that I did all the driving on Saturday in a manual car. In Ecuador, everyone has to do their driving test for their license in a manual car, so I learned how to drive in one. But I’ve been spoiled all these years living in the US and only driving automatic cars, so I wasn’t sure how I’d do in a manual one. I drove around the block with my grandma to test it out and I was actually impressed with my driving. The car did turn off a couple of times on that first drive when I forgot I had a clutch to deal with, but the whole drive on Saturday was good. My friends and the Camachos live on the other side of the city from where my grandma lives, so it was a good amount of driving. Remember everything I said above about how awful Ecuadorian drivers are and add a manual car to that. I was very proud of myself.

On Sunday, the plan was to have fajitas and margaritas for lunch at my grandparents’ house and then see my cousins on my dad’s side in the evening. But Monica and I both woke up with upset stomachs. The night before, we ate leftovers from lunch on Friday, so we think that might have been the culprit. There was a stomach bug going around the following week, so it could have also been that. It was strange that only the 2 of us got it in the house. I guess our stomachs are used to American bacteria, not Ecuadorian bacteria. We were basically in bed all day and weren’t able to eat fajitas or see my cousins.

On Monday, we were feeling a little better but we still only ate bland food for the next few days. That was devastating, given all the good Ecuadorian food I had been looking forward to. They froze some fajita chicken for us, so we were able to eat some once we were back to eating normal food.

On Tuesday, we went to the beach, but you’ll have to wait for the next blog post to hear about that.