$3.05

September 18, 2008

This morning, after I found ants in my cereal (which was strange since we keep our cereal in the fridge) we called Ana Miria and asked her if she knew what bus to take to get to Malecon. She said a bus would be dangerous and we should take a taxi. So we did.

So about 10 years ago Guayaquil was a very dangerous, dirty place to visit. But then they had a big clean up project. Now, there is a very strong police presence in the city and Las Piñas, which used to be a big ghetto, is now the biggest tourist attraction of the city. They painted all of the houses different colors, put in stairs, gardens, restaurants, and monuments, with guards on every corner making sure it's safe, and now it's a beautiful place to visit, and you don't feel like someone is going to steal your camera every time you take it out. Although it's nice, I'm pretty sure it's all a facade. I believe there still exists just as much poverty as before, it's just hidden behind painted walls. Admittingly this project probably helped them, as they now have tourists to cater to as they sell their various crafts, foods, and beverages, but they're still living in tiny shacks stacked on top of one another.
So Becky and I were so happy to finally be able to take pictures of Ecuador in peace, and stopped numerous times as we climbed the 400 steps to the top of the hill. It overlooked another hill, one which had not been overhauled to become a tourist district. This hill, the hill of Santa Ana, is what I always imagine communities in South America to look like. Old shacks stacked on top of each other with narrow winding streets, laundry hung out to dry everywhere, and just shouting "poverty" from the roof tops. It was incredible to see. Not incredible in a good way, just in a shocking, "holy cow" kind of incredible. Even so, Becky and I were talking later and decided this probably was the least of it. They had land and walls. I bet they are a lot better off than the squatter communities that we are going to see on the south side of the community.
After sitting in the little catholic church at the top, taking a picture with the lighthouse and cannons, (they used to use the cannons to fight off pirates back in the day), we descended and bought a bottle of water for 30 cents and then stopped and bought some jewelry. We then left the Piñas and walked into the Malecon which is a fenced off landscaped walkway. I really like when we are in fenced in areas, I feel much safer and the atmosphere is much calmer. There were still guards every 50 feet, guarding the area, and that helped too. Being on the equator, the tropical gardens were fantastic. I've seen so many cool plants. We came to a part that reminded me of the river walk back home and then saw "cafe aroma" and looked at the menu. It said $2.50 for lunch which included soup, main course, juice, and dessert. We thought for sure $2.50 couldn't be right, but upon inquiring, it in fact was. So we sat down for lunch, in the shade along the water with a beautiful view of the gardens along the walkway. They brought us soup first, it consisted of squid, octopus, fish, and potato chunks with some delicious seasonings, including cilantro. I was intrigued. It was delicious. I loved it. The octopus in that soup was so much better than the octopus I ate in Seville, Spain. I ate every drop of my soup. They brought out our juice, they had told us it would be jugo de sandias (watermelon juice). We were skeptical, I don't like watermelon flavored anything. But I do love watermelon. So, they brought it out, and it might have been the best juice I've ever drank. It wasn't in fact watermelon flavoring, but the real deal. As if they stuck a watermelon in the blender. And it was slightly frozen. Oh man it was great. The main course consisted of a big scoop of rice, lentils, fried fish, and fried banana slices. This main course held up to par with the rest. The fish had some great seasoning on it. For dessert we had some sort strawberry sherbet/ice cream with strawberry syrup. With a tiny little spoon that looked kind of like a shovel. They billed us, with the tip included and it came to $6.10 for the both of us. $3.05 for a delicious, unique full course lunch, with a beautiful view of the gardens. Amazing.
We continued on our way and ducked into the bathroom to be surprised by a guard who was checking each stall door. We also discovered that you have to buy toilet paper for 5 cents. We only had dimes so we stuck with just rinsing our hands off in the sink which is the main reason we went in anyway.
We continued on our way walking and encountered the gardens that looked like the Amazon jungle and ran into our friend Gabriel. He let me use his hymnbook on Sunday in Gospel Doctrine, and was on his break from work. We talked with him for a long time, I keep being surprised by how Latin people love to talk. He told us some good places to visit in the area, and which bus we could take to get home (we can't afford to pay $3 for a taxi every time we want to go somewhere in the city, so dangerous or not we are taking the bus). He works in a building right next to the iguana park, so we walked with him back to work to visit the park.
The Iguana park is so awesome. Apparently iguanas are know as the mascota of Guayaquil (mascota means "pet"). Gabriel also told us that the area we live in was only built about 20 years ago and before that, it was a forest and there were lots and lots of iguanas in it. Well anyway, they don't call it the iguana park for nothing. It was so awesome. The iguanas were huge, and everywhere. We counted 20 iguanas in one little tree. And they were crawling in the walkways, on the benches, you could feed them leaves, it was so fun. I was like a little kid at the petting zoo. There was one particularly friendly one that crawled into my lap and up the front of me when I sat next to it. This attracted the attention of about 20 people and before I knew it people were gathered around taking pictures of me with this iguana in my lap. I was laughing and didn't quite know how to get it off of me before it crawled onto my head and then a guy came to my rescue by luring it off of my lap with food. That iguana was about 4 feet long, it wasn't a little thing. I have got to return to that park.
We took the bus home. We stood for a long time wondering which crazy bus to take and observed the street vendors, and the stores full of junk that make you sick to look at because why on earth would you spend your money on that crap and how on earth do they make a living doing it, and breathed in the ever polluted air and plugged our ears occasionally when traffic would back up in all directions and a honking fest would begin. We first got on the wrong bus and ended up wasting 25 cents as we got off at the next block. The next one was the correct one and we were surprised when we saw both the University of Guayaquil and a hospital that looked like the most run down buildings you could imagine in the U.S. Well, maybe not that extreme. But still. As we rode the crazy bus I started laughing and told Becky that if we want to go to Quito we'll have the wonderful opportunity of sitting on a bus like that for 8 hours.
We made it home and breathed a sigh of relief when we got off and were on our familiar street. We walked home, thankful to live where we do. A little bit off of the main road with less pollution and much much less noise. Our quiet street void of beggars and dirty stores and honking cars with lots of locks and gates seemed quite a bit better after seeing what it would be like to live anywhere else in the city.
It's kind of weird, I have to distance myself from all that I see out there. All the poverty and unhappy people, it makes me so sad to think of these people born into this community and living and dying in it. All their life sitting in a hot store selling junk, or pushing a cart full of soda to sell on the humid, crowded, polluted, and dirty streets of Guayaquil. Or the poor children in the park selling their gum or mints. Or the indigenous Quechua speaking women with their children, all looking dirty and worn out from life. I can't dwell on it because I've grown up with this idea of charity and been taught my whole life to have charity towards others. I feel like I should do something, but I can't help the masses. And since I can't help them I can't let them get to me. I just have to put up a shield. And then I feel like a heartless person. But I would go crazy if I thought too much about what life is like for each one of those people I saw today. It's too dark.
I thought about this city a lot today as I walked through the beautiful gated tourist district. I turned to Becky and asked, "Can you imagine if all of Guayaquil were like this?" I mean they live on the equator for goodness sake, they can grow beautiful things. They could make their city beautiful. All they need is reconstructed buildings with solid foundations and roofs and walls, a better trash system, purified water to drink, a better traffic system, job discrimination laws, job opportunities period, a non-dictator president with a less corrupted government who doesn't bribe and pocket money, available public education, and morals. Although I believe morals are largely a result of good work and education. Yep, that's all. Just a complete over haul of the city. But they did a rather good job of the tourist district, one step at a time I guess.