latintraveler comments

I'm from Chile, and I`ve been many times to Ecuador, last year I went with my husband, and we are going back in June. Ecuador has changed a lot and Guayaquil is a safer city than it was before, but as ANY big city in latin america you have to be careful. I know that I speak the language, but there are things that you can do to get to know the city and feel safe, for example you can hire a tour guide to explore the city, there are also taxi companies that you can call in any restaurant, mall or hotels which are safe, you can get informed on which are the highlights of the city and go there specifically. Of course if you as traveller you will like to feel the city by walking on it, in Guayaquil you have the two" Malecon" and Las Peñas to walk and you will see security guards looking after you, trust me even in my latin looks while we were exploring "Las Peñas" a guard was checking us. Many locals will tell you to avoid the downtown area or even not to move around and just flight directly to Galapagos, but Ecuador has a lot to offer not only the Galapagos, and Guayaquil too. It is very sad to what happened to the japanese couple, but unfortunately these things can happen to anyone, and these situations cannot hold you back to explore Latin America and Ecuador if you wish to do so. Be safe