World cruise 6

January 13

Wow! We've been on board for over a week now! That's one sixteenth of the trip that has already zipped by! And we crossed the equator at 1:00 a.m. this morning. (Neither M nor I were awake for it.)

Today we are at Manta, Ecuador. Margaret went off to a bird sanctuary on an island somewhere, while I took a tour of the city. South American tour buses are great because they have fat lady size seat belts. And tour bus drivers all over the world are great at maneuvering their vehicles into and out of very tight places. I sit in awe of them. This bus in Manta was the bumpiest ride I've had since Batumi, Georgia in 2010. Batumi was flat. Manta is steep in all directions. But I'm not complaining about the bumpy ride because I was in the front seat and could see the size of the bumps and potholes the driver was avoiding!

Manta is the tuna capital of the world...mostly yellow fin. They also farm shrimp, and those two items are their second biggest export. The biggest is oil, and the third biggest is buttons of all shapes, sizes and colors (or at least so our guide said). In just a few years a road will be completed between Manta and Manaus, Brazil. That's one of the reasons that Manta is growing so fast. There is construction everywhere, much of it a result of foreign investments. For example, Hyundai is building a huge facctory here, and until it gets going, is importing cars at a huge rate. That pretty much explains the absolute swarm of tiny yellow taxis here as well as in Colombia.

Our first stop was at an anthropological museum. It was small but very nicely done with lovely murals showing the early native peoples with the most amazing large Roman noses. The museum was on the fifth floor and was accessed by a small, somewhat cranky elevator. It seemed to take several security guards to operate it, and took a number of trips to get all 29 of us up there.

We stopped at several places where different things are made. First was one that carves things out of tagua nuts. The tagua is a type of palm tree found in upland rain forests. The nuts are brown on the outside and ivory white sometimes veined with brown on the inside. Carved versions include small animals, jewelry, and of course, buttons.

Then we stopped at a village where there is a factory that makes bags for coffee beans out of agave fiber. Our guide told us that here in Ecuador, they don't use agave for tequila, but for its fiber. Outside were a number of little stalls selling stuff like "Panama" hats, leather belts, stoles, and bath mitts made of the agave fiber. I was sitting on my walker looking at some stoles when a young woman came up and tried to sell me a bath mitt which she demonstrated on my back. Then a few other women joined in trying to sell me hats, trying them on me almost like a comedy jugglig act (they were all too small and sat way up on my head). All of us had a good laugh out of this, I got a nice back rub, and I eventually bought an agave fiber back scrubber. The photo here is the rest of our busload being swarmed by hat and belt salespeople.

Next stop was a Civic Center way up on the mountain where they had a demonstration museum place with people actually weaving the Montichristi version of the "Panama" hats. They are mostly woven by women who work standing up and bent over a hat form doing the intricate weaving with fine fibers on the side away from them. These hats are much finer and fancier in appearance than most other styles. Now M has a Montichristi hat.

At the Civic Center there was a live band waiting to play for the various tour buses. I should have taken a photo, but didn't. There were 6 of them, all in matching purple shirts. There was a bass drum, snare drums, two other percussion instruments that sounded like maracas but looked like cheese graters, one trumpet and one saxaphone. The music was repetitive with the trumpet and sax taking turns playing the same short phrase, almost drowned out by the others, but it was enthusiastic. I did, however, get a nice view of the town of Montichristi as you can see.

There was one last stop for a quick group hike through a cathedral (I stayed on the bus) and then back to the ship. So far I have been impressed that the people on my tours have been the on-time-back-on-the-bus kind of folks. I only hope that trend continues.

January 14

We are definitely on our merry way across the South Pacific about 2 degrees south of the equator headed for Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia. We should get there in another 7 days. Today the weather is quite nice: partly cloudy, 75◦F, and smooth sailing. According to the Captain at noon, we should expect about the same tomorrow.

I spent some time this morning working on the crocheted blanket I'm doing for Project Linus and chatting with other ladies doing the same while M went off to one of the lecture series. She said this was a very interesting one about the socio-economic differences between the cultures of Latin America and North America. After lunch we went to yet another lecture which was on Polynesian culture before Captain Cook. Both lecturers on board at present do an entertaining job. I expect that we will get a new set of lecturers at either Papeete or Sydney.

I consulted some more with Kiki of the Shore Excursion staff. I'm having to reconsider and rework some of my shore excursion plans due to inaccessibility for my walker and myself. Most of the ones I really regret having to cancel are ones where M is also going, so I will have to rely on her reports and photos of those places. Ah well, such is life.

Then we happened to meet a woman named Jackie Herndon who is traveling by herself and who has ties to Charlottesville, UVa, The Plains, the University of Georgia, and who actually taught Bobbi Pancake at Albemarle High School (although I've never personally met Bobbi). The small world phenomenon strikes again.

At dinner Mike regaled us with tales of his marathon excursion to Quito yesterday. His tour left the ship at 5:30 a.m. and got back right at 8:30 p.m. which was the all aboard time for sailing at 9:00.