Guayaquil:
January 23 – January 25, 2009
Recent Headlines / News Blurbs from Ecuador:
CONAIE (Indigenous Political Movement in Ecuador) wants to have President Rafael Correa declared “persona non grata” by the World Socialist Forum meeting recently in Brazil.
Ecuador considers joining the regional group ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Americas) a group consisting of Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Venezuela in contrast to the other regional group ALCA (Area de Libre Comercio de las Americas) an initiative of the USA
Intelligent Email will now be able to intuit mailing destinations even without a formal address.
Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame declares that the British Royal Family symbolizes all that is bad in Great Britain
La Copa Libertador (South American Club Championships) begins. Deportiva Cuenca qualifies as the equivalent of a “Wild Card” and so must win a home-away series to get into the formal championship. In the first game (away) against Anzoategui (Venezuela) they lose 2-0. In order to qualify they need to win by three goals at home. Result? A 3-0 victory. Favorites to win the Cup (celebrating its 50th Anniversary): Pachuca (Mexico), Boca Juniors (Argentina), Liga de Quito (Ecuador), Sao Paulo (Brazil)
In the wake of Super Bowl XLIII Norm Roessler brings a lawsuit against the NFL in which he claims: 1a) cruel and unusual punishment of having to suffer through the decidedly non-super games of the 1970s and 1b) cruel and unusual punishment of having to hear how every game since the abyss of the 70s is the “greatest game ever." 2) Erasing history by acting as if the NFL did not really exist before 1966; 3) Forcing a hero or MVP upon us, and hence claiming that the individual makes a difference in the world, when football is the living symbol of an arbitrary universe; 4) being a better propaganda unit than Goebbels & Co. (There’s the real crime).
We recently took a trip to the big city – Guayaquil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil) about 3.5 hours by bus and located near the Pacific Coast. We took a van service to Guayaquil this time instead of the usual passenger bus. It cost a few bucks extra, but everyone seemed to prefer the comfort as well as the reduced motion sickness issues upon navigation through the Cajas Mountains. We arrived in Guayaquil on Friday evening and were met by our friends – the Kreis Family. We immediately went to a Steakhouse owned by a famous soccer goalie from Uruguay and were treated to a heapin’ helpin’ of meat – steak, chicken, sausage – and some tasty tripe (well, I liked it). During our stay we came to find the cuisine in Guayaquil to be quite good. Along with the meat, we had a lot of good seafood – ceviche pulpo (octopus) is quite a nice dish. We are starting to think that Cuenca might be a kind of black hole for cuisine in Ecuador as we have not had many great eating experiences there.
After settling in at our friends’ spacious residence outside the city, we spent Saturday walking the Malecón and Las Peñas. The Malecón (breakwater) is the name given to the riverside promenade or boardwalk, which includes lots of gardens and recreational activities. After years of waiting for Philadelphia to develop its riverfront, it was quite refreshing to actually see an urban success.
Las Peñas is at the end of the Malecón and is a renovated neighborhood that one scales with a 444 step walk. Lots of history with terrorists, or I mean pirates (love the whitewash of Western political imagination. (God Bless Captain Jack, Michael Corleone, and Robin Hood) and quite an interesting vista of the city. We finished up our afternoon at Parque Bolivar, also known as Parque Iguana. Yep, that’s right hundreds of iguanas just roaming around, grubbing for handouts, climbing trees, and trying to crap on the heads of humans. What a life!
In the evening we took a ride on a tall ship on the river and got some good views of Las Peñas at night.
On the following day, Julian and Norm threw the baseball around (equipment courtesy of our guest) and then we spent a leisurely, if not decadent, day at the Guayaquil Country Club seeing how the other half in Ecuador lives. All in all a good time in a town that doesn’t always have the best reputation.
We returned to Cuenca on the night van and were somehow survived a near death experience through the Cajas Mountains. With visibility sometimes as little as 2 feet, our driver barely slowed down through the whole mountain trek. When we got to Cuenca we discovered that a massive rain storm had passed through. The End.
CONAIE (Indigenous Political Movement in Ecuador) wants to have President Rafael Correa declared “persona non grata” by the World Socialist Forum meeting recently in Brazil.
Ecuador considers joining the regional group ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Americas) a group consisting of Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Venezuela in contrast to the other regional group ALCA (Area de Libre Comercio de las Americas) an initiative of the USA
Intelligent Email will now be able to intuit mailing destinations even without a formal address.
Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame declares that the British Royal Family symbolizes all that is bad in Great Britain
La Copa Libertador (South American Club Championships) begins. Deportiva Cuenca qualifies as the equivalent of a “Wild Card” and so must win a home-away series to get into the formal championship. In the first game (away) against Anzoategui (Venezuela) they lose 2-0. In order to qualify they need to win by three goals at home. Result? A 3-0 victory. Favorites to win the Cup (celebrating its 50th Anniversary): Pachuca (Mexico), Boca Juniors (Argentina), Liga de Quito (Ecuador), Sao Paulo (Brazil)
In the wake of Super Bowl XLIII Norm Roessler brings a lawsuit against the NFL in which he claims: 1a) cruel and unusual punishment of having to suffer through the decidedly non-super games of the 1970s and 1b) cruel and unusual punishment of having to hear how every game since the abyss of the 70s is the “greatest game ever." 2) Erasing history by acting as if the NFL did not really exist before 1966; 3) Forcing a hero or MVP upon us, and hence claiming that the individual makes a difference in the world, when football is the living symbol of an arbitrary universe; 4) being a better propaganda unit than Goebbels & Co. (There’s the real crime).
We recently took a trip to the big city – Guayaquil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil) about 3.5 hours by bus and located near the Pacific Coast. We took a van service to Guayaquil this time instead of the usual passenger bus. It cost a few bucks extra, but everyone seemed to prefer the comfort as well as the reduced motion sickness issues upon navigation through the Cajas Mountains. We arrived in Guayaquil on Friday evening and were met by our friends – the Kreis Family. We immediately went to a Steakhouse owned by a famous soccer goalie from Uruguay and were treated to a heapin’ helpin’ of meat – steak, chicken, sausage – and some tasty tripe (well, I liked it). During our stay we came to find the cuisine in Guayaquil to be quite good. Along with the meat, we had a lot of good seafood – ceviche pulpo (octopus) is quite a nice dish. We are starting to think that Cuenca might be a kind of black hole for cuisine in Ecuador as we have not had many great eating experiences there.
After settling in at our friends’ spacious residence outside the city, we spent Saturday walking the Malecón and Las Peñas. The Malecón (breakwater) is the name given to the riverside promenade or boardwalk, which includes lots of gardens and recreational activities. After years of waiting for Philadelphia to develop its riverfront, it was quite refreshing to actually see an urban success.
Las Peñas is at the end of the Malecón and is a renovated neighborhood that one scales with a 444 step walk. Lots of history with terrorists, or I mean pirates (love the whitewash of Western political imagination. (God Bless Captain Jack, Michael Corleone, and Robin Hood) and quite an interesting vista of the city. We finished up our afternoon at Parque Bolivar, also known as Parque Iguana. Yep, that’s right hundreds of iguanas just roaming around, grubbing for handouts, climbing trees, and trying to crap on the heads of humans. What a life!
In the evening we took a ride on a tall ship on the river and got some good views of Las Peñas at night.
On the following day, Julian and Norm threw the baseball around (equipment courtesy of our guest) and then we spent a leisurely, if not decadent, day at the Guayaquil Country Club seeing how the other half in Ecuador lives. All in all a good time in a town that doesn’t always have the best reputation.
We returned to Cuenca on the night van and were somehow survived a near death experience through the Cajas Mountains. With visibility sometimes as little as 2 feet, our driver barely slowed down through the whole mountain trek. When we got to Cuenca we discovered that a massive rain storm had passed through. The End.
1 comment:
What is Baltimore's waterfront? Chopped liver??
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