montañita beach

journey from guayaquil to the beach - first time seeing ecuadorian sea :-)

eating in such a good restaurant - it was dark, but estrellas pasta was so good, she really wanted to see it. so she checked it out with my flashlight :-)

our favourite wall painting. so strange, a boy tickling a fish??

having fun in the waves - with my new turtle-print-bikini from montañita and my panama hat from cuenca :-)

such a nice beach to jump!!

our new friend, the costal boy from california, showing us some really disgusting animal. it lookes actually dead, but it was "breathing"

te terrace of our hotel - so good to have a rest in the hammocks!

hotelpool and jacuzzi just next to the sea!!

the street "market" in montañita

sunset, seen from the terrace

so nice...

that's a holiday!

beach, early in the morning. i couldn't sleep anymore at 8, so i went sunbathing and taking pictures :-)

a bird trying to catch some fish

montañita "city"

jump jump juuuump!!

that's the beach exactly in front of our hotel

this partynight, we asked that cute old man to come to dance. he was so totally wasted, but dancing with us for more than an hour :-)

and the next day, i saw him working in the streets..so cute!! :-)

guayaquil

 after our time in cuenca, we travelled on to guayaquil. we passed through the national park "El Cajas", famous for it's many lagoons

 passing through villages with nice swimming places in the river...

 in the countryside of the lowlands

 beutiful sunset just before arriving in guayaquil

 after going to our hotel, we went to see the "malecon", the waterfront of the river "guayas". guayaquil is ecuador's most dangerous city (it's also the biggest one), but these 2km are supersafe, even until midnight. there are so many policemen, you can even see children having fun on the playground.

 looks like some virgin..

 on this promenade, there is a lot of leisure-stuff. like this oreo-park for kids to play in (for those who don't know it, oreo is sort of the most famous biscuit here, with a milky filling between two chocolate biscuits like you can see here on the toys)

the hill of "las peñas"

 having ice cream at night, wearing a dress. so warm there!

 la rotonda - monument dedicated to Bolivar and San Martin, two super-important guys for the latin-american liberation.

 our view out of the hotel room, you can see the hill of "las peñas" again

 next morning, we went to visit the cemetary. should be the most beautiful one in whole latin america. but it's difficult to get in: there are more than 10 entrances, and the guard didn't let us in with the cameras because it's forbidden to take pictures. he told us we could go to some building close-by to ask permission. so we went there, had to give our ID in order to be allowed to enter, then take numbers to wait with the other people - all ecuadorians planning a funeral (weird situation for us tourists, and probably also for them). when it was our turn, the lady told us that we had to talk to the architect. so the guard let us in his office, and the famous mr. wong (chinese architect of the cemetary) explained us that the guards of the door we have been don't know anything. so he called the guard of another door and sent us there. finally, we were allowed to get in, because a guy working on the cemetary came and gave us a private tour. such a hard work, but finally, it was worth it:

 almost like the monument in the malecon, but this time it's a grave of some bank guy. on this cemetary, there are about 20 ecuadorian presidents, a lot of bank guys, some footballers, artists etc.

 such a nice "park"

 the most beautiful "gravestone"

 after visiting the cemetary,  we went to the waterfront again, to see it during in daytime.

 the old maret building of guayaquil - architect: gustave eiffel

 the clock tower and behind, a government building

 probably the best park in the world - parque de las iguanas. just an uncountable number of free iguanas inside this park, just next to the cathedral and a lot of busy streets!

 they so don't care about the people - one tried to get up this bench where the old lady was sitting :-)

 having a fight, looking like dinosaurs

 that's my favourite one - sunbathing with folding back the legs :-)

 also a little pond with turtles and fish is there - such a mess with so many turtles!

 a bit afraid to touch him, but i did it :-)

 beautiful reptile

the park with the iguanas, behind guayaquil's cathedral.

cuenca

 one friday evening, we met in quitumbe terminal in order to go to cuenca. giga was there to say goodbye to me, because afterwards, he left ecuador :'-( we had enough time to go shopping sunglasses. the seller told us that they were so good quality, you can even let them fall down and they wouldn't break. so i asked her if we can try, and she just took gigas glasses and threw them on the floor. giga and estrella were really shocked, as they didn't understand my conversation with the seller :-)

 after a 9 hours busride during the night, we arrived in cuenca at 6 in the morning and tried to find a hotel. so, we already saw the river with the nice view of the special houses in the center of old town. cuencas old town is part of world culture heritage!

 after having a rest in our finally found hotel, we started sightseeing - here, you can see the cathedral. there was a long parade with a lot of school kids showing traditional dances etc. we still don't know why that party was :-)

 some girls showing traditional dances

 typical cuenca-houses, very pretty

 a park, riminding me again of the one in latacunga.

 the market in otavalo-style

 the central park in front of...

 ...the cathedral! sort of notre dame in tropical style.

 the huge flower market near the cathedral

 these kind of anti-gold-propaganda can be seen all over the town!

 what a surprise! we found coffee tree in cuenca! this restaurant (the one in quito) was our meeting point for a long time, now we hate it because we found out that the food there is actually so disgusting compared to all the other restaurants in the foch-area :-)

 view in cuenca - there are graffittis all over the town!

 so many stairs we had to walk up!

 a really strange museum we visited

 so not matching to super-cultural cuenca! a lot of naked people, sex, spooky death and violence :-)

 a strange monument outside of the museum. some poor people that climb up a wooden post. at the top, there are a lot of kitchen utensils..

 a famous cross, a viewpoint to see cuenca.

 one of the really beautiful churches close to our hotel...

 ...with a pretty angel inside!

 such a good advertisment! if you don't obey the yellow (of the egg/traffic light), you're fried :-)

the day before, there wasn't any hamburger on this church-wall :-)

 one of the coolest graffiti-walls i've seen!

 our last stop in cuenca: the famous panama hat factory barrancos. you can really watch them make the hats in front of your eyes!

 of course, there are a lot of hats you can buy. there are many half-finished ones, where you can tell them how to finish the hat exactly the way you want it.

 the woman is just cutting and sewing my new hat!

 me with my new hat! and a lady that is wearing a lot of hat-parts instead of a real dress :-)

 really a lot of stuff on the walls in cuenca! but also a lot of good things, like that one: against the selling of animals in bad conditions like the following:

 really sad cats..

goodbye cuenca! such a cool hostal, looks really new etc. :-)