GUAYAQUIL - Up and Away!

Accommodation

Our accommodation right at the airport called "Hostal Posada del Sol" costed around $22 for one night. Downstairs, it smelled funny like the frying fat from the restaurant that belonged to the hostal. But our room was pretty okay and we had our own bathroom. Only the dirty glass front was somewhat disturbing. The airport was about a 10-minute walk away.

Sightseeing

Our only goal was to deliver Nina safely to the airport. For this reason, we hardly saw anything from the city. Better this way, as it's supposed to be quite dangerous there.

Transportation

We took an Uber for $1.91 to the accommodation. The next day, I got myself driven to the Terminal Terrestre for $2.38, where my bus left in the evening.

Food and Drink

We snacked on the leftover cookies and the brownie at the hotel. After all, it has to be eaten at some point. At the airport at "Café Duport", we had a "Triología de Mini Bolones" for breakfast, or to be more precise, the vegetarian version: Plantain balls (6.15 dollars). In addition, we got a reasonably good portion of cheese empanadas with a coffee "Tinto" (4.85 dollars).

Unsolved Mysteries

Why did the political situation deteriorate exactly on the day we booked the flight? Fortunately, the situation had gotten a little better when we were there and only the port cities are considered unsafe. The sights in the interior of the country can be visited again without fear and the buses are also safe. Only the lack of time prevented us from looking at the following things:

• Tiesto's Café Restaurant in Cuenca
• Quito and the "Cerro Guagua Pichincha"
• Papallacta (hot springs)
• Cotopaxi National Park
• Quilotoa
• "Reserva de Producción Faunistica Chimborazo"

Bus to Lima

My $50 bus didn't leave Guayaquil at 19:30 as planned, but at 20:50. Here's the scheduled route:

• 19:30 Departure Guayaquil
• 11:00 Arrival Chiclayo
• 16:00 Departure Chiclayo
• 6:00 Arrival Lima At 00:30, the migration to Peru came. Everything went very smoothly and shortly before 1:00, the whole bus had passed through. Here's the actual route:
• 20:50 Departure Guayaquil
• 9:30 Arrival Chiclayo
• 17:15 Departure Chiclayo
• 8:15 Arrival Lima
• 8:45 Arrival at Pascal's accommodation The whole bus ride (both with Super Semería Internacional and Flores) was Semi-Cama, i.e. 140° inclination. Very uncomfortable. In total, I needed ONE AND A HALF DAYS for the 1466 km (driving length by car about 24 h). Nina was home much faster than me, by the way;) Around 8:30 Peruvian time. Before my departure, I sat for almost 8 h at the terminal in Guayaquil, and treated myself to a chocolate cupcake, two humitas (corn specialty), and a menu with beans, egg, and rice. The light above me then also had a loose contact, my seat neighbor had music running audibly in his headphones, and the bus grilled my charging cable. All in all, the trip could have gone better, but at least at the beginning there was a Mini-Cola with 125 ml and a small bag of chips (including bacon flavor). My fellow travelers were also quite nice and some of them even wanted to continue to Chile - I'd rather not swap with them!

Flight to Frankfurt am Main

Unfortunately, Nina's flight was delayed by an hour. She thus took off around 12 o'clock with AirEuropa and arrived around 6:00 in the morning in Madrid. There it continued at 7:10. Having arrived in Munich (around 9:45), she took the 49-Euro ticket to Schwabach, where the car was parked. From there she went home. So the flight took about 14h 30 min.