Can you say Guayaquil? (me neither)

We didn't have an excursion planned in Guayaquil but we could ride the shuttle from the port into the city center so we did just that. I was really in search of nothing more than a postcard. You would think in a city of this size that would be an easy thing to do, but no (sorry, Josie!) But we were still glad we were able to see a bit of the city which we wouldn't have otherwise.

Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador. It is known as the gateway to Pacific beaches and the Galapagos Islands. A bit of history from our Currents publication - "Guayaquil was founded on July 25, 1538 by Spanish conqueror Francisco de Orellana in the location of a native village and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil (Most Noble and Most Loyal City of Santiago of Guayaquil). It has a fascinating history but I won't relate hat here. 

I read that the typical cuisine here includes mainly seafood dishes consisting of shrimp or tuna with a coconut sauce and rice. Also (for breakfast) the fried plantain with cheese inside like I tried yesterday.

We were dropped off at Parque Seminario (1895) which is a beautiful park in the middle of a bustling area of the city. As soon as we got off the bus, I started taking pictures of the unusual trees and the iguanas in the park. We did a lot of walking within a few blocks of the square and also went into a multi-level mall which seem to cater mostly to teenagers. I tried asking in a number of places where I might find post cards but couldn't communicate with anyone enough for them to know what I was asking for. A pedestrian saw our efforts and could speak English so he tried to help us but there were none to be found in the area even though there were plenty of street vendors around. In spite of the many tour buses, it seemed they mainly catered to locals with snacks and also for objects relating to worship in the huge cathedral.

 

Monitor lizard in Guayaquil

unusual trees

 

One of the things we noticed here in this busy city is that parking spaces are premium. Drivers try to  squeeze into seemingly impossible spaces. Pedestrians will stop and help a driver parallel park into a spot that only has a couple of inches to spare. Also if there are spaces too small for cars to squeeze in, several motorcycles will fill the space.

 

parking is not easy!

 

I slipped inside the open cathedral just across from the park to snap a few photos of its interior.

beautiful Catedral de Guayaquil next to Parque Seminario

I'll add a few snaps taken as we walked the few blocks of the park area. The weather was pleasant but after all the walking I think we were both ready to get back to the air conditioned shuttle!

most locals wearing masks so we did the same

Catedral de Guayaquil

fresh coconut juice

busy city

churros for sale

shoe shine business is slow

Manta, Ecuador - Pt. 2

We had an excursion in the afternoon to hike in the Pacoche Reserve. The reserve is about 20 minutes from Manta and is located in one of the last remaining semi-dry tropical forests along the Ecuadorian coast. Our guide, Jonathan, is a language teacher (English/French) so we had no trouble understanding him. There were only 5 of us who had signed up for that excursion so it was almost like a private tour. He taught us a lot of interesting things about his country on the drive out.

Jonathan, our Ecuadorian guide

The reserve is very dense and jungle-like and known for its howler monkeys and many species of birds, 55 of which are native to Ecuador. We didn't get close to any birds but the howler monkeys didn't like us being there and let it be known (loudly). We could see their movement in the trees but I wasn't able to get pictures of them.

The trails were steep and thankfully very dry (although they are a month into their rainy season, they have had no rain). The "steps" were sectioned off by pieces of bamboo and thankfully there was a railing of sorts with bamboo or plastic rope to hold on to, which was necessary much of the time. I had to stop and rest a few times because of the climbing. Our guide pointed out different plants along the way and what some of them were used for.

 

plantain tree (looks like banana)

bamboo "staircase"

 

dense forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tagua nut inside this spikey looking outer shell

One was the seed of the ivory palm called a Tagua nut, sometimes called "vegetable ivory." He showed us what it looks like on the tree, what is inside of it and how it resembles ivory in both hardness and color. The locals used them to make crafts and of course they had them for sale. I bought a couple of Christmas ornaments.

Tagua nut, seed of the ivory palm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

crafts from "vegetable" ivory

 We also learned how sugar cane is processed. He pointed out how it was growing there and then we saw the process demonstrated by a local man and his donkey, Maria.

Maria powers the mill that squeezes the sugar out of the cane

boiling the extracted juice

 

after 3 hours cooking - yummy!

We also learned how the toquilla straw hat, commonly known as the Panama hat is made. Fascinating! And so very time consuming! According to their literature, the art of weaving this Ecuadorian hat is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. And it deserves to be. They are made completely by hand and can take anywhere from weeks to many months to make, depending on the size of the weave. The one with the finest weave sells for $1500 here (no telling what it would be in the US) and takes 8 months to make.

toquilla palm native to northern S. America

 

 

center stalk, splitting out each rib

A certain "thread" or fiber from the leaf of the iraca palm is used, but first it must go through a softening and bleaching process before it is ready for weaving. The young lady we watched was has been weaving for 8 years but it's getting harder to find weavers because the younger generation wants to work for higher wages.

weaver stays bent over a wooden platform

close up view of weave

boiling/softening the leaf

looking for that tiny fiber in the center

pressing, then trimming

 

After this, we saw how a typical dish of the area "tonga" is made and cooked in plantain leaf. All the ingredients (chicken, rice, peanut sauce, cilantro, plantain, yucca) were placed on top of the leaf, then folded and baked in the concrete "oven" (basically a well with fire underneath) for 30 minutes. She demonstrated how to assemble it and then offered us some of the one that was already cooked and waiting. While it looked delicious, I politely declined because after having had unpleasant experiences in Mexico and Indonesia, I'm somewhat leery of eating foods that my system is not accustomed to. However, I later drank the fresh passion fruit juice that was offered and took one bite of a "bolon de verde" made of green plantains, lard and stuffed with cheese. I'll just say that my tummy wasn't used to it.

looks good but I passed

After leaving the Pacoche Reserve, even though it wasn't on our tour description, our guide took us about 10 minutes away to see a beautiful beach where turtles lay their eggs although they usually are out at night (we didn't see any). Our guide told us that if you help the babies out to the sea, they won't remember their way back. If they make their own way, they will come back. It was hard to imagine we were in a jungle like setting when there was a beautiful beach only a few miles away.

what is he drawing in the sand?

 

aww...

                                                                San Lorenzo Beach

All in all it was a very enjoyable day!

Up to their knees in tuna!

We've had an interesting day in Manta, Ecuador! Naturally, I took way too many photos, so I'm going to post about this morning here and hopefully make another post about this afternoon's excursion tomorrow. I should have more time tomorrow since we'll be mostly around the ship. We sailed shortly after returning to the ship this evening, showered and had dinner and are headed to bed soon. Tomorrow morning we will wake up in Guayaquil, Ecuador and spend the day and night there before we sail on toward Chile.

Manta is an extremely busy port on Ecuador's central coast. It is known for its tuna fishing industry. We woke to the sight of huge ships unloading their catch while dozens more wait their turn to unload their catch. 

Our room being on the 8th floor provided the perfect vantage point to watch the entire process of unloading tons and tons of tuna into the backs of custom built trucks to haul them to one of 20 local canneries. The doors on top opened back so that the fish could be dumped down into them, and then they could be unloaded through a door on the back (think dump truck). 

I'm told that the tuna you see in these photos are the small ones! They will be canned and shipped worldwide. The large tuna are 6-7 feet long and they are used as steaks, sushi, etc.

It was amazing to see the sheer volume of fish that was being unloaded and the efficiency of all the dock workers to accomplish such a feat.  

Hopefully the pictures will tell the story - and forgive me in advance for posting so many!

 

filling the nets of tuna to be lifted into waiting trucks

 

fill 'er up!

 

positioning is everything!

 

...and into the hatch they go

net after net loaded into waiting trucks

one side almost full, now to load the other

black containers serve as bumpers between ships

catch being dumped (L) while more tuna is loaded into net (R)

  net after net after net...

                                          

up and away!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RONNIE!! 🎂🎉🎶

Today, January 28, is Ronnie's 75th birthday, and another day at sea. We plan to celebrate with a steak dinner tonight at the Polo Grill, one of the specialty restaurants on board.

He was able to run this morning and he'll get to take a nap this afternoon - two of his favorite things to do - so he's having a very happy day! In addition to receiving lots of birthday wishes from family and friends, he was able to call and talk to our kids (at no charge) last night using "What's App." They had a surprisingly good connection. So all in all he's having a great birthday!

Here's a photo of the birthday boy taken some 70+ years ago.

 

I promised Ronnie that I wouldn't mention to anyone at dinner that today was his birthday because he didn't want a fuss. But after we finished our meal and it was time for dessert, the guys who were waiting our table came out with a small cake for him. The ship obviously has a record of our birth dates and sends the message along to whichever restaurant that person has reservations in. I told the guys that it was indeed his birthday but he didn't want the attention of being sung to. So... they came to the table anyway and sang quietly. ha!

I grabbed my phone and took a quick shot - not the best lighting or quality but you get the idea. He's had a great day with lots of good wishes. 

He will end his day by sailing across the equator in about 1.5 hours. The cruise director told us we should feel a little "bump." 😂

Happy 75th!!

Rockin' and Rollin'

Wow, last night was a doozy!! We dropped off to sleep only to be wakened by a storm and rough seas. I told Ronnie I felt like a can of soda rolling back and forth across the floor in the bed last night! HA!

I kept thinking there would be some kind of announcement over the intercom but it never came. I finally gave up trying to sleep and instead just read my book ("Where the Crawdads Sing") which I finished today. Ronnie got a few more hours sleep than I did so once again, our schedules were really out of sync today. I managed to go back to sleep around 5 a.m. and was still sleeping when he went to breakfast around 7 a.m. When I went to breakfast an hour or so later, I noticed that there were complimentary barf bags placed near all the elevators. Like I said earlier, Oceania's service can't be beat!

I picked up a bag, folded it and put it inside my Kindle, just in case. But thankfully I never needed it nor did I ever feel the need to take Meclizine. But it's good to know that these things are available. The sea remained rough all morning but settled down this afternoon as we continue to sail southeast toward our next port - Manta, Ecuador. We agree with the ship's decision not to stop in Peru.

So it's been a rainy, lazy day at sea with both of us working (offline) on our individual projects. The internet on this ship is "ok" at best and non-existent at worst. Perhaps it's terrible today because it's a sea day and everyone else is trying to use it as well. On a happier note, our next door neighbors are finally out of Covid quarantine so they can begin to enjoy the cruise as well. 

I'll include a few photos I took around the ship in hopes of making this post less boring.

deck after dark - all is quiet

onboard shops

tonight's sunset through a rainy window

view from our table, Grand Dining Room

Ronnie ordering dinner

this is how our undies are delivered

daily laundry delivery