After a six hour flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador and a well deserved nap, my first stop on my Ecuador adventure was the Malecón 2000 and Las Peñas. Fun fact: I’m first generation Ecuadorian-American.
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Photos taken by Doug Pearson and myself
It had been 2 years since the last time I visited Ecuador and it was the first time with my boyfriend Doug (aka the person who takes 90% of my blog photos). We stayed for a whole week and visited both Guayaquil and Quito. I can’t wait to share the tips and places to see of our trip! Like I did for when we went to Philadelphia.
Since Guayaquil is on the coast the weather averages around 82°F (28°C) year round. The coldest it can get is 73°F (23°C) during the month of July (source). While I was there it was around 88°F (31°C) and really humid. Needless to say you need really airy clothes. I chose a flowy midi button down shirt dress I got on sale for $10 at Urban Outfitters. The great thing about Ecuador is that they use American Dollars so no need to worry about exchanging currency. Food is also really cheap! There’s a place to eat everywhere you go. A few other things you need to know is that most stores are closed on Sundays and you need to carry change with you everywhere because there’s no such thing as public restrooms. You either need to eat at a restaurant or need to pay anywhere between 10¢ – 25¢ to use the restroom/pay for the toilet paper. Or you can also carry around some toilet paper (that’s what my family and I did).
El Malecón 2000 is a boardwalk/pier overlooking the Guayas River and is about 1.5 miles long. The best way to explore the Malecón is to start at the Palacio de Cristal and then walking along towards Las Peñas. The Malecón is filled with photo opps and attractions as well as restaurants and shops.
When we started at the Palacio de Cristal we came across a little iguana who stopped to pose for photos. I’m not kidding it stopped once it saw people take out their phones then continued walking when everyone was done. The Palacio de Cristal is usually used for conventions or performances. It’s a beautiful structure, which I didn’t photograph because I was focused on the iguana.
Some photo opps and attractions along the first half of the malecón are the clock tower with beautiful architecture, a statue of Guayaquil’s mascot Juan Pueblo, the big Guayaquil sign (my favorite), the Rotunda a memorial of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, and there’s an old train (not pictured).
There are also small malls and playgrounds for locals to shop and bring their family. My favorite part of the malecón was the small park. The last time I visited the malecón you had to pay to go into the park, but now it’s free for the public. The park is surrounded by trees masking the buildings behind you making you forget for a second that you’re in a city. There is a pond with koi fish and ducks. Near the pond there is a small gumball machine filled with animal food to feed them. Mostly children were the ones feeding the animals and I obviously also went around feeding as many animals as I could.
The last two attractions of the malecón are La Perla a huge ferris wheel (I highly recommend going on it you get an amazing view of the city) and el Museo en Miniatura Guayaquil en la Historia translation The Miniature History Museum of Guayaquil. It depicts the entire history of Guayaquil in miniature dioramas. I did not take photos in the museum mostly because I didn’t know if we were allowed to.
After the long walk of el Malecón 2000 we headed to the entrance to Las Peñas. Las Peñas is one of the first neighborhoods in Guayaquil. It was built during colonial times, which you notice immediately by the architecture as you walk around. The building are all brightly painted and the roads are all cobblestone, the only cars that can pass are the cars of the residents who live there. Las Peñas is a very artistic neighborhood with galleries and shops selling the art of local artists. We walked into a gallery that offers free art classes to kids between the ages of 6-17 years old.
Here are some outfit pictures we took at Las Peñas:
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Get the look:
Dress: Urban Outfitters – $10 (on sale and no longer available, but found it on Ebay in blue) SIMILAR DRESSES Farfetch , Asos , Mango
Belt: My mom gave it to me and I couldn’t find a similar one.
Shoes: TOMS – $50
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Okarina of Time 