GUAYAQUIL

Guayaquil (it names of the indigenous boss Guaya and their wife, Quila), coastal city located to the west of Ecuador, capital of the county of Guayas. It is located in the outlet of the river Guayas whose estuary with the gulf of Guayaquil. It is the main Ecuadorian port and the biggest city in the country, with a great economic movement, because he/she concentrates the most important industries, as refineries of petroleum, industries canning and diverse factories of consumption goods. Almost the whole export trade (mainly bananas) and import of the country goes by its marine port that in 1962 it was finished.

In the city he/she has their headquarters the University of Guayaquil (been founded in 1867), the Catholic University of Santiago of Guayaquil (1962), the Lay University Vicente Rocafuerte (1847) and the Polytechnic Superior School of the Coast, been founded in 1958. Among the points of interest of the town they are Sacred Domingo's church, of the siglo XVI, in the old neighborhood of The Rocks, and a monument that commemorates one of the most important events that have taken place in the city: the Conference of Guayaquil, taken place in 1822 and to the one that the liberators attended José of San Martin and Simón Bolivar. Guayaquil was founded in 1535, with the name of Santiago of Guayaquil, by Sebastián of Belalcázar, although it was destroyed soon after by the two serial attacks carried out by indigenous groups. In 1538 the Spanish conqueror Francisco of Orellana the refundó, for order of Francisco Pizarro, in their current location. Population (2001), 1.952.029 inhabitants.

See night of Guayaquil

The river Guayas that gives name to the city and the gulf of Guayaquil, forms in its outlet a numberless of tidelands, arms and deltas among those that numerous islands and isles are located, of which the main one is that of Puná. The whole commercial activity of the adjacent counties (and that of great part of Ecuador) it is made through the port located in the most external part in the gulf.