Guayaquil
— — the port where the river opens to the sea.
Not only on a wall.
“Ecuador's largest city, the country's port, set on the west bank of the Guayas River where it widens toward the Gulf of Guayaquil. The Malecón runs the length of the old waterfront. Above it the painted houses of Las Peñas climb Santa Ana Hill in four hundred and forty-four steps. From the studio, the picture is the city at the bend of the river, the colour of the painted hill held against the estuary light.
Guayaquil, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Guayaquil sits at the mouth of the Guayas River on Ecuador's Pacific coast and is the country's largest city, with a metropolitan population of around three million. The Spanish founded it in 1538 under the name Santiago de Guayaquil. It is the country's principal port, handling the bulk of Ecuador's banana, shrimp, and cacao exports, and is the main air gateway for travellers heading to the Galápagos Islands, about 970 kilometres to the west.
The Guayas River is formed where the Daule and Babahoyo rivers meet just north of the city, and it runs about sixty kilometres south to the Gulf of Guayaquil. It is the largest estuary on the Pacific coast of South America. The Malecón 2000, a 2.5-kilometre redeveloped promenade opened in 2000, traces the west bank through the historic centre, lined with botanical gardens, monuments, and the Henry Morgan, a wooden replica pirate ship that runs short river cruises.
Las Peñas, at the north end of the Malecón, is the oldest neighbourhood in Guayaquil, founded in the sixteenth century. Its painted wooden houses climb Cerro Santa Ana along a staircase of 444 numbered steps, restored in 2002. The summit holds a small chapel, a lighthouse, and the open foundations of Fort San Carlos. The colour scheme of the houses — saturated blues, ochres, reds, greens — was set by the restoration and has held since.