Today was our first FULL day in Ecuador (yay!), and it was definitely a busy one.  Some people started off by doing morning yoga with Kelley out on the terrace. Some other people (like me) chose to sleep in a bit more before starting with the day. Most of us went for breakfast at the café just around the corner. Following breakfast, we were told to meet our trusty bus driver (Julio) & trusty tour guide (Cynthia), to show us a bit of Guayaquil and some of its history.

Our first stop on the grand Cynthia/Julio tour was the iguana park. The park is home to many Iguanas within the middle of the city. For the most part, we just took pictures of them lounging around while they enjoyed the heat from the sun. There were a couple of people who were able to get close enough, and were brave enough to pet them. One of the things we were told right away as we were going into the park was to not stand underneath the trees the Iguanas were in as they “do their business”  whenever/wherever they please. Unfortunately, yet hilariously, Jaime was held victim to one of the iguanas!!!! (Haha) Even though it was only a little bit on the big toe, I’m sure nobody really wants Iguana droppings anywhere on them.

Our next stop was right across the street from the iguana park, and is one of the main churches in Guayaquil, Cathedral Catolica. As majority of the population is Roman Catholic, it made sense for us to see many people in the church, worshipping on a Tuesday morning (something that would probably be more uncommon back home). The church itself was a beautiful building, and just as beautiful on the inside with high ceilings, statues and plenty of stained glass windows.

After we finished in the church, we were taken to the last end of Malecón 2000, a stretch of boardwalk overlooking the Rio Guayas River. About 10 years ago the area was in pretty rough shape, and was considered dangerous for the general public. It is now considered a “model of urban regeneration,” and is breathtaking against the water – and is also great for some photo ops! We were dropped off at a monument of Simon Bolivar and San Martin, liberators for Ecuador who fought for independence. The whole area itself was amazing to see as it was so contrasting to the inner city area, yet so close to the area. I think that this kind of showed the beauty within the city, sort of a diamond in the rough situation.

At the end of Malecón 2000, we reached an area called Las Peñas. It is a historic neighborhood, with brightly colored houses upon a hillside (although after the trek we did, it feels like a mountain). However, upon closer inspection they were still fully rundown, and were very similar to the other houses we’ve seen. The next part of our journey was tiring to say the least. We hiked our way up 444 stairs (no, I did not count them, they are numbered), but yes, that is correct 444. Eek. Although, I have to say the walk was definitely worth it. At the top of the stairs there was a lighthouse that we were able to go into and climb up. The view from both the top of the stairs, and the lighthouse was pretty sensational. One of the interesting things that you could see from the top of the lighthouse was the bridge across the river separating the richer community known as the “bubble,” from the poorer communities. Being able to see the separation from the higher altitude though was nothing compared to seeing the richer communities up close (which I will get into in just a little bit ). Something else that impacted the group was a couple of the animals that we saw on our way down the stairs. There were a couple kittens, completely adorable (one of which I named Alberto and am determined in returning with me to Edmonton), but the mother cat nearby was distinguishably malnourished. We also saw a malnourished dog as well, which is something not many of us see in Edmonton and was pretty heartbreaking.

When we made our way down the mountain of stairs, we got in the bus to only be greeted by alas, another flight of stairs. -.- It was in the area of Cerro Santa Ana, which is similar to the last area we were just in. Our second flight of stairs was about 150 steps and lead to a HUGE statue of Jesus. It was a symbol that I think really reflected the importance of religion within the Ecuadorian culture. After our extreme stair climbing we made our way to a well-deserved seafood restaurant for lunch. Although I already knew I had an extreme Spanish speech deficiency, it became apparent to the rest of the group that I really REALLY can not read, pronounce, or annunciate Spanish. I butchered my lunch order, and every other Spanish word/phrase I attempted after that. Sadly, it’s actually quite amusing.  Sitting down as the large group we were, it was different to see how long it actually took for our food to get out. Yesterday, when we went to that “fast food” restaurant it was actually quite fast in comparison to the two hour meal we had.

The last thing we did today was tour our partnering university “Universidad Espiritu Santo” or UEES for short. UEES itself was a beautiful campus, with high quality facilities, and many different programs. The main part we toured was the school for international students, were these students can come and learn various disciplines in the one school with the option of taking their classes in English. The university was located within the bubble, where the disparity between the poorer areas, and the richer areas was so distinct and so clear. To me, it didn’t even look like we were in the same city. The houses in the bubbles were located in gated communities, some of which even had their own security guards. The houses were huge and grand, and you could tell so clearly from the street that it was a richer area. The fact that there is such a distinct difference between these areas with essentially, only a short bridge separating them is a hard thing to come to terms with. I found the differences in the standard of living between both areas comparable to the inner city area of Edmonton, and the rest of Jasper Ave & downtown. We went on a social issues walk hosted by the Mustard Seed before we came on this trip and the same thing is happening in our own backyard. It’s so easy to go downtown to work or to school and to forget, or not care about what’s going on just around the corner. I think most of the students were impacted by what we saw in here in Ecuador and how it compares to back home, and what we can do to even help make an ounce of change.

After visiting UEES we went back to the hostel to relax, cool off, get some dinner and basically just take a break from all the walking and touring we had done. Today was a great introduction to what Ecuador has to offer, and is still just a small scale of what we are going to see and experience. Cynthia said that the differences we saw today between the communities, is only the beginning of what we have yet to see. So that’s all I have for today folks! I bet your just as excited as I am to see what the next day brings!!

Hey everybody, Erica here! Or should I say Hola mis amigos!  I am very excited to say that our PERL 300 class successfully made it to Guayaquil, Ecuador. We met at the Edmonton International Airport at about 10pm on May 12^th, to meet up and get prepared for our red eye flight at 11:55pm. There isn’t really too much to say about our first flight, as it was overnight and most of us were sleeping. When we landed in Houston we had about a four hour layover before we had to board our next flight to Panama. Most people either napped or got some food to tide them over.

For me it didn’t really begin to feel like we were on our way to Ecuador until we were on our flight from Panama to Guayaquil. It was then that I began to notice that we, as a group of primarily “white North Americans,” were now the minority group on the plane. As well, Spanish was the primary language used by the flight attendants, followed by English. Even the food served for our last flight was different (and in Spanish packaging). I found it interesting that there was such a distinct culture change in just one flight.

I knew going into this trip that the language barrier would be a large challenge that most of us would have to face on this trip, but I didn’t expect it to hit me quite so quickly. Going through customs was pretty challenging and a little bit frustrating as the customs officer I had didn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak any Spanish (and I mean I REALLY don’t speak any Spanish). After everyone got through, and got their luggage, we were picked up by Julio, our bus driver and taken to the hostel.

By the time we freshened up (yay for getting out of travelling clothes!), and were prepared to head out for dinner it was already after 7:30pm, so we went to the grocery store first to get some essentials, including water! On our way to the grocery store, a really exciting moment happened when the group noticed some people signing. For those of you who don’t know, Amorena, a girl on our trip, is Deaf, so accidently running into these people on the street was very exciting. It was really great to watch her interact with the other group. Although they were signing, it appeared as though there was still a bit of a language barrier, just in a different way. I think that this shows that even within a specific community, such as the Deaf community, there are still going to be cultural differences over the world.

After we finished our grocery shopping, we went to a “fast food” restaurant, Menestro del Negro. I put fast food in air quotes because it was quite different than fast food we have at home. (Although we did see some of those)! The restaurant offered various large plates of food, most of which included rice and beans and some sort of meat. I was able to get a huge plate of good cooked food for under $5, as opposed to the greasy overpriced airport fast foods I had been eating all day. It’s definitely challenging interacting with businesses, as I found the difference in language to be a struggle for me at both the grocery store and the restaurant. When we returned back to the hostel, we all kind of did our own things, and slowly made our way to bed. I’m looking forward to see what the rest of the trip has to offer, and the people I’ll meet, as today seemed like just a tease of what the rest of the trip has to bring!