Manta, Ecuador

Once again, I had tried to arrange for a tour in Manta before we boarded the ship with no reply. We just got off the ship and hoped for the best. We were at the gate of the port by about 8:15. We are in a commercial port, so had to take a shuttle to the gate. We were not allowed to walk. We asked about a taxi to take us to see the howler monkeys. They said it's about 1 1/2 hrs from Manta, fine. They charge $20/hour for touring, fine. Forty-five minutes later we were at Parque Pacoche, where they are trying to preserve the howler monkey population. The coast of Ecuador is a dry forest, but this small pocket was rain forest. We paid our $5 each and off we went into the jungle. Well, this trail was not flat for more than 10' at a time. It was up and down, up and down. The steps were mud with bamboo on the edge to hold them up and were all different heights and depths. Not an easy trail. After walking this for about 50 minutes, the guide did finally tell us that he hadn't seen monkeys in the area for about 10 days. Oh yea, :( We did get our exercise for the day!

We teased our driver, Alex, that the guide didn't get a tip because there were no monkeys. I think he took it to heart because he told me he was taking us to a zoo. Wasn't quite sure where that might be. Ended up being the National Park. He'd never been so I guess he doesn't realize that zoos would not be found there. Also, this park had a natural beach, and further along, an archeological site within the dry forest. No monkeys. We hadn't opted to go to the National Park because it was over 2 hours from Manta. Oh well. After that, Mel and I both had short naps in the car.

We stopped in the small town of Pila to look at the arts and crafts markets. It was mostly ceramics, painted a gaudy gold and black. We didn't buy anything. Further on was Monticristi, home of the Panama Hat. Turns out, workers from Ecuador who worked on the Panama Canal always wore those hats, so they became known as Panama Hats. Having lived in Panama, I know they also make them in Panama! We stopped at the cathedral and a small factory where they make hats (supposedly) and burlap type bags. By this time it was almost 2, so we were eager to get back to where we could at least see the ship! We had Alex drop us at a local arts and crafts market, then walked back to the port.

The markets we find all over the world have such beautiful things, at such inexpensive prices that we can't help but buy things. We are limiting ourselves somewhat though since we don't have unlimited luggage like in 09. This time we will be dragging anything we buy with us in Hong Kong, then on to Bangkok. Be both bought hats as well as a couple of trinkets. We just had an announcement from the Capt that everyone is onboard and we'll be setting sail as soon as we are cleared by the harbor master. On to Lima, Peru! We'll have one sea day before spending 2 days in port.

The picture is of a giant tuna! Manta is a big fishing port, lots of tuna.