Cuenca and Guayaquil-

We went to Guayaquil first. Although it is the biggest city in Ecuador I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. We did a few cool things, but mostly the city is just huge and goes about its own business. There is a body of water in Guayaquil, and there is a pretty modern boardwalk along the waterfront. At one end of the boardwalk there is a lighthouse that no longer functions, but has historic significance to the city. We visited that at night, and the view was spectacular. There is also an iguana park in the middle of the city. We pictured maybe 2 or three iguanas, or some enclosures with lizards. There were more iguanas then people in this park. It was not what I expected at all, but it was sweet. There were iguanas everywhere—in the trees, the walkways, the statues, the grass, at your feet—the San Diego Zoo should reconsider their petting zoo, because this definitely showed them up.






The highlight of Guayaquil (for me) was being able to visit the LDS temple. I have been seeing catholic churches like I never thought possible (the conquistadors meant business when they brought Catholicism), but seeing the Temple was really special. All my friends ended up wanting to visit with me, which made it really neat also. The temple grounds were tranquil, and the building emanated the simplistic beauty of the Lord’s house. Seeing the careful craftsmanship of the architecture, and being so near to a sacred place reminded me how important it is to center my life around Christ.





Cuenca has been my favorite city in Ecuador, hands down. The buildings are old colonial style, and the churches are beautiful. There are little park plazas all over that give the city a really green feeling, and it is much more sunny than Quito. It’s a big city, but it feels small. Wandering around the streets was great just because I liked the feel of the area so much.






On our way back from Cuenca we went to some Incan ruins. Pictures will ell the story better than I can.




We stopped for dinner In the little pueblo outside the ruin area. I half jokingly told my friend that I didn’t want to order the chicken because in the little communities like this you never know which part of the chicken you are going to get. We kind of joked, but ended up ordering the chicken anyways because it was the cheapest, and it’s chicken—almost always a safe bet. The soup came out, and in my friends soup there was a whole foot, and in my soup I found the neck. It was nasty, but between the four soups we ordered, I am pretty sure we could have reconstructed the chicken.

This past weekend we went on our last group excursion to the Galapagos Islands. Incredible. I took zero pictures because my camera needed batteries and I never took care of that, but as soon as I thieve a plethora of images from my comrades I will write a post about the Islands of Charles Darwin’s finchtastic discoveries (even though I will be home soon enough to tell you about them in person).

Chau!