Imodium and Car Alarms

Yesterday, Cinco de Mayo, was the wrap up of our real estate tour. We had the morning to ourselves and went for a walk up the beach from our hotel, Coco’s. On the way back on our walk we went for a swim in the ocean. Absolutely gorgeous. The water was warm and the surge of the waves moved you back and forth, it was very zen.
We met up with the entire tour group for lunch at an Italian restaurant on the malecon (boardwalk) in Salinas. The food was excellent and the company was very enjoyable. I have to comment that despite the fairly diverse nature of the group on this tour there is a high percentage of very interesting people. I hope we are able to stay in touch with at least a few of them. After lunch we loaded onto the bus and checked out two last properties. Both were interesting but not at all what we are looking for. We then had a bus ride back to Guayaquil. The entire group was pretty tired by the time we got back to Guayaquil but most of us powered through and went out for a group dinner at the sports bar we had gone to on our first day in Guayaquil. The food was good and once again the company was fun and entertaining.
I feel it somewhat important to pass on a couple of important bits of knowledge about Ecuador and specifically the cities. First off, unless you have a digestive tract made of iron, I strongly recommend you travel with a bottle of Imodium. I realize some people think they can handle a lot, however once you get here and you are afraid to pass wind it is too late to be looking around for a bottle of it. Don’t get me wrong, the food has been fantastic, but it is still quite a change for most people, so be safe and bring some. The other point is car alarms. It seems a lot of people have car alarms in the cities. I am not sure why, because when they go off no one even raises an eyebrow. However the problem is in the evening when someone bumps into a car or the damn motorcycles with their loud pipes go racing down the streets and the vibration from the pipes sets off the car alarms. It can cause some disruption in your sleep.