I agree with Fletcher! We embarked on the Moon in Guayaquil in December (replacement for our original embarkation point of Lima). While I wasn't thrilled to miss Lima, I was pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our short time in Guayaquil. We stayed at the Wyndham right by the water, which was very nice. Most of my family did a wonderful half-day tour of the city (private), with no restrictions whatsoever as to getting in or out of the van and certainly no armored guards. Of course, this was early days of Omicron so I suspect CatLover's experience the next month was tainted by that.
My husband and I visited a lovely modern upscale mall with our 15-year old daughter in an effort to quickly purchase clothing for her - Delta had mishandled her luggage in ATL and it didn't catch up to us until Puntarenas. We were very grateful to the hotel concierge for advising us on where to shop, and to the multitude of shops in the mall that catered to her taste. What could have started our cruise on a sour note turned out kind of fun - we even had a great lunch at the mall food court sampling some Ecuadorian specialties! All in all, a very good experience in Guayaquil.