Hotel Oro Verde Manta

... any sort of highway code. So far as the rubbish it makes our recycling effort at home look completely futile. Roads you need to take the same approach as India, try to trust the bus driver and at points-close your eyes and pray! The countryside is very barren but a lot going on. Anyway I´ll now pass you over to Phil to take the last two days. Anything he says about me and Lucy and a bottle of vodka last night is lies and decent and I´m innocent your honour (will up ...

... his bike up against a tree on the pavement rather than on the road, where the parquedero man would collect his money. From then on it was slow going. We finally arrived in Manta, a sprawling fishing port, at lunchtime and 5 minutes later we had our first glimpse of the sea in just over 2 months! <br><br>I found an internet cafe and have been in touch with dawn and Terry, who we're hoping to meet up with in a couple of days. Also Paul &amp; yvonne have ...

... she took ages to go to the store to buy the oranges to make our orange juice.<br>We ran into the two Irish girls - Ruth and Sinead and the Canadian guy from Calgary - Lee from our Galapagos tour during our first few minutes in the town. Spent the day at the beach today.<br>The beach was really nice when it was sunny out - it´s a surfer´s beach so not really great for swimming but nice to hang out. They ...

... over the crest of the hill. The lot of us(minus bigetta, she is in her 60´s) jumped out of the truck and started pushing the thing up the hill. It takes a while to buyild momentum, but we finally get ´r to the top, and then over, and then one by one the twelve of us or so start jumping back into the moving truck as it begain to coast down the hill. I was at a near sprint to before i was able to jump on the bumper and ride the coast back into town. Just another lazy sunday drive-

... har nok penger til aa dra til Galapagos, skal jeg definitivt tilbake hit! Sekken min blir paa mystisk vis bare tyngre og tyngre.. Den er snart storre enn meg. Saa haaper virkelig vi faar til aa sende hjem en pakke fra Quito! Men som vi tidligere har erfart, selv om vi beregner god tid, er ingen tid lang nok for saanne ting her i latinamerika. Det heter ikke "en ting om gangen", men "en ting om dagen" :) Naa gleder vi oss til Cuba! Havana here we come!

We had nothing in particular planned for Manta (the nearest coastal port to Quito, Ecuador). Jim was feeling under the weather so we only took time to visit a craft market to see if we could find more 'essentials' and then headed back to the ship for a quiet afternoon away ...

... climbed higher and higher. The humidity stayed high all day. We knew that we were south of the equator. The local buses were not air conditioned, but the opened door and windows provided needed relief to the heat. Soon we were back at the bus station in Manta. We headed back to the ship, for afternoon tea and to get ready for the evening meal. The evening show was a movie so we decided to stay in for the evening. As it was the Presidential Inauguration ...

... directions.  We called it an early night...at 6am. The next day, we realized we've landed on a little "Buenos Aires, Argentina" because town was filled with Argentinians.  Packs of men and women hurdled at all the shops, eateries and all over the beach like sand.  Apparently it's a Argentinian favorite. During the few days here, we tried varios eateries including street vendor food.  It was town that had some of the better foods that we've eaten here in South America ...

... and dark out so we decided it would be best to stay the night. We took a taxi to a hostel we had picked out from our guidebook that was right on the water, near a bunch of restaurants but he took us elsewhere, to an expensive hotel. We said we weren`t going to stay there so he brought us to a cheaper hostel in a sketchy looking area. It was only $5 a person so we decided to stay. However, when we asked where we could eat we were told it wasn`t safe to walk outside ...

... kind of sucks now just have to rely on other people and hope that someone else will take some pictures....I am here only 5 days more, but still... Tomorrow finally heading towards Montanita, will take some more Spanish classes there for another 4 days before heading back to Quito and than home...really sad, but good thing is that Kate is coming down also so will have some fun there for last days in Ecuador....I almost wish I had more time ...