I am home again, sitting now in my corner cubicle (looking out over the glorious Home Depot) in south Seattle. It's a blistery fall afternoon and the birds have stopped singing for the year. With caffeine infused in my veins and a stomach full of mom's apple pie, I am now ready to recount the last days of the flight of the condor, man...


From Riobamba, I travelled west to hot and humid Guayaquil for a visit with the cousins and to visit once again this bustling port city of 2.5 million. I arrived to the new terminal terrestre, a tad confused and sweaty, having had to shed my sweater and coat earlier, on the 5 hour bus ride from the Andes. My cousin Pablo picked me up and away we went into the myriad of concrete and dirt compositions that is tropical Guayaquil. Gracious hosts as always, it was good to see my cousin Pablo Giovanni, his family wife Margot, and their kids Paula and Pablo again. I also had the opportunity to visit with my cousin Patricio, his woman Maria, and their daughter Daniella. Despite the family feud between my father and the rest of the condor clan of Ecuador, it was good to see these faces once again, and to try and understand their lives a bit more, and they mine.

It was good to see everyone, and to be interrogation by my young second cousins on my Spanish knowledge and American life; smart little snappers they are and so very curious. The Spanish family dynamic is an interesting one, where there seems to always be a cook or a maid on hand. It seems that the children have very little responsibility, however limited this insight may be.

The weather was decent- mostly overcast and cloudy after my first night's stay, and cooled off significantly for the duration. It can be blistery in Guayaquil, so it was good to escape that humid torture.

We toured around a bit but spent a lot of time in the new developed parts of the megatropolis. Despite having a rich local history with European settlement going back to 1500's, we spent a lot of time time in the San Marino Shopping center: a large, American fashioned, mega shopping mall. Apparently Ecuadorians, in this vivacious metropolis, love their T.G.I.F. and bowling. Ecuadorian adopted "development"?


It was during this segment of the visit that I began to ponder more over the asthetics and recent progress in Guayaquil and Ecuador as a whole. It seems that most examples of modern construction and design in this region disregard indigenous/colonial construction in favor of quick and easy processes of composition, .e.g. cement and cinder block squares. There seems to be very little imagination or intellect in this regard. It is disparaging that there seems to be such a disregard of this region's own striking history of line and form.


I do believe however, that the raw elements are all there and visible even to the casual traveller, in the small towns and back roads. I am sure that even most of these places are still unknown to me.

These are solely observations of a questioning mind - impressions from a second generation man, in a third world land.