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Published: February 26th 2011
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Today we are in Manta, Ecuador. Bet you never heard of this place. We had a city tour which took us to, among other places, the little town of Montechristi where Panama hats come from. Turns out Teddy R. was given one when he came down to open the canal, so he told everyone it was his Panama hat...and the rest is history. It can take three months to weave a hat although they can vary hugely in quality and price. We got a very simple one which I am wearing right now as we are sitiing on the deck, watching a tuna boat unload on the other side of the pier. That is the main industry here: tuna. It is pretty amazing to see these big boxes of fish being hauled out of the hold by a crane, then loaded onto a waiting flatbed truck. Not surprisingly, it kind of stinks around here!
Another place we stopped was a button factory. They have a certain kind of palm tree here that has seeds that are almost indistinguishable from ivory after they have been dried. So, they make lots of buttons as well as jewelry and small carved sculptures from these
seeds. We saw a demonstration of how they cut and carved the tagua seeds -- OSHA would not be amused! We were each given a packet of buttons as souvenirs...and we bought a pretty blue necklace, too.
As you can probably guess since we are in Ecuador, we will be crossing the equator soon, probably tomorrow. Yesterday we sat out on deck for a few hours, always completely in the shade, yet I still got very sunburned. So I guess I learned my lesson and will be covered with sunblock from now on.
Something I find interesting here is that their money is officially the U.S. dollar. Apparently they mint their own coins, but the bills are all American. I wonder if they pay us anything to use our money? One thing, it sure makes shopping easier when you don't have to convert prices!
We found out today that the train trip along the Panama Canal we had been planning to take has been cancelled. The minimum number of tickets had not been sold. Hugh was really looking forward to this trip, so he is feeling a little sad, I think.
On the brighter side, the captain told us last
night that the people in Lima
said, "Sure, we can supply you with potable water. But you can't drink it."
So while we were up in Machu Picchu, those who stayed on board had to make
do with paper napkins as part of a water saving effort. Oh, the horror of it! The ship is able to make more than enough water when it is out to sea, but sometimes needs to buy water when it stays in port for a night or two.
While I have been writing this, a second ship has started to unload its cargo of tuna, but in a different way. The crane drops a huge net down into the hold of the ship and, about a minute later, hauls out a huge pile of fish. It then swivels toward the pier and drops the load into the opening on top of a refrigerated truck. Seems like a far more hygenic method than the first. Absolutely fascinating to watch...at least for this Midwestern girl!
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Sarah
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My family and I moved to Cuenca, Ecuador almost three years ago. It’s been an amazing experience that has giving us a wider view of the world. We put together a report on Ecuador and the many thing to see and do here. If you would like more information on this please send an e-mail to petrapresident@gmail.com