Fish and Children

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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 bus passed through town, construction workers, storekeepers and residents going about their daily tasks would stop, smile and wave at us.

We were visiting a museum at the same time a class of second graders was there. Our guide explained that these children were from a poor, remote village (but they were in clean uniforms) and had never seen people that “look like you”. Within a few minutes there was improtive exchange with eight year olds and much-older-than-eight year olds exchanging names, shaking hands and in some cases toughing hair. There aren’t many Ecuadorians with blond or red hair…(let alone that blue color that some of our more senior companions sport!!)

One of our stops was at the 300 person village of Trajillo. There are two factories that weave a pampas grass plant into fabric. Commercially the product is made into bags used to ship coffee beans. At the “factory” we visited the reeds are converted to bags using manually operated spinning and weaving machines and completed at electric sewing machine situated under a bare light bulb. Somehow this entrepearnal village convinced the tour operator to bring 300 cruiseship visitors. Villagers set up tables in the town square to sell handicrafts. It was a wonderful example of a village expanding from manufacturing to manufacturing and tourism. Unfortunately it was raining while we were there and the inside of factory was quite dark so photos didn’t happen but it was one of those forever memories.

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Photos

Monte Cristo Market
Monte Cristo is home to the Panama hat. A high quality hat can sell for $100 in Monte Cristo (it would be several thousand in the States).

Starkist by Tomorrow
Fish being unloaded from commercial fishing boat. Starkist is one of two processors in Manta.

Fresh Frozen
Fish are frozen as soon as they are caught. Notice the 'steam' rising from this net full of cold fish.