Our final stop (#6) on the Ecuador journey was Guayaquil, Ecuador. We used 5,000 American Airlines Aadvantage miles plus $12.50 per person (30,000 Aadvantage miles plus $75.00 total) from Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos to Guayaquil (intra-Ecuador flights are a steal using American AAdvantage miles). We used 30,000 Hilton points per night for 2 nights at the Hilton Colón Guayaquil and got the double upgrade (room above the junior suite) with the Diamond Hhonors status. The breakfast spread was plentiful and the lounge had full-on food most of the day (filled up on steak and chicken one night and empanadas and meatballs on the 2nd night). It's definitely hard to beat Hilton with all the Diamond freebies!
Nash had his birthday at the Hilton in Guayaquil and the hotel staff was kind enough to bring a little customized dessert to our room and sing to him.
The next morning we headed out on an all day tour where we visited a cacao farm and learned in a hands on way about chocolate. This turned out to be an amazing day and one of the highlights of the entire trip (there were many).
We travelled outside of Guayaquil for about an hour to a farm at the base of the mountains.
Ryder, with a new fruit that none of us had ever tasted, called Mamay. We were able to pick fruit from many of the trees on the farm...some of the fruits we had never tasted.
Video of us picking fresh bananas off the tree for our chocolate fondue.
Family picture at the cacao farm.
Sawyer, picking cacao.
Nash, with his cacao.
Ryder and Zander, showing the cacao that they picked.
We were able to cut our own sugar cane...very good to suck on right from the plant.
Laying out the seeds from the cacao fruit to dry in the sun.
Video of us peeling the cacao to reveal the fruit and seeds inside of it...can you guess what color the cacao fruit is? We made the most delicious juice with the cacao fruit...no sugar added! Basically, you just take the fruit straight from inside the cacao and squeeze it...amazing flavor.
A plant with a bunch of cacao.
Our family walking through the cacao plants and digging up some fresh ginger (roots) to be used in making hot chocolate (we also were able to pick fresh vanilla from the tree and add it to the hot chocolate as well).
The kids, roasting the already dried cacao seeds. You can see by their faces that they were intrigued and loved getting this hands on experience with how to make chocolate.
The family peeling the now roasted (and cooled) cacao seeds before we grind them down to a paste for fondue.
The kids, grinding the peeled cacao seeds to a paste with a hand grinder. Sawyer finding out that chocolate without sugar isn't the chocolate she knows and loves.
We had fresh fruit salad to be dipped in our chocolate fondue. Fruits, that we picked directly from the trees, include bananas, starfruit, guava, mamay, and sugarcane.
Enjoying (eating) the fondue and the product of our labor.
Eliza eating patacones con queso (fried plantains with goats cheese)...delicioso!
Trying the cacao juice...no sugar added, straight from the tree...amazing!
Driving past many rice paddies on the way out to the farm.
After finishing at the farm, we went to a city park where there were tons of wild iguanas. They were all up in the trees and on the grass when we arrived at the park. We bought some bananas before entering the park, and it seemed that the iguanas all knew we were coming because they immediately came down from the trees to greet us and eat some bananas.
Zander, giving an iguana some food.
Ryder, giving an iguana some food.
Cody, teasing an iguana with a banana.
Zander, petting an iguana that had crawled up Cody to get some food.
Nash, feeding an iguana.
Daddy and Ryder feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Daddy and Nash feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Daddy and Zander feeding an iguana in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
After Guayaquil, it was time to head back home to Santiago, Chile. We took a direct flight from Guayaquil to Santiago on LATAM in Economy class for 12,500 British Airways Avios plus $122.73 each (75,000 British Airways Avios plus $736.38 total). It was an uneventful flight and we concluded our awesome vacation to Cordoba, Argentina; Quito, Ecuador; 3 different Galapagos Islands (Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristobal), and Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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