The ship arrived in Manta before sunrise in order to allow
several passengers to disembark for an overland to the Galapagos Islands, an
adventure we would have enjoyed doing.
However, never having been to Ecuador, we opted to stay and see what the
area around Manta had to offer.
Ecuador is so named because of its location right on the
Equator, and our camera GPS systems verified this when we took our first
pictures. Latitude was 0° 57’. The port city of Manta is the largest city in
Ecuador that is not a provincial capital.
Usually we choose to do a Holland America shore excursion,
but this time we decided to go with tour organized by a fellow Cruise Critic
member. Karen Deacon had done an
excellent job of researching and finding just the right tour that would
optimize our time in Manta and allow us to see as much as possible.
Our tour guide Diego, an English teacher in a private school,
took the day off to show our group the sights.
Needless to say, his English was excellent! Chuck told him that he had our whole-hearted
approval because being substitute teachers ourselves, we appreciate it when
teachers need subs (but don’t wish them to be sick with the flu or anything else)!
Exiting the port, we were impressed by the great number of
fishing boats and fishermen who were present.
But when we learned that over 60% of the Manta population relies on the
tuna industry, we understood why they were so ubiquitous! Between the port and our first stop at the
fish market, we navigated several roundabouts, all of which had mosaic statues
that represented the fishing industry. The other two most important industries are
bananas and petroleum (which means gas is less expensive in our eyes, but
considering their cost of living, the average price of $1.75 to $2.50 a gallon
is quite expensive for them). Ecuador,
by the way, has no currency of its own, but instead uses the American dollar as
its own currency. To understand how
expensive gas would be, Diego told us that a beginning teacher might earn about
$300 a month salary.
Wandering through the fish market, we were fascinated by the
array of seafood that was on sale. In
addition to the various stalls of fish, many people tried to lure us into their
eating establishments. Since we’d just
had breakfast on the ship, none of us was tempted to make any culinary
purchases. In addition to the fish,
there was quite an abundance of birds.
One very large bird posed on top of a lamp post, and when I asked, Diego
told me it was a kingfisher. I had never
realized they could grow so big – it was about the size of a red-tailed hawk!
As we headed toward our next stop in the town of
Montecristi, we were reminded once again of our 2008 trip to Peru with the
Lincoln-Way teachers. Many of the houses
appeared to be unfinished, with cables poking above the top floors as if
another floor would be added. We asked
the guide if, like in Peru, this was a way for people to avoid taxes on homes,
but he wasn’t sure. We were also struck
by the amount of graffiti on the walls – all with names of people and
numbers. Diego said that they were
campaign signs as the country is approaching election time. There was an audible groan from the Americans
in the group! All of us were pretty
sick of campaigning!
Many of the buildings we passed had small shops with
colorful wares – most of which appeared to be wicker, hammocks, or Panama
hats. Bamboo is used a lot in Ecuador;
in fact many of the structures were at least partially constructed with bamboo.
Our little bus climbed the steep streets of the colonial
town of Montecristi to the civic center, which honors the man voted the most
influential and prominent Ecuadorean ever:
General Jose Eloy Alfaro Delgado (whom they refer to as Eloy Alfaro). Arriving at the site, we were all immediately
taken with a group of about a dozen small children of about kindergarten age
that were arriving at the same time. As
they disembarked the bus, we watched the teachers line them up in boy-girl
pairs, holding hands. The teachers
didn’t seem to mind us snapping pictures, and the children were quite willing
to pose for us. They were adorable, and
I can never see a group of little children on field trips without recalling my own
experiences of escorting classes. I used
to love being out and about with my students and taking them to interesting
locations, so I thoroughly enjoy watching others do the same.
But we weren’t there to see the children; we’d come to see
the mausoleum, government building, and a Panama hat demonstration. We were struck by a saying on the wall by
Simon Bolivar of what appeared to be the congressional hall: “Nada para nosotros, todo para la Patria,”
which translates to “Nothing for ourselves, everything for our country.” I know of many American politicians who could
learn a lesson from that quote!
We proceeded across the street to the mausoleum of Eloy
Alfaro. The approach is surrounded by
large sculptures that represent the wings of a condor, and the interior, where
the ashes of this prominent leader are housed, represents the body. It was quite an impressive structure!
Just a few steps away was the largest Panama hat we’ve ever
seen, surrounded by several people who were demonstrating the art of weaving
these iconic hats. It takes a lot of
skill to produce a quality hat! But the
hats have been misnamed. Back in the
early 1900s when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Panama to witness the
progress being made on the Panama Canal, he was given a woven hat that had been
made in Ecuador. When he arrived back
from Panama wearing this hat, the press referred to it as his Panama hat! So this misnomer can be blamed on the
media. Some things never change, I
guess.
In Montecristi, we were given time to shop, and several
people made purchases of hats. Another
typical souvenir is small buttons or sculptures made from the nut of the tagua
palm, an indigenous Ecuadorean tree.
These nuts, when raw, are about the size of an egg, and when treated,
soften up and can easily be carved into beautiful works of art that when dried
become as hard as ivory. In fact, tagua
nuts are now used in place of elephant ivory.
On our way to lunch, we passed through what Diego described
as a dry forest. Other than an
occasional glimpse at the ceiba tree ,the national tree, also nicknamed the
female tree because if its shapely trunk, everything else in the landscape was
certainly brown. But as Diego commented
several times, Ecuador is a country of contrasts. Within a few minutes, we had crossed from the
dry forest to the Paroche Forest, with its lush green foliage. We stopped at a hacienda for lunch, but
unfortunately for Chuck and me, the menu consisted of seafood and more
seafood. Most of the people really
enjoyed it, but we could only get a little down at best. The shrimp cocktail was fine, but the main
course was some kind of fish steak (swordfish?) smothered in a cream sauce and
accompanied by more shrimp, as well as squid, octopus, and clams. The only thing they had to drink was tap
water, so we skipped that too. Others had beer, but since we were the last
table served, they had run out of Coke by the time they reached us. We weren’t worried about wasting away though,
and it was certainly wasn’t anyone’s fault that we are not at all fond of fish
or seafood. The lime pastry dessert was
yummy, though! And we enjoyed the company
of fellow Cruise Critic bloggers, Orlin and Barbara Stansfield.
Back on the bus, we continued through the Pacoche forest,
scanning the canopy in hopes of seeing the howler monkeys who live there. We had been forewarned that they are much
easier to hear than to see, but we neither heard nor saw them. We enjoyed the ride through the forest,
despite not seeing the local fauna! A
final stop was made at a fishing village where people were able to snap photos
of the lovely seascape before the drive back to Manta.
As we returned to the ship, we could see that fishermen were
in the process of unloading a large haul of tuna. We managed to observe the entire operation
from our verandah. It was fascinating
watching them haul nets loaded with tuna from the hull of the boats and dump
them into bins on the backs of trucks.
Once the bins were full, a tarp was placed over them, the truck pulled
out, and another truck backed up to the boat to continue the process. These fish had been packed in dry ice, and
the vapors steamed the air as the nets reached the warmer tropical air.
Captain Mercer told us that one of the boat owners lived
part of the year in Florida, and as a good-will gesture, he gave the ship
several fresh tuna. Now that says a
lot. We heard later that the cooks on
board the ship had brought pizzas out for the dock workers. I guess that says a lot about the mutual
respect between two contrasting seafaring groups!
People often ask us if we ever get bored on our sea
days. The answer is a resounding no!! On the first sea day after Ecuador, I
literally began to wonder if I would ever find time to write up a blog because
there were so many activities I wanted to participate in on the ship. I finally
decided that the stargazing club would have to go on without me. Those who know me well know that I love to
stargaze, so this was a sacrifice! We
have had some wonderful lectures and entertainment so far – and HAL Chorale
hasn’t started yet!!! I’m not sure how
I’ll squeeze that in! The other night celebrity
guest John Amos gave an extemporaneous chat about his career and how he
progressed from being a garbage man in his home town in New Jersey to being cut
from every imaginable football team to being a veteran actor. (Our friend Merlin Lawson in particular will
get a kick out of John Amos’s humble beginnings! By the way, Happy Birthday to Merlin as well
as Pam, with whom we enjoyed celebrating in the Pinnacle Grill last January 12th.) We’ve also had a very interesting speaker who
has taken us through the history of several Broadway plays: The Music Man, West Side Story, Fiddler on
the Roof, and quite appropriately, South
Pacific, which he is including because our next several stops after Peru
will be in the South Pacific. This
speaker is the third of three Explorations Lecturers, the other two being the
Panama Canal expert and his wife, “the star lady”, all of whom will disembark
in Lima. We always try to stop in and
listen to Debby Bacon sometime during the evening. She has really developed quite a following,
which is no surprise to those of us who enjoyed her musical talent on the 2012
cruise. Last night I counted no less than
50 people squeezed into the piano bar to listen to her music.
So if a person is bored on sea days, it’s his own
fault! There is a wide variety of
activities – lectures, music, lifestyle classes, book club, onboard games, watercolor
and craft classes, just to name a few.
BT
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