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Published: November 30th 2014
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Manta - 11/29/2014 - Day 6
Hotel was quiet last night, considering we're on a busy street. Went out to explore Manta. Walked through the central area and the markets. Many fruit stands, live chickens, roosters, crabs, fabric, everything you could ever want. We checked out Hostel San Francisco, another option from Lonely Planet. Price was just the same as Hotel Leo ($35). We crossed the river (Rio Manta), which separates Manta from the little town of Tarqui. 'Tarqui is a little more run-down than Manta. Found an entry to the beach, several huge ships in the harbor. We looked for a place for breakfast with fruit, but just found fish and chicken. Stopped for lemonade and water. Hot aleady at 9:30am. Loud music. In the evening there are many soccer and volleyball games on the beach.
We passed through the boatyard, where huge old boats were being reconstructed, painted, and generally repaired. Some were being built from scratch. Interesting to see the underlying structure. A little further northwest up the beach was the huge outdoor fish market. A huge number of booths were set up under a tarped roof. All types and sizes of fish and
sea creatures were for sale. Smelled a little fishy though! Venders were selling fresh fish along the beach too. This was the perfect spot for gulls and egrets, so much easy free food. Many cars and taxis were driving the beach.
Continued on our walk and stopped for another cola. The waitress was a cute little girl with braids. Didn't find any shells along the beach. This was good, according to Bob, because we don't need any more to carry.
Walked back to the central area. We have never seen so many taxis in a city. Noticed that gas is $2.29 here. Stopped at the bus depot to check on buses to Montanita. One company told us you can't get there from here. You have to go to Lopez down the coast, then get another form of transportation. Happened upon another bus company (Manglaralto) which goes directly to Montanita. Seems they don't want to give each other any business. We leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning on our trip down the coast. Bob is anxious to find a hammock!
Many food stands around the bus depot. Stopped for some fresh orange juice.
We sure are drinking alot here. Went back to the hotel to find a good place to blog and hang out. Bob found the rooftop. Got good views of the city and the ocean from there. Later walked the city again. Found Avenue 3, which was closed off to traffic and contained some shops and sidewalk cafes. It was here we found Travador Cafe, the perfect spot for a fruit bowl and fruit drink.
Further along we found the Open Air Theater and Plaza. First we noticed one iguana, then two, three, four. One was even up in a tree. They were crawling all over entertaining the kids (and us). We saw a young man pointing his camera up in the trees and taking photos. He showed us where to look, but we didn't see anything. Finally we asked him to write the name of the creature down for us. We went back to the hotel and googled "oso peresoso", which turned out to be a brown throated, 3-toed sloth. We hurried back to the park for a stake-out. Unfortunately we never saw him, but at least now we knew what we were looking for. It made
for an interesting afternoon.
Later in the evening we walked a long way to Parillada El Colorado on Avenue 19 and Flavio Reyes. It is a very casual place with outdoor seating, serving delicious chicken and steak from a sizzling outdoor grill. Huge servings of meat, salad, rice, beans, and patacones all for $5 per person. Delicious!
Tomorrow we continue on down the coast to Montanita. Hopefully we will find Internet. If not, we'll be off-line for several days.
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