For once, I am not awakened by the noise of the street or by restless room neighbors, but by a wild weather glow tearing deep scratches into the night sky.

The sky falls down

I see, this could be the beginning of 'Tumbes aislado'. The first signs of the coming thunderstorm. So no journalist's stuff after all? The next wake-up call is a thundering noise outside the window. And again the sky falls down to earth, and once more I find it extremely comfortable in the warm bed, while outside the storm rages.

At two o'clock I wake up, the roar having increased even more. I stumble to the bathroom in the semi-darkness and flinch ... Can it be possible ... No, that's impossible. There's something I definitely don't want to experience. My feet splash into cold water. Just wonderful!

Wet feet

The light reveals the full disaster. Since my room is on the top floor, i.e. where the swimming pool is located under the open roof, but also where the water now gathers and does not know where to flow, it just looks for a way to get off.

Some of the water flows into my hallway and from there directly into my room. I hesitate for a moment. Should I open the door, at the risk of much more water flowing in? I let it go and call the reception. No answer. Either the guys are sleeping or they are already the first victims of the storm.

Since I can't do anything at the moment anyway, I just bring my stuff to safe levels, sleep some more and dream wet dreams. Sometimes you just have to let it go.

Overview of the disaster

But in the morning, it keeps pouring out of all holes in the sky, I first try to get an overview of the situation.

However, I need to go down to the reception for this purpose, but better walking than by elevator. The appetite to get stuck somewhere between the 3th and 4th floor because the power fails is quite small. So I look for the stairway and find it. A gloomy concrete shaft without light, and whether the door can ever be opened again in case I have to go back is questionable.

So, armed with the flashlight app, I stumble through endless corridors, past strange objects I can't identify, and feel like Indiana Jones in search of the Holy Grail. But the world belongs to the brave, I finally arrive at the first floor and can now at last submit my complaint report on the condition of my room at the reception.

But that leads at best to an sympathetic smile. I understand that, since they are having quite different problems than my wet feet. Everybody is running around, shouting orders at each other, pretty much out of control. Because one thing seems to be clear: the recently constructed hotel seems to suffer not only from children diseases, but also from serious construction defects.

Wet Breakfast

But that does not concern me, because a nutritious breakfast is waiting for me, which I do not want to miss on any account. But since it is pissing from the ceiling above the coffee machine, a few organizational tricks are needed, but everything else works out perfectly. Two gentlemen in their prime are the only guests besides me. They turn out to be consultants from a German company having just completed the installation of a new municipal water supply system. At least there might not be a lack of water in the next few days ...

Is the bus running?

In addition to the immediate consequences of the flash flood, I am concerned with the question of whether there will be a bus at all to take me across the border to Ecuador and then to Guayaquil.

The gentlemen at the reception firmly believe in it, but maybe they just want to get rid of me. So a short time later I walk with my luggage along the flooded streets to the bus terminal and actually meet other travelers with the same destination.

The rain keeps falling. I would like to describe the sound, but the German language lacks appropriate adjectives. It is not just a splashing or trickling sound as we know it, it is a veritable thundering and roaring on the roofs, on the street, on the cars, on the roofs of the TukTuks, making any conversation difficult. If you get too close to the rain, like the smokers condemned to the front of the building, you'll be soaking wet in seconds.

The bus drives off - through knee-deep water

Eventually a bus actually pulls up, though not the one I had planned, but anything is fine with me as long as I get out of this wet paradise. It moves slowly through the flooded streets, some are so deep under water that the traffic has to take alternative routes. Rushing streams flow through the streets and alleys, all kinds of garbage floating on top (also a way to get rid of it). Numerous people are standing at the roadside, looking at the result of the precipitation without much emotion.

Floods in Tumbes
Knee-deep water everywhere
The bus plows its way through
The bus plows through

But as soon as we leave the urban areas, the situation improves and the driver accelerates. It is only a few kilometers to the border, the check-in works quickly, Adios Peru, hola Ecuador.

Guayaquil

Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador, the economic center of the country, hectic, metropolitan, arrogant. But not without charm.

After arrival - a bit tired from the excitement - I nevertheless take a tour through the city center and am very positively surprised by the generous and already a bit of money and prosperity smelling facilities. The city has about 2,53 million inhabitants (as of 2013); more than 3 million people live in the greater Guayaquil area.

Guayaquil is located on the west bank of the Guaya River, about 50 km above its mouth in the Gulf of Guayaquil. The original center of Guayaquil is situated at a low elevation between three hills and the Estero Salado (Spanish for Salty Swamp), an estuary that extends far inland and has been partially dried up and developed with residential neighborhoods in today's urban area.

Guayaquil highlights Guayaquil-at the Shore Guayaquil - Water everywhere Guayaquil highlights Guayaquil highlights 2 Guayaquil highlights 3

The 'Casa de Romero' in the city center has once again proven to be a good hotel. The nice lady at the reception complains about a lack of guests, but she has no idea why. However, I can well imagine that the city is not in the focus of tourists.

Some destinations in Ecuador have a completely different importance, especially of course the capital Quito, 426 kilometers in the north, located in the middle of the so-called Sierra. That's where I want to go tomorrow.

 

Mileage: 6102

Matching Song:   Van der Graaf Generator - After the Flood

And here the journey continues ... to Quito

 

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