Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador - Polarsteps

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador, a city of about 21,000, is a tourist destination city on the Pacific coast. The city is actually two distinct halves separated by the new bridge. There is a new mall located at the end of the bridge, too. The city was founded in 1628, so you'd expect to see a lot of historical buildings, but no, there aren't any left after the various natural disasters that have hit the town. Anyway, the half of the town on the coast, with the beaches, condos, hotels, etc, is the new side (the tourists' side). The other side, to the east of the bridge, is the city proper. It is long and narrow, sitting between the hills and the bay. So, my impressions: It's definitely a nice place to visit. I'm not attracted to the tourist locations so I looked more closely at the other side of town, which I like except for this—it is quit long and quite narrow. I prefer a town with a solid central area preferably around a central plaza/park. Such towns are much more friendly to walking. Finally, since entering Ecuador, I had a couple of mostly sunny days. Almost every day in this country the sky has been overcast. In Quito, I saw some rain a couple of afternoons. But that's it - a tiny bit of rain in Quito and overcast skies for a month or so. Then Bahía gave me some sunshine, finally. But, this is the coast...