Grand South America 2017: 2017.01.10 Manta Ecuador

Here we are docked where all the tuna fishing boats are located. Tuna fishing is the biggest industry here. They do not process the tuna, but export the raw product, as they do with most of the other raw products they produce. They had a 7.8 earthquake here in April of 2016; however, you cannot always tell what is earthquake damage and what is normal.

From its Inca treasures, vibrant cities, the variety of its terrain and its many species of birds and wildlife, Ecuador has a lot to get excited about. The mainland has three distinct region: The Andes Mountains that run north to south, the Pacific coast, and the Amazon Basin in the east. Ecuador still feels somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. Across the country you’ll find indigenous peoples who have lived for generations with little contact with the West. Manta is a relatively lively coast town in the area. The city has existed since pre-Columbian times and has served as the largest seaport in Ecuador for centuries. Just outside the tranquil coast town lie the villages where the famous Panama hats are woven. Ecuador has more than 1,600 species of birds, including many rare and endangered species. For example, Machalilla National Park is the only habitat outside of the Galapagos Islands of the waved albatross. Ecuador is one of the two countries that does not border Brazil, with Chile being the other one.

Our travel agency has an agreement with a group called Ensemble Hosted Cruises, where they have two people on the cruise with you and offer two free tours and cocktail parties on the ship. This group was also on the 2015 World Cruise we took. Here they are offering a tour in Manta, very similar to the one we took with them in 2015 and one in Rio. We will not do the Rio one, as I have already arranged a different tour there.

Our guide Havier is the same one we had here in Manta in 2015.

We start out the tour by driving alongside the Malecon, an ocean front walkway. Our first stop is to see how they make a typical Ecuador product, the Panama hat, so called because it was popularized in Panama when they were building the canal. We stopped at a ranch where the Mantenos showed us the complex process of constructing real fine Panama Hats. There are three types of hats: Monte Cristi, which you can roll up (the best), the kind you cannot roll, and those they will give us for dinner tomorrow night. The finer the weave the more expensive the hat. They range from $35 to $1000. The first step is to take the strands for the hat from the palm.

The next step is to boil the leaves to soften them, then cooled and dried before the final weaving takes place.

And before we left here, they had a local dance group perform.

The next stop was the “Tagua” button (vegetable ivory) factory.

This palm nut (as seen in the previous photo) is only found in parts of Colombia and Ecuador. The pod that holds the nut can weigh 3 kilos. The egg sized seed of the Tagua palm nut is at first soft, but will become as hard as ivory later. We watched the whole process.

For those of you who have seen my cat earrings, these are made from this nut.

Our last stop was Pacoche, a protected ecological sanctuary (this was not on the first tour we took).

There were more than 152 species of birds known to inhabit this sanctuary, as well as monkeys. We got to see some Howler Monkeys up in the trees when we stepped off the bus.

In the restaurant we had a cooking lesson and learned how to make a traditional appetizer, Plantain Turnover (Empanda). One person at the table had to make it and that was me. Here is me making and the finished product. It was very good. It was Plantain stuffed with cheese.

This was the appetizer for the Ecuadorean lunch that followed. The meal consisted of Cream of Carrot soup, Fish in Scandinavian sauce, Chicken in Orange sauce with fried manioc, and rice and steamed vegetables. For dessert we had lemon mousse and fruit salad. Here are a few pictures from the restaurant.