Guayaquil

As I was leaving Machala, proclaimed to be the Banana Capital of the World, I rode past the Bananero monument and continued past banana plantations,

on the way north to Guayaquil. At one of the food and drink stops on the way, I saw a guy with a Banana Republic T-shirt, which I thought was pretty funny.

I also saw many plantations with cocoa trees and stands selling coconuts, whose content is a great refreshment and helped me to make swift progress, and I arrived in Guayaquil in the afternoon after crossing the bridge over the wide Rio Guayas,

Guayaquil neither looks nor feels like a place that's boring; after 1600 km (and no flat tires) since leaving Lima, I look forward to staying here for a couple of days before flying back to the US.