Guayaquil, Salinas and Bananas

Guayaquil

Take a close look at photos of the interesting green characters hanging out in the park across the street from the Continental Hotel. They are the retired long distance bus drivers. It’s pretty common knowledge that after a career of driving the ear-splitting route between Quito and Guayaquil they heroically retire from the supremacy of sound to a life of peaceful tranquility in the park. We were told by a reliable source that they often reminisce about the good old days of music and fun on the road.

At more than three million, metro Guayaquil is huge, bigger than your city-scape imagination can handle without a headache – but unlike Quito the headache is not caused by high altitude because it sits at only 13.2 feet about sea level. We arrived at a secondary bus station, not the main fancy one, in rush hour traffic and fell off the bus in a daze, trying to scrape together a few spare ear drums. A taxi driver started hanging around like a persistent fly – we thought maybe he wanted to sell us his car. You should have seen it, a worn out Russian Lada from the early ‘80s. Even though we swatted him away a few times, after an in-depth discussion we finally realized he just wanted to drive us to the Continental Hotel downtown. In actual fact, the cost of the trip and the value of his car were the same amount – luckily we stopped him before he signed it over to us. We agreed on $7.00 for the trip and he got to keep the car. Later we found out the going rate was $5.00 so the driver single-handedly managed to thrust our love of taxi drivers into the bowels of snake pit again. It’s not that $2 is much money; it’s merely the fact that taxi drivers’ worldwide enjoy ripping people off – it’s their job. Oh well, we consoled ourselves, the guy took us right to the hotel and we didn’t have to keep the car. Twenty four hours of parking would cost more than the car was worth. Ha! Four hours of parking would cost more…

The best part of the entire day was the Continental Hotel. Richard wanted to stay there because of the high ratings on TripAdvisor website, and they weren’t wrong. Expensive but well located with a bathroom as big as some small countries, delicious buffet breakfast, friendly front desk staff and a fast internet connection in the room. We were so happy about feeling good again we immediately went out and bought a bottle of wine for a later celebration. Just to be able to hear and walk and kick up our heels again meant a lot. Later we strolled along Guayaquil’s malecon – designed and built in 2000. The 1.5 mile boardwalk has single-handedly transformed Guayaquil’s seedy, unsavoury riverfront from a dirty and dangerous port area into an upscale promenade with beautiful sights, shopping, classy restaurants, botanical gardens, museums, theatres and so on. We were pleased to be there and stretch our legs and our cramped minds at the same time. But the front desk staff at the hotel warned us to be off the streets in the area of the hotel by 10pm. – still dangerous after-hours apparently. We did what we were told but really, other than a few drug pushers, prostitutes, purse snatchers, muggers, corrupt police and armed bandits, what was there to be afraid of?

Next day we were out and about, walking, shopping, snacking and discovering. Didn’t take too long, even though the city is huge the tourist sights are compact in the malecon and downtown areas near the hotel. There are dozens of banks so getting enough cash to survive while keeping your feet on the ground was not a problem. We found a grocery store and bought enough food to eat dinner in the hotel room. So good, so good to not eat in a restaurant. We were extremely proud of ourselves because the Continental Hotel boasts the best gastronomy in Guayaquil. We’ll tell you why if you want to hear about it. Imagine paying more for a meal in Ecuador than in Calgary. That’s why.
All in all, Guayaquil is a pretty uneventful city.

Salinas

Salinas is only two hours by bus from the massive Guayaquil long distance bus terminal. It’s an enjoyable 150 kilometre ride that passes through miles and miles of banana plantations and ends at Ecuador’s most developed sea-side resort. Yes Salinas has an average yearly temperature of 80 degrees and the best time to visit is exactly when we were there. Every weekend the beaches are crowded, crowded and busy. It was fun to walk the promenade and see the sights, but Salinas has no power whatsoever to entice us back – not like Benidorm or Puerto Vallarta. We shared a beer at a sidewalk café across from the beach. We were hotter than fleas, sweaty and tired and a cold beer sounded perfect. The teenage waiter in his low lying blue jeans and dirty tee shirt arrived with the beer bottle already opened – a real no, no (they are supposed to open it in front of you so you know it has not been tampered with). Half an hour later we were ready to move on again but Donna wanted to visit the WC first. Well, that was a record breaker for sure. The most evil washroom of the trip. Filthy, I mean give you the willies filthy, broken toilet, no paper, no soap, no hand towels. I stopped by the kitchen to tell them the toilet didn’t flush and ha! that was the least of his worries. I saw the kitchen. The Kitchen! A dark and dingy work area, out of sight from the street, manned by a teenager who knew nothing whatsoever about sanitation. But he did know how to flush the toilet and that was not the first time he had been asked to do so. He left his food preparation and picked up a filthy pail which he then filled with tap water. Together we visited the toilet and I watched him pour the water until the toilet reached the flush level. Easy as pie. Then he went back to the kitchen to continue preparing, no I didn’t see him wash his hands. But even if he tried to be hygienic there was no soap or towels. I was so full of the creeps I couldn’t wait to get back outside in the sun again. Thank goodness we didn’t eat in that restaurant; we might have been back in bed again for a week. But you know what? Next day we walked by and there were lots of people eating lunch there. Yeeaahhhhhhhhhh.

In Salinas we stayed at the Hotel Caridi located about two miles from the beach. More like a hostal than a hotel, actually. Our room was barren, no bedside table(s) no closet, no writing table, one plastic green chair, bare walls and it was only $5 less per night that the beautiful Boutique Hotel Plaza Sucre in Quito. The owner of the Caridi is from Montreal and when we checked out she asked us to say a few nice things about her place on TripAdvisor. Well that put us on the spot, didn’t it?

Bananas

Did you ever wonder why you can go to the grocery store in Canada or the United States and buy a bunch of Ecuador bananas for less money than an equivalent weight of apples from British Columbia? We have.

What follows is one of many reports about Ecuador’s second largest industry. Sad but true.

Bananas - By Richy Richo

For many reasons, some complimentary, some not, Ecuador is referred to allegorically as a Banana Republic. The truth remains that Ecuador is the number one exporter of bananas worldwide and is said to produce some of the best tasting bananas.

Bananas were first cultivated on the fertile coastal region of Ecuador in the 1700's but the plantations were small. Bananas only became a major export item for Ecuador after World War II after the involvement of multinationals such as Dole.

The importance of bananas, to Ecuador and to the world, cannot be underestimated. Bananas are the fourth most important staple crop in world food production. Bananas are a primary source of income to the Ecuadorian economy second only to the revenue produced by oil.

Unfortunately, banana workers, especially in the larger plantations, "suffer from long hours, low pay, forced overtime, massive exposure to dangerous pesticides, and lack of job security. In many countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama, workers have struggled to form unions and raise wages to as much as $11 a day. But in Ecuador temporary subcontracted labourers are not allowed to form unions and are earning an average of less than $6 a day." (Cited from Human Rights Watch publications, April 2002)

In addition, human rights groups have recently denounced many of the larger banana plantations in Ecuador for employing children sometimes even as young as 10 years old. For the land owner, this practice cuts down operating expenses, for the families of the children, sadly, it helps put food on the table.

The less attractive reality of banana production--the low wages of the workers and the presence of child labour--however, remains a reality that needs to be addressed. From talking to the small plantation owners, this problem is partly attributed to the price that they (being the producers) receive from the exporters. This sale price rarely covers production costs. For example, producers are paid $3.00 per box, whereas, at their point of destination, the same box of bananas is sold for as much as $40.00. In other words, the profit margin for the middleman is substantial while, for the producer, it is almost negligible. This discrepancy affects the labourers whose wages are unable to increase due to the narrow profit margin of their employers.

This unfairness in wage earning leads to the rich (i.e. the middlemen in Ecuador and the large multinationals) getting richer. Alternatively, it is those who work the labour-intensive positions who are forced to continue working for stagnating wages. Unfortunately, this state of affairs is not limited to banana production and is not endemic to Ecuador. Mass agriculture, in general, exploits its labourers. Under these conditions, bananas have come to represent a less than complimentary image of Ecuador as being a Banana Republic. By addressing wage and labour concerns, Ecuador's agricultural wealth can be more fairly distributed amongst its inhabitants. The resulting social equity would serve as a tribute to "pacha mama" (mother nature) who has allowed for the bountiful geographical position of Ecuador