Manta, Ecuador

I have to say we threw caution sonewhat to the wind during our visit to Manta. None of the ship shore excursions really appealed to us and similarly my on-line research did not find what I wanted – a simple tour to the rainforest to see if I could sight a sloth. Instead we decided to see what we could find once ashore.

In the cruise terminal they had English speaking co-ordinators organising tourist taxis. As a bonus the people in the queue in front of us also wanted to go to the rainforest and asked if we wanted to join them to split the $100 USD fare (they also wanted to go to the lighthouse which made it a 4hr excursion). We happily accepted. Patricio, our driver, did not speak English but had Google translate on his phone.

Of course there was no working seatbelts in the back seat! And Patricio wasn’t shy to overtake on a solid centre line. But I am pleased to say we made it to the rainforest in one piece.

Unfortunately we didn’t see any howler monkeys or sloths, but it was still an interesting walk. The guides are all locals – you pay $5USD per person directly to your guide. Her English, although not fantastic, was heaps better than our Spanish and she was very creative, using her visuals and demonstrations to get her message across.

Cannon ball tree

Small cannonballs are used to make maracas.

Male ivory nut tree

Female ivory nut tree

Ivory nuts are used to make buttons, carvings and jewellery

The thorns on this tree were used as blow darts. An insect lays its larvae in this tree. The locals eat them cooked.

After the rainforest we headed to the Lighthouse at San Lorenzo.

Using Google Translate, Patricio told us that once we started the walk he would drive the taxi to meet us on the other side at the beach.

The other couple we were with were from NZ. Hidekko was Japanese and her husband Philip was 83 and Chinese. Once at the start of the climb Hidekko started to have second thoughts. We said that if they wanted to turn back, no problem, we would get the taxi to return to collect them. Phillip’s response was, “We here, we do!” And to his credit he did! They were not the longest or the steepest steps we have done this trip, but perhaps the most treacherous as there were large sections where the handrail was laying beside the track or the steps washed out or the double whammy of no handrail and washed out steps.

Pacific Ocean views.

There were loads of Condors flying on the thermals.

No public liability in Ecuador I assume!

Mark went ahead to let Patricio know that Philip and Hidekko might take a little longer and I stayed back to help Philip if required. He did an amazing job.

When Mark got down to the base of the stairs he was expecting the taxi but instead only saw a track. He jogged up the track until it met the road – no taxi. By the time he got back to the beach we had arrived so we walked a little further along the beach and there he was at the first proper road. I wasn’t really worried about being abandoned as we still had not paid him.

The Mon Repos of Ecuador!

The bonus of a taxi over a tour bus was that if something interested popped into view Patricio had no problem with just stopping so that we could get a photo.

After being dropped back at the cruise terminal we had a cold drink before heading out to explore Manta on foot.

It had to be tried once!

Along with tourism, fishing is a big part of Ecuador’s economy. The port where we docked was a working dock. This vessel beside us started unloading its catch in the morning and they were still going when we returned in the afternoon.