The view of the Cathedral of Guayaquil from the 10th floor of the Hotel Continental, where I stayed for a night. I chose the Hotel Continental partly because it overlooked the Iguana Park, but mainly because it reminded me of the fictional Hotel El Dorado from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galápagos. Like the El Dorado, the Continental is located on the Calle 10 de Agosto, in the heart of Guayaquil. In the novel, it was the place people gathered before taking off for the Galápagos Islands, just like I did the next day.