Manta, Ecuador...No Me Gusta.

People ask me if I'm from Esmeraldas

 (Apparently all the black folks are in Esmeraldas:-)

Our plan was to head down the coast to Manta, stay a couple of days there, then head out to see our family in Bahia and possibly make Bahia our home. Manta is a city known for its beaches, ports, and fish...so we were excited to go check it out! We paid our money for the Manta Express and was told to be back (across the street from the American Embassy) by 8am the next morning. 

The next morning we arrived with about 10 other people. There were 12 of us loading up into the van.  The driver took all of our luggage, threw it on top of the van, tied it up, put a tarp over it so the luggage wouldn't get soaked if it rained.  We all climbed in and started on our 4 hour trek to Manta. The Manta Express was pretty comfortable. Lots of leg room for me but not for Hector. If you are
a bigger build and would like a roomier ride, than it may be better for you to take the bus throughout your travels of Ecuador. The bus terminal in Guayaquil is called the "Terminal Terrestre". You can take the bus from the Coast to Quito for very cheap ($8 pp). We did not get to experience the bus rides on this particular trip but let me just tell you it was an experience when we did! I will tell you about that later. 

One hour out of the city, we could see a big difference.  The poverty level took my breath away.  People living in houses smaller than the average garage back home in the States, maybe more closer to the size of 2 small storage units in the back yard. We would drive through little shanty towns and see people trying to sell fruits and vegetables they planted and grew. What a big difference from the city of downtown Guayaquil! I was told that some places in Guayaquil were like this as well. We also saw real cowboys! Imagine this: We are driving in the middle of a two lane highway and traffic is slowing down.  Right in front of us are a herd of cattle and cowboys on their horses trying to cross a busy street!!! I took some video and  on the video you can see the cows and on the other side a big bus driving; the cows were even looking both ways or so I thought!  They did really good, they made it across in one piece...no slabs of beef on the road today! LOL

The driver of the van was a young man who couldn't have been no more than 18-20 years old. Maybe he was younger...I don't know, but he was a pretty cool kid.  When we went through the towns, he would pull over to the side and motion for one of the young women on the street to bring to the car home-made empanadas or breaded food with meat that they were selling. The empanadas were only .20 so we all brought a couple of them...they were really good.  I hoped that I wouldn't get sick and I didn't.  But you have to be very careful of buying food on the street as you do not know how long the meat was sitting out or how clean the utensils or cookware is...it's a chance you may not want to take.  The guy told us that he buys from her all the time and that she is very trustworthy. We took him for his word. :-/

So we finally arrived in Manta! And..... I wanted to keep on driving to Bahia! I did not like it at all.  I will take Guayaquil over Manta any day.  We already had made reservations the day before at a nice hotel ($28 per night) but Hector had to convince me to stay. It was about 3pm when we arrived and the city was so crowded and congested; it was not the cleanest city either. The dock/port was nearby  full of boats and bigger boats, which I liked. Thank goodness the hotel was really nice. Not as spacious as the one in Guayaquil but it was nice with air conditioning.  The people there were nice too!

Our Chateau for $28 per night...not too shabby!

So instead of 2 nights we just stayed for the one night. It felt like an eternity because I did not like the city. We checked in, and then decided to go to this little restaurant on the corner for dinner.  We are in the fish capitol of Ecuador, so we were told; and decided to order fish and shrimp.  Well, the Spanish that Hector speaks is different from the Ecuadorian Spanish, instead of getting shrimp, I got something out of an alien movie! They had all these tiny claws and long antennas; looked like it was going to attack me.  They were called Langostinos! Hector of  course enjoyed them! Go figure!



Langostinos

I switched plates with Hector to let him chew on the creepy crawlers and ate the bass which was very good...thank goodness! We decided to walk around just to get a feel of Manta...and let me tell ya, I was not feeling it! It didn't feel safe to me. The streets were very dirty; we even saw an old man peeing on the street! I guess the motto here is, "When ya gotta go, just go...right where you stand!" Hector was like...ok, let's just go back to the hotel.  We stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and took advantage of the amenities within.  Later on that evening before it got dark, I sent my brave Hector out in search of food. He came back with a whole chicken and a half; we could literally feed 10 people with that chicken! (I am telling you the food here is no joke...be forewarned...you get a lot of food for your buck) So we took the half of chicken and gave the rest to the staff on duty that night...they loved it! 

We emailed Anna that we wanted to get the heck out of here, so Anna arranged for the taxi driver that they use in Bahia.  His name is Fabricio (Seriously, one of the nicest guys we have ever met) to pick us up for the 1.5 hour drive to Bahia de Caraquez.  Anna said she knew I would not like Manta; she didn't tell me because I had to see for myself! Thanks Anna! In Manta's defense, I know that many people do like the city and many people come from other nearby cities just to "hang out", go shopping, movies, etc., so maybe next time I will give it a fighting chance?!  Now onto Bahia de Caraquez!!

A walk around the block 

  

Now this is what I called an afternoon Siesta...shhhh

On our way to Bahia de Caraquez!

 

 

Contact info: conciserrano@gmail.com