Samborondón

Samborondon is a parish and town in Ecuador’s Guayas province. It is the seat of Samborond%C3%B3n Canton, which consist of 105 localities and two urban parishes (La Puntilla) and Samborondón Town (Cabecera cantonal) and one rural parish (Tarifa). La Puntilla's parish is one of the most exclusive residential and entertainment districts in Ecuador. It has many Gated Communities (urbanizaciones cerradas), and several retail developments are located in the suburb. Its close proximity to the country's largest city, Guayaquil (merely crossing a bridge), allows many of its residents to work there. Most of the upper-class families in Guayaquil live at La Puntilla's Parish in Samborondón.

History
Samborondon was founded on May 24, 1776 and achieved its independence on October 10, 1822. Since October 31, 1955 the suburb has been a canton.

The name Samborondon comes from Saint Brendan, in Spanish "San Borondón". The name of the Saint was commonly used in Spain and subsequently in Latin America for towns and villages. The name "Samborondón", in general usage, often refers to the rich downtown area of the canton called La Puntilla. In fact, Samborondon consists of a much larger area than just La Puntilla, which is a peninsula between the rivers Babahoyo and Daule (where the River Guayas is formed).

Health care
A new branch of the Kennedy Hospital, a private hospital chain, was finished in 2007 and is now in use. There are also a few building complexes specially built for medical practices.

Shopping and entertainment
The local shopping center, Riocentro Entrerios has many retail stores, a hypermarket, a food court, and a cinema. The Village Plaza was inaugurated in August 2010. A hypermarket from the Supermaxi chain and other 90 stores have been announced. Bocca, La Piazza, La Torre, Las Terrazas, Plaza Lagos, Alhambra, Piazza, and Plaza Navona are smaller shopping centers, mainly around exclusive restaurants, gyms, nightclubs and stores.

One of the best theaters in Ecuador, Teatro Sánchez Aguilar, is also in this area.

Tourism
The Parque Histórico, a botanical garden and zoo of the local fauna and flora with reconstructions of historical buildings, is one of the main tourist attractions of Guayaquil.

Samborondon has a Hotel Boutique, Orilla del Rio, located in Entrerios. Its proximity to Guayaquil (5 minutes by car, pedestrian access prohibited on the bridge) makes this unproblematic for a visitor, except on peak hours (7–8 a.m. and 4–7 p.m.)

Samborondon is also home to the most exclusive nightclubs in Greater Guayaquil and there are three restaurants-complex with luxurious and innovative cuisine, that otherwise are not found in the city.

Education
Due to the increasing growth of the area, many schools have relocated or established branch campuses from Guayaquil and Quito to Samborondon. Most of them are exclusive private schools, among them Colegio Menor, Abdon Calderon, Torremar and Delta (belonging to Opus Dei), Nuevo Mundo, Liceo Panamericano, Moderna Sergio Pérez Valdez, Centro Educativo Naciones Unidas, La Moderna, CREAR and Monte Tabor. The German School Guayaquil inaugurated a second Kindergarten in Samborondon on April 13, 2009. There are 23 public elementary schools in the Canton.

The first university located in the suburb was the Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, which opened its doors on 1994. Another university, Ecotec has relocated to the suburb. Since 2000 the ESPOL (Technical University of the littoral) has an annex called PROTCOM in Samborondon, though it only offers 2 courses, leading to a technical associate degree.