Manga part 2!

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Manta part two!



Okay so the port of Manta is a working area.....see by the photos, mainly tuna fishing. (i don’t think it’s really fishing when you dredge with a net though). There doesn’t seem to be a, line caught, fishing policy here yet! The ships and lorries are just outside our balcony and they worked all day yesterday and are starting up again now.



Once Dave recovered sufficiently from his pass out spell, we headed out again. The artisan market was really nice and I bought an ivory nut necklace. As before, the nut is as hard as ivory, looks like ivory but is completely made from the seed of a plant. Once dried, the ivory nut seed is hard enough to drive coaches over without damaging them. It can then be dyed, carved and made into all manner of trinkets and jewellery.



The streets around the artisan market were not as vibrant as the market itself. It was interesting to walk around though and the people seemed friendly and keen to sell us stuff. (stuff like remote controls for TVs)



We had a mission yesterday to find a stamp to post two postcards I had bought in Peru. I never knew how much trouble it would be to find a stamp. We were helpfully directed to a post office which was, literally, inside a hole in a wall which we had to climb through.....but the post office didn’t sell stamps. She directed us to go to a hotel around a mile and a half away and assured us they would help.



So we wandered in that general direction and actually stumbled across the posher side of town. It was really nice with beautiful beach boardwalks, a very large (and thankfully air conditioned) mall and lots of stalls and bars along the beach front. We spent the rest of the afternoon there and actually bought some art from a really cool spray paint artist.



We found the hotel and, yes! They had stamps..... liane, I hope little ones know it took two countries and miles of walking to find a stamp for their card! Pete.....I hope it arrives before we get back!



The mall was a funny place....really modern and nice to walk around. One of the shops was selling a mixture of things.... footballs, clothing, toys.....a fully kitted out dentist chair and hospital beds..... I was like...er...dentist chairs???? Dave asked me where were people meant to by dentist chairs if not in a mall.... fair point.



The heat here is just incredible....humid too so our clothes stuck to us after only a few minutes but it’s such a nice place it doesn’t matter bout the heat. There are plenty of pit stops to be had and the beach is just huge...you could walk along it for miles.



Like Peru, don’t attempt to cross the road without the assistance of police officers. There are no zebra crossings and just one light controlled crossing....it gets ignored anyway. Lots of police dotted around anyway...it’s safe and interesting.



We are just about to head out for our second day here.



Tara



Ps mum... cruising is awesome!

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