Blogs from Manta, West, Ecuador, South America - page 2

Hola todos ustedes! This is just a short note to let you (especially those of you who sent comments asking if we were OK....bless you) know we are still alive. Our trip to the Amazon was wonderful (more detail and photos to come later this week) since we had little free time and no internet. Only problem was Mike came down with an even worse cold the night before we had to fly back to Quito. We only had one day in Quito and he slept through it. Then we flew to Manta for 4 days on the beach. His cold got a bit better and Katy caught it. So she is reading and resting and watching Humpback whales breaching far from the shore while Mike is going swimming and walking. We will be here all ... read more

December 28, 2011 Santa Marta, Colombia 18N 241471, 0955472 We have been camping in the guy Luis´s backyard for a few nights now. We met him when we got off the bus stop and were looking for a place to camp, and he invited us. He´s quite excited about us staying here because he wants to learn English. It´s also kind of funny because he won´t let us speak Spanish. Something I´ve noticed down here is that the men don´t necessarily treat the women like equals. Actually, most men frequently won´t even address me. They will ask Jared, ¨Is she tired?¨ or ¨Does she want rice?¨ I always answer when they ask, of course, because how would he know? This generally throws them off a bit, ha. I went SCUBA diving again today in Taganga, a ... read more

Manta Ecuador, Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Manta, Ecuador is a commercial fishing town which appeals to cruise ships because it is near Monte Cristo (home to Panama hat production) and because passengers can make a day trip (including a flight) to Quito, Ecuador. Quito is 16 miles south of equator at 9200 ft. which places it “directly under the sun all year”. Besides being a UNESCO World Heritage site it is agriculture heaven. I visited Quito in 2000. Today I opted for a tour to some of the Manta sites including nearby Monte Cristo which I expect to be the highlight but was in for a surprise. Manta hosts six or seven cruise ships each season (January - March) and several of them are small ships. Visitors are still unique in this fishing village. As our ... read more

Our march along the west coast of South America in search of waves continued across the Peru-Ecuador border to Monteñita, Ecuador. We crossed the border (a border crossing deemed the ¨worst¨ in all of South America for shady practices that commonly occur there) smoothly during the night and arrived in the muddy streets of Monteñita early the following morning. Now, Monteñita had been hyped up to us for quite some time. Months before I even embarked on this trip, Palo was telling me that good times await in Monteñita, and every backpacker we´ve met along the way has reaffirmed his words. Frankly, however, the timing was off for us. We arrived in Monteñita for the last night of Carnaval and it was an absolute zoo. The tiny, tourist beach town was overwhelmed with Ecuadoreans and more ... read more

Manta is a mid-sized city in Manabí Province, Ecuador. It is the second most populous city in the province, the fifth most populous in the country. Manta has existed since Pre-Columbian times. It was a trading post for the Mantas. A second, big-time disappointment in Ecuador. Yet again, not because there was anything wrong with the destination, but because of misrepresentation and questionable practices on the part of our Ecuadorian agent. We had previously been advised that the trip to Montecristi - where Panama Hats are made - had to be rearranged because of social unrest. We had elected already not to do this trip because M thought it would be yet another "commercial opportunity" situation (and other passengers later informed us that this did prove to be the case). We were also warned that Manta ... read more