Uneventful? Manta is anything but!

  Manta, Ecuador
Sunday, November 4, 2007

This first week has been quite tiring. So many new faces, places and experiences that I donīt know where to begin. Maybe a short description of Manta, my abode for the next month or so. Its a fishing town of about 250,000 citizens situated half way along the Ecuadorian coastline (thatīs the Pacific Ocean, for those who have not looked at the map). The climate here is pleasant in that it has not rained, its not too humid or too hot, and there arenīt any significant temperature variations. The thing I find annoying about the climate is the constant fog that blankets the city. Its due to some natural phenomenon that I did not care to remember. So basically there is very little direct sunlight. Even so, unless one is careful one could very easily burn. The town is certainly not a rich one, nor is it a major tourist destination (just like I wanted). Many houses have no windows or construction was altogether suspended at some stage. When you peak in through open doors and the holes in the walls that represent windows, you will see that a single room serves as a kitchen, bedroom and living room for large families with many children. The streets themselves are unusually wide for a town of this size - way wider than the average street in Sofia, a capital city of about 1.5 million people. There are a few traffic lights, but by and large no one really obeys them. You need to be quite careful crossing the streets as cars simply donīt stop for you... quickly you realize who has right of way here. There is a bizzare amount of taxis on the streets, and they have this annoying habbit of honking at you when they pass by, just to let you know they are available in case you want a ride. A ride, by the way, is never more than $2 within the city limits.

The town is laid out in a very easy manner, so after the first day or two I found that I did not need a map any longer. Thereīs a part of town I have not explored yet, its called Tarqui - generally much cheaper than Manta proper and not safe for foreigners, or so the guidebook says. The guidebook, however, says a lot of things that are geared on westerners who have lived in isolation from the real world most of their life and might be lacking some common sense tactics, for example in how to guard your valuables. That said, we did pass through Tarqui on our way to Crucita yesterday, and it did not seem like there was much worth looking at there.

Halloween costume competition in Manta

Wednesday was Halloween and kids all across town were dressed up in the cutest costumes. There was even a costume competition in the main shopping area. This despite the fact that the president of Ecuador had apparently issued a decree the day before forbidding the celebration of Halloween. Antonio, my Spanish instructor for the week, later explained that this is because October 31 happens to also be the day of the national symbol of the country (as displayed on the Ecuadorian flag) and that the president was frustrated that in recent years everyone was celebrating Halloween, an American tradition, and forgetting about the day of the national symbol.

On Thursday the Queen of Manta was crowned and there were fireworks to commemorate the event. We didnīt go but we did see her parade around town in the back of a pickup truck, waving at everyone on the streets. The truck was accompanied by two police cars who had turned on their sirens. Beauty contests are a big thing here, and many of the town citizens had put on their best clothes to attend the event.

supermarkets are ready for day of the dead

On Friday it was dia de los muertos, or day of the dead - celebrated across Ecuador. People come out in large numbers to lay flowers at the graves of loved ones, so the cemeteries are jam packed from the early morning hours. Stores prepare by bringing in loads and loads of flowers to be sold that day - there was a long line for flowers in front of the supermarket as early as 9am. We skipped all this fuss by going to Crucita (see below).

Today there was a kite surfing festival at Santa Marianita beach, not far from of Manta. The weather here is favourable for this trendy sport so there is a kite surfing school (which I might sign up for as it looks Ļwicked coolĻas some might say) and many people come to Manta for exactly this reason... or to combine kite surfing with taking spanish lessons - which can be arranged through Surpacifico.

kite surfer

Robert, a colombian, is the guy who runs the kite surfing school, he can be found at www. ecuadorkitesurf.com. Heīs very friendly and everyone around here seems to know him. We hung out on the beach and watched the kite surfers rip up and down the length of the beach. We had cooked so much food the previous night, and had tons of leftovers and a bottle of nice wine which we brought with us to have a picnic on the beach - that was absolutely lovely. We took a taxi to get out to the exact location of the festival; on the way back Robert gave us a ride in the back of his pickup truck. That too was quite a thrill and was one thing I definitely wanted to do - seems to be the norm with locals here. Getting the sand out of my hair afterwards was another story altogether...

Robert and Alice chilling on the beach

School (Surpacifico Spanish School is the name) was fairly intensive this past week. The morning session runs for 2 hrs, and that does not seem to pose a problem. After the 20 minute break, however, follows another session, this time 2 and a half hours. By day three I found that I was completely zoning out during the last hour, it was just too much given that all instructions are one-on-one. So starting next week I changed my schedule by reducing the load to 4 hours per day. Of course there is also homework to be done after class. Its hard for me to guage how its going, although my instructor for this week told me he was very impressed by how quickly I was picking up words and concepts, and also that I had excellent pronounciation. I think this latter part is due to the fact that we roll our Rīs in Bulgaria, and the soft L is not difficult for me either thanks to Russian. Iīm still not able to have conversations, but am picking up the jist of what is being said, and can ask a few questions to get me by. Next week we will be studying verbs, which is very exciting because its hard to have a conversation without knowing a single verb. Iīll write more about the school later on, I think I need another week to assess it proper. What I did find out though, and was totally intriguing, is that Manuel, the owner/manager of the school, works in partnership with other schools around Ecuador - which means I could easily transfer to another school if I got bored with Manta a few weeks down the line. That is definitely a possibility since I want to spend some time in Cuenca - its supposed to be a wonderful city, and its also a good base camp for exploring the surrounding nature and archeological sites.

photo time

Meeting people is not difficult at all. The other students at the school are all wonderful and we have been hanging out together in the evenings and also during the weekend. So far I made friends from Clara and Hanna (the sisters from Sweden), Stacy from Wisconsin, and Wyatt from Alaska. Oh, and of course Karen (who lived in San Francisco and then moved to New York, just like me - Astoria at that!!!). Clara and Hanna are only visiting Ecuador on this trip, they depart at the end of the weekend as their classes have ended. They will be heading up north toward Quito again. Stacy will be travelling throughout the continent so I might run into her again along the way somewhere. Wyatt will be going to Chile and Argentina after he finishes his classes, he is doing this as part of a semester abroad experience with his college in Utah. And Karen is going to be a nurse in Arequipa, Peru for the next year - she left for Peru on Thursday.

Raul and I riding the thermals

Its a 3 day weekend here, owing to Friday being the day of Manta or something like that. On Friday we went to Crucita, a beach town some 1 hour bus ride north of Manta, where all of us but Wyatt went paragliding (tandem, of course). It was amazing fun and I am pretty sure I will be signing up for lessons soon. Raul, the instructor, is a very nice guy who speaks perfect English (he lived in the US for a long time). He can be found at the hostal Crucita, a large white building along the beach that is hard to miss as it has its name painted in large red letters across the front facade. The tandem ride was $20, a perfect price for someone who is not sure if they really want to get into this sport or not.

remember to run now (not dig ur heels in)

Gliding around above the cliffs and huge sand dunes of Crucita was unbelievable fun and not at all scary. The bus ride back was an experience in itself as there was only standing room (its a one hour ride) and Wyatt, who is rather tall, had to stand directly beneath the vent because the bus ceiling was not high enough for him. Everyone on the bus laughed good-heartedly at this.