On July 4th after celebrating Independence Day in Cuenca with American retirees over hotdogs and hamburgers, we headed out to Ecuador’s largest and most populated city, Guayaquil. Guayaquil is really more of a 1-day stopover for tourists before visiting the main attraction. Like Lima is to Cusco and Machu Picchu, Guayaquil is the gateway to the Galapagos. Fortunately there are just enough attractions within Guayaquil (that are all within walking distance of each other) to keep tourists entertained for the day. The pride of Guayaquil is Malecon 2000, the recently constructed 2.5 km boardwalk along the Guayas River on Simon…