Current Time in Eloy Alfaro, Ecuador

Eloy Alfaro, known to almost everyone as Durán, lies on the eastern bank of the Guayas River in the coastal lowlands of Ecuador, directly opposite the port city of Guayaquil. Its full official name honours Eloy Alfaro, the liberal general and president who transformed the country at the turn of the twentieth century. The setting is hot, humid and flat, with mangrove channels, banana plantations and rice fields spreading east and the low hill of Las Cabras rising unexpectedly out of the plain.

The city has a population of well over two hundred and fifty thousand and is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Ecuador. It forms an integral part of the Guayaquil metropolitan area, the largest urban agglomeration in the country, and functions as its industrial and logistics flank, with factories, warehouses, cement plants and food processing works lining the highways that lead inland.

Durán's history is inseparable from the railway. In the nineteenth century it was the point where river steamers from Guayaquil met the road into the interior, and when Eloy Alfaro pushed through the construction of the Guayaquil to Quito railway, one of the boldest engineering projects in South America, Durán became its coastal terminus. From here trains set off to climb the Andes past the celebrated Devil's Nose switchbacks. The workshops and locomotive sheds gave the town its identity for decades, and the historic station, restored as part of the national railway heritage programme, remains its most cherished monument. The canton was separated from Guayaquil in 1986 and given its official name.

Landmarks include that station and its rolling stock, the Cerro Las Cabras viewpoint over the delta, the riverside malecón with views of the Guayaquil skyline, and the long Unidad Nacional bridge, opened in 1970, which carries the main highway across the Guayas and effectively created the modern city. Nearby lie the ecological reserve of Manglares Churute, a protected expanse of mangrove and tropical dry forest rich in birds, howler monkeys and dolphins, and the archaeological sites of the ancient coastal cultures of the Guayas basin.

Local life is thoroughly coastal Ecuadorian, built around football, seafood and family celebrations. Encebollado, ceviche and green plantain dishes are everyday food, the canton's foundation is celebrated in January, and the marimba, salsa and cumbia heard in the streets reflect the mixed Montubio, Afro-Ecuadorian and highland migrant population that has settled here.

Transport dominates daily routine, as tens of thousands of residents commute across the bridge to Guayaquil by bus each day, while the Aerovía cable car and improved bus corridors have eased the journey. Roads lead east towards Quito and south towards Machala, and Guayaquil's international airport is close by. Schooling is provided locally, with universities concentrated across the river.

Eloy Alfaro is a young, hard-working city with a proud railway past, and it offers an unvarnished view of everyday life in coastal Ecuador.