Ecuador, where the hats are made out of palm trees

Yesterday was a pretty ordinary day of air travel from BA to Guayaquil via Santiago arriving worn out in a very comfortable room at the Wyndam Hotel.
Today we were picked up following a sumptuous brekkie by our guide Francisco who took us around Guayaquil including a somewhat shabby zoo containing interesting animals

A bad case of the crabs

Flocculating Flamingos

Horny Screamer

Twisted 2 Toed Sloth for Emma

Angry Agouti

Randy Ringed Peccary

Troublesome Tapir

Righteous Raccoon

Munching monkey with ignoring iguana

and flora.

Chocolate tree

Coffee

Then it was off to the Iguana Park where all the stray iguanas are kept. While trying to photograph one specimen I managed to stand on another unsuspecting iguana causing a minor degloving injury of its tail and a series of sub-lethal palpitations in your blogmeister.

Following an "interesting" lunch

we caught a taxi to the Ecua-Andino hat store to purchase a couple of high quality Panama hats, which are all manufactured here in Ecuador.
This evening we ate out(for a change) at a very traditional Ecuadorian restaurant. The ingredients here are excellent HOWEVER they seem to turn them into massive amounts of inedible stodge.

The taxis here are also interesting. On our first trip I kept pointing and saying "meter" until I realised I was pointing at the radio. Visions of the bone collector.Then discovered the absence of meters in most taxis and realised the fare is negotiable, preferably at the beginning of the trip.