Audioguides Guayaquil

Guayaquil sits on the western bank of the Guayas River, a city of 2.65 million that functions as Ecuador's economic engine, processing around 70% of the country's private exports and 83% of its imports. Francisco de Orellana founded it in 1538 as a shipyard -- the location chosen because the river provided a natural industrial corridor to the Pacific. The city declared independence from Spain on October 9, 1820, fourteen years before Ecuador even existed as a country.

The Malecon 2000, a waterfront promenade along the Guayas, transformed what had been a declining port area into the city's social spine.

Stretching for nearly three kilometers, it holds restaurants, a botanical garden, and a lighthouse. Las Penas, the colonial hillside neighborhood at the northern end, is the oldest quarter of the city -- 444 steps up Cerro Santa Ana to a hilltop with views across the river and the Gulf. Seminario Park, a block from the main cathedral, has iguanas: large, free-roaming green iguanas that lounge on benches and paths alongside the pigeons.