Guayaquil

Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city and main port with about 3,000,000 inhabitants. It is the commercial and industrial center of Ecuador and lies on the west bank of the river Guayas about 60 km from its outflow in the Gulf of Guayaquil.

Climate

The climate in the wet season is hot (January - May),and in the dry season between June and December it’s warm during the day and cool during the night.

Guayaquil weather now

Arrival

The “Joaquin Olmedo Airport” is about 10 minutes by taxi the north of the city centre.  The taxi fare is cheap, but it is not safe to leave the terminal area at night on foot to the main street.

Sights

Even though most people who come to the city are business visitors rather than tourists, Guayaquil offers many attractions:

• The old district “Las Peñas” is the only part of the city where the wooden houses were not destroyed by fire, and you can get an impression of the old, picturesque colonial Guayaquil.
• You can walk along the riverside that has been refurbished in the project “Malecón 2000”. There you will find a mall and a park with historical monuments. The area is open till 12pm.
• Guayaquil’s churches such as “La Merced” or “San Francisco”, the beautiful cemetery below “Cerro el Carmen”, several museums, the Botanical Gardens and parks (the Bolivia Park in front of the Cathedral is filled with tame iguanas). These are all places worth visiting.

If you only coming for a cruise to Galapagos, you should consider flying via Guayaquil to avoid Quito’s altitude. Your flight for the Galapagos leaves from Guayaquil.

Festivals

The founding of Guayaquil is celebrated on Jul 24-25 and the city’s independence on Oct 9-12. Both holidays are lively and offer many public events.

Excursions

Guayaquil is the base for most Galapagos visitors. The Galapagos Islands are world famous for their fauna (sea lions, turtles, penguins, dolphins, reptiles, birds, etc.). They are also the birthplace of Darwin’s famous theory of evolution.

Other excursions can be made to the “Cerro Blanco Forest Reserve” with its impressive variety of flora and fauna there you can see land and wading birds and other animals or take a canoe trip into the mangroves forest.