Manta (Quito), Ecuador

Ecuador is the Spanish word for Equator and while in the port of Manta, we are only a short distance away from it.  Quito, a short drive northeast from the port is the country’s capital, just 15 miles south of the equator.

Today’s tour is another one organized by a Cruise Critic member.  It involves driving from Manta to Puerto Lopez and then taking a boat to Isla de la Plata. We would then have a local naturist guide to walk us among the Blue and Red Footed Boobies, Nazca boobies, frigate birds and albatrosses, etc. and swim with the turtles. This is known as “the poor man’s Galapagos!”  Hey, sounded great.  Some day we would like to visit the Galapagos Islands, which lie just west of the Ecuador coast.  The ship offered an 80-hour side trip to Galapagos  for $2900 per person but we opted for this $70 per person taste of ‘the poor man’s Galapagos”.

This was a tour I was really looking forward to, but as fate would have it, on Day 39 of the cruise (the day before Ecuador) I came down with a nasty cold.  People have been coughing and hacking, and sneezing this whole trip and we have been so careful to avoid them on the ship, but when sitting in a bus for full-day tours with those same people, it was impossible to avoid.  So I opted out of going on this tour so I wouldn’t be adding to the people sneezing and coughing and sent Terry on his way with instructions to TAKE PHOTOS!  I have tried to arm him with our second camera so that we have photos from a different perspective and he takes just a few now and then.  Today I was hoping he would remember to get the camera out and start snapping.

Well, I was most interested to hear about his day when he returned after a full day of seeing all these wonderful creatures.  He described the 2 hour bus ride to Puerto Lopez as quite comfortable, but long.  The houses along the way looked very poor, some with no doors or windows.  In one he could see inside the house…there was a mother, a child, a chicken, and a pig…all inside the house.

Anyway, after a 2-hour drive, they reached Puerto Lopez and boarded a boat for a 1-hour ride to the island.

 

After reaching the island, they met up with the naturalist guide and hiked up over a steep hill to the other side of the island, about ½ mile away.  This was a difficult hike for many on the tour, adding to it that the temps and humidity were so high.

Our Aussie friends were with on this tour.  Nice company for Terry.

 

Here it is....a Blue Footed Boobie

Total bird count:  2 blue footed boobies and a few small birds.  They also saw 2 iguana type animals.  There were turtles but since time was running out, only 5 minutes could be spared for anyone wanting to swim with the turtles.  Terry said he wasn’t going to get wet for 5 minutes but one guy on the tour did swim.

Then it was back over the island trail, back on the boat for 1 hour and back on the bus for 2 hours. 

Terry said it was an interesting day but not a tour that he would recommend doing.  Guess you get what you pay for!

A motorcyle "rickshaw".  A popular means of getting around

Next port is Costa Rica and we plan to go on a zipline.  After 3 days of laying low in the stateroom, I’m feeling much better and should be good to go.