Just browsing...

While we're waiting for our translations to be finished, Emily and I decided to explore the neighborhood.

We've visited both shopping malls, Policentro and San Marino.  We don't need much besides groceries, but it's interesting to compare prices.  Flat screen TVs, for example, cost 3-4 times what they cost in the states.  Many of the items that are sold in the stores are made in China: those items and things that are produced locally are cheaper than items sold in the states, but the quality is noticeably lower.

When we leave Guayaquil, we'll need a vehicle.  Yesterday, we visited a Chevrolet dealership and browsed the yard.  There were many used cars, but we didn't go into the showroom.  With our Spanish still lacking, it's hard to have a conversation with the sales people.

Today, however, we were a little more uninhibited.  We walked to an Ambacar dealership (www.ambacar.com) about a mile away to look at the "Great Wall" of vehicles they offer.  I've never heard of Ambacar before; they offer a pickup truck called a Wingle, so I was a little suspicious, but we looked around anyway.

They have a SUV, the H5, that retails for $28,000.  In the states, this vehicle would probably sell for around $19-20k, so this seems to be a reasonable deal.  I know, I know, that seems like too much, but remember that vehicles here are expensive - import tariffs are very high.  Even used vehicles are expensive; we have friends that bought a 1992 Pathfinder for $18,000 with almost 100,000 km on it.

We struggled to communicate with Julio, our salesman, but eventually got all of the information we needed.  We're not going to purchase a vehicle until we're ready to leave Guayaquil, but it's fun to look.  We'll go back to the Chevy dealer in the next few days to see what they have to offer.

Note: many of the websites that I reference are in Spanish.  If your Spanish language skills are as poor as mine, use Google Chrome to view the site.  It will automatically translate the page into your language.