While being chauffeured around Ecuador by some of my cousins years ago, I quickly got up to speed on some of Guayaquil's peculiar driving practices.

It’s not unusual to see mothers holding babies while riding on the backs of motorcycles.

Stopping at red lights after dark in some neighborhoods is not always advised.

There’s plenty of space for passengers in the bed of the pickup.

As strange as I found some of Ecuador’s rules of the road, one in particular, I thought, actually made a lot of sense. I learned it while walking into the path of a slowly approaching car in a shopping mall parking lot — as we Americans routinely do back home. My cousin quickly advised me never to do that again.

"We always let the cars pass first," she said. "You can’t assume a car will stop for you over here.

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