Eating Cheap in Guayaquil, Ecuador

All this for $2.25, tax included

Almuerzo is the best value, but there were other choices, too

In Guayaquil, many of the restaurants in the Centro (downtown) area offer Almuerzos Ejecutivos (Executive Lunches).  Basically, it is a Monday-Friday special marketed to workers on their lunch break.

Almuerzos (literally translated, "lunch") are fixed menu meals.  You start with soup and then have a couple of choices for el Segundo ("second", the main course).   Today's main entree choices included marinated chicken, breaded calamari, or beef.

Today I enjoyed a beef soup, along with marinated chicken, rice and a pasta salad, which had ham in it.  Fresh juice was also included.  The total price:  $2.25.

This was more than enough food, but we remembered a bakery we saw earlier in the day inside a grocery store.  We stopped for Pan de Pina and two bottles of water.  The pineapple bread was $.30 each and the 500 mL water, $.31.

As long as you are willing to eat like a local, you can eat in Ecuador for really cheap.