The Malecón & Las Peñas, Part I

If you take 9 de Octubre all the way east, you will run into the Malecón, the riverwalk along the Río Guayas. The Río Guayas runs through the city and eventually splits into different branches, merging with other rivers to the north. In the south, it widens into the port, the defining feature of the city and what put Guayaquil on the map. By the end of the seventeenth century, Guayaquil had become "the shipyard of South America and one of the continent's most important ports" ("Conquest and Colonial Rule," The Ecuador Reader).

In the middle of downtown Guayaquil, however, the river flows smoothly on by, first in one direction and then the other, according to the tides. It's the backdrop, a slow and steady gliding, behind the hustle and bustle of city life.

          A view down 9 de Octubre, with the Malecón and the river at your back.

          If you take a look in the other direction, towards the river, you'll see this:

A commemoration of the Guayaquil Conference, the famous meeting between liberators Simón Bolívar and San Martín. Each had his own army at the time they met in Guayaquil, in 1822. Despite having similar goals (namely, freedom for South America from the Spanish empire), the two men could not reach an agreement on how to achieve those goals. In the end, San Martín abandoned the cause, leaving Bolívar to complete the liberation of Peru.

The Guayaquil Conference is also commemorated - in a way - in Jorge Luis Borges' short story "Guayaquil."

As you're strolling along the Malecón, here is some of what you will see.

                              The Moorish style clocktower.

                                   Names.

                              A small obstacle course, and my friend Ronald playing on it.

                              Hi, Ronald.

Lookout towers such as this one. There are a total of four, each painted a different color to represent the four natural elements: earth, fire, water, and air.

The pavilion next to the MAAC (Museum of Anthropology and Contemporary Art). The pavilion houses events and exhibits of all kinds, everything from health fairs to concerts to early morning Tai Chi classes.

The Malecón is one of the safest and cleanest spots in the city. A project initiated under mayor Jaime Nebot, it was designed to beautify the riverfront and serve as a tourist attraction. In addition to the tourists, hundreds of Guayaquilenians take advantage of the scenery, the playgrounds, the gardens, the restaurants, and the shopping every day. Weekends are especially crowded, as entire families head to the river for a promenade and an ice cream cone.

Once you get to the far north end of the Malecón, right around the IMAX Theater - the first one built in South America - you can see the hill of Las Peñas with its brightly painted houses and its lighthouse rising up past the MAAC and the plaza below the museum. It's 444 steps to reach the top, so take a breather for now. To be continued...