the bar is at step number 279

well, i´m finally here.

after a whirlwind tour of houston, the panama airport and a couple of 737s i have arrived in guayaquil. houston is but a blur. in vancouver it was kind of cool cause at one point i saw rick hanson, he of the man in motion fame, wheeling about on flury st. i also got to enjoy a few slices of 93 cent pizza. very tasty stuff indeed. houston has less charm, but that only included the five minute shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel room. of course the walk from the terminal to the baggage claim area entailed actually leaving the airport and travelling through the parking garage for a good 100 metres... they´re doing some work on the 8th busiest airport in the states (according to the signs). and really i was disappointed, i saw a tonne more cowboy hats in calgary than i ever did in my brief sojourn in texas. i also picked up an ocho card to call home... a texas phone card entirely in spanish that had a picture of mexico on it. i asked the guy for the cheapest card in which to call canada and he brought me the ocho. it ended up being a pretty good deal, and what more a somewhat funny / ironic twist of fate because the movie on the way to panama was dodgeball in which the espn broadcast is over the ocho.

good times

so i arrived in ecuador. first up, the customs area in the airport is kind of funny. getting off the plane meagan remarked how it was funny that one of the stewardesses was reading the same book as me... i thought it funny too and decided to check my bag. lo and behold i had left my book behind. i quickly filed back up the tunnel and found the woman and asked for my book back. wedged inside were pics of christine and me in newfoundland. she asked where the pics were taken and when i answered she kind of shrugged and said that it looked like chile.

today saw the malecon... it´s really a beautiful place and very amazing for a city the size and history of guayaquil. will, the canadian doing the defait internship said that of all the cities in south america he´s visited (in brazil, argentina and peru), guaya is the most beautiful and advanced. the downtown is definitely on the right track... cerro santa ana is beautiful, marking over 500 steps up to a vista overlooking the city. the malecon is studded with restaurants and parks and monuments and contains more police per square foot than anywhere else i´ve ever been.

it is hot though... you sweat just standing around. nights are nice cause it dips down to a pleasant temperature and you can lounge about without worrying about making sure you´re getting enough water.

btw, here´s a pic of me at nancy´s computer...