Day 7 - By Dillon W and Fabiola

This morning, we woke up really early (at around 6) so that we could have enough time to take a quick walking tour of Guayaquil before going to the airport. Breakfast was at 6:15 and we had scrambled eggs, yogurt with granola, biscuits, ham, and a special Ecuadorian treat: tortilla de platino. After breakfast, we got our luggage ready to pack on the bus and in the meantime played a bit with the hotel cat.

The bus dropped us off near the Guayas River and we began walking to take a quick tour of the city. The color of the river was influenced by sediments coming from the Andes Mountains. Behind us, we were able to see an area of colorful houses which is where the working class lives.  This also happened to be the area where the Spaniards founded Guayaquil in 1532. Afterwards, we saw the location of one of the first houses built in the area; it is now a hotel. The contrast between the new modern hotel and the poverty stricken area side by side was a shocking view. We then went on to visit a small neighborhood home to many artists whose infrastructure is also protected by the Ministry of Culture. Here, we saw the house where the Ecuadorian national anthem was written. We continued onto the area where the Spaniards used cannons to defend against pirates that had invaded Guayaquil in the past. The canons are still there!

We continued walking around the bay area and eventually ended up taking a fantastic picture in front of the spirit of Guayaquil embodied by giant letters. We also saw the sculpture of La Rotonda representing the two main liberators of South America; these two men discussed the fate of the ex-Spanish colonies of South America and they met in Guayaquil.  In 1896 the houses where these two men resided disappeared because a huge fire that destroyed 75% of the city. The conflagration easily spread because the houses were connected and made of wood. Their statue also happened to be the perfect resting spot for a cute bird.

 We visited Las Penas (which means huge stone), and in that area there was a huge stairway with 444 steps, which also represents the number of articles in the Ecuadorian Constitution. Afterwards, we visited a park with many tortoises, where Ms. Maggio became friends with the oldest tortoise in the park. He/she was 123 years old! We were then surprised to find out that this tortoise actually despised people and would try to bite not only people, but other tortoises as well. 

We proceeded to the airport, and boarded our flight to the Galapagos Islands at 11:15. Some of us were lucky enough to get some first class seats! (But then they were stolen from us by the chaperones.) We learned that the Galapagos comes from the Spanish word for saddle.

Right after our flight we boarded a bus to a ferry and then again another bus that took us to a restaurant where we had lunch. There we had an appetizer of bread filled with onions and other vegetables and topped with pesto. It was delicious. Then we had a plate of chicken, carrots and green beans and a cooked potato. For dessert we had chocolate cake with bananas and a strawberry on top. 

After we finished up our lunch we explored around the restaurant into a field where we saw two pairs of tortoises mating (we were certainly very lucky as it is not mating season.)

Afterwards we headed over to the Charles Darwin Institute, a reservation for some native animals including different species of tortoises and lizards. We learned about Lonesome George (who used to live in the park before he died,) a male tortoise that was the last of his species. He was coaxed into mating with female tortoises of a different species, but their eggs were too weak, and George had no offspring. When he died, his species died with him  L. Luckily, scientists found some tortoises on a different island in the Galapagos that have very similar DNA to George; so they are trying to coax them to mate in other to recreate the population of Pinta tortoises.

Finally after a long day in the new humid environment we walked to Hotel Palmeras and were glad to get some air conditioning.

For dinner, we had a choice between peas and carrots, or lettuce and onions, chicken or salmon, and rice, and brownies. Afterwards, Ms. Maggio gave us the itinerary for tomorrow and we just chilled until bedtime.