Manta Ecuador

tuna boat unloading all day long

We are pulling into the harbour, we are about an hour late because we left Lima so late but that only means we are arriving around 8 am.  We dock and on the other side of the dock is a tuna boat that is off loading frozen tuna, it was still unloading the tuna when we left the harbour at 6 pm.

We have a tour today that Sandy from Cruisecritic organized.  We meet ashore at 9 am with our guide, there are ten of us in the tour.  Our guide Terresa was very knowledgeable and her English was very good but some pronunciation of words was interesting in fact one time we thought she was talking about bottles, when in fact it was buttons she was saying.  That was funny.

I wish I could actually name the places we actually visited but the tour group was just a bit much!  It seemed that two people just talked and talked and constantly complained that it really took away from the tour.  Every chance we could we got away from them as fast as we could. 

 

I wanted to learn more about Equador and especially Manta and tried to speak one on one with Teressa.  I also wanted her to know that we were not with those two couples. 

Panama hats started here and you will see them everywhere!  Definitely try one on and maybe buy one!

Our next stop was a beautiful rainforest.  We arrive and start getting bitten by mosquitoes, thankfully the guide had repellent but had to laugh when a woman in our group said “I didn’t realize there would be mosquitoes here” gee I wonder what she was expecting.

The walk thru the rain forest only takes about a half hour but it is muddy and the humidy is at 100%, and it is hot, and the terrain is up and down.  Half of the group stayed behind, but sadly the one guy who never shut up came along.  The signs said silence – we wanted to hear the birds, the frogs, the monkeys but all we could hear was this guy (who will remain nameless) complain, ask tons of question “how much longer” “why didn’t they warn us it was like this” over and over.  At one point the guy came to Bernie and said “I am under distress” and Bernie said “doesn’t look like you because you never shut up”.  Well that shut him up but not for long he just went looking for someone else to complain to. 

We did see lots of birds, and two howler monkeys and beautiful plants. 

We then arrived back at the meeting spot and was served a lovely meal of either chicken or fish.  We had the fish and it was outstanding!

Now for the drive back…  and all I can think is get me back to the ship because again we can’t hear the guide because these two are yapping constantly.  One actually had the nerve to make a phone call home and then complained when she missed something.

Okay I have vented enough.  Overall the tour was great and would do it again but I learned a lesson today, only go on tours with those you know and like.

Once back on board we relax for the rest of the afternoon catching up with Barb and Craig and their day.  I head over to Alice’s cabin for a glass of wine and sailaway.  When I get back to the cabin Barb and Craig come over and we enjoy a few glasses of wine.  Barb is suffering with that cold.

Bernie and I agree that dinner in the Horizon Court is again in order.  We meet up with Russell and Gail there and then head downstairs to see what is happening about the ship.  We check out the pictures from the Crossing the Equator ceremony, and I buy the one of me and we also get a picture of the two of us from the renewal ceremony.

We are with Derrick and Connie and we try our hand at the Multi Media Trivia and we came in third, but really enjoyed it.

I am just going to post all this now, the internet went down two days ago and it has just come back up.