It’s probably a good
thing we had cloudy skies today in Manta, Ecuador, as it would have been very
hot otherwise, being located right on the equator. As it was, it was humid as
we are right in the middle of the rainy season.
Manta is the fourth
most important city in Ecuador, and has the largest tuna fishing fleet (in
South America I think I heard them say.) It isn’t a particularly pretty city,
or even has much to offer, other than being the site of the South American
Windsurfing Competition. It does have a reasonable boat building industry. The
boats are primarily big fishing boats.
Steve and I took a
taxi today to Montecristi, where Panama hats are made. We each purchased one,
along with a nice little box to carry it in. The box resembles an oversize
wooden pencil case. When we got back to the ship, we took them out of the boxes
and tried to get them to look as dashing as they did when we purchased them.
Hopefully the look will get better as we practise!
Our taxi driver Daniel
was very nice. He didn’t speak much English, but our Spanish seemed to be
enough to get us through. We visited the marketplace in Monecristi and
purchased a few little odds and ends. The prices are very barrato (cheap). Gas
here is less than $1.00 PER GALLON! He said it was because Ecuador has lots of
oil. I wanted to tell him that Canada had lots of oil as well, but our gas is
nowhere near $1.00 per gallon. However, my Spanish wasn’t quite up to it.
Back onboard ship for
a late lunch, then took in a movie. We saw The Candidate with Will Ferrell. Bad
language...stupid script...over the top...but sort of semi-funny in some spots.
Tonight we will
probably turn in early as we helped one of the onboard entertainers celebrate
her birthday last night and we are both feeling the effects today.
Tomorrow we are in
Guayaquil where we are booked on an excursion to see some ancient temples.
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