MANTA, ECUADOR

MANTA, ECUADOR

January 11, 2014 

Manta is a big fishing port and the biggest catch is tuna.  There are several big name processing plants here.  They export $300,000 of tuna a year.  Ecuador is where Panama hats are made not in Panama!  We were taken to a museum where we were shown how the hats were made by hand.  It takes two weeks to eight months to make one and they are only made by hand.  When they were making the Panama Canal they found the hats were so good at keeping the sun off them so everyone had one.  That’s how they came to be known as the “Panama Hat” but they are only made in Ecuador.

 

The weather ranges from 70 degrees to 90 degrees year round. It is the rainy season from January to May.  In 1998 the government decided to use the American dollar as their currency.  Besides tuna Ecuador exports bananas and roses.  They also export cocoa beans to Switzerland.

 

We were taken to a factory that makes buttons and jewelry out of a nut from a tree.  It was an amazing process to watch and needless to say I had to buy some of the jewelry.

We are at sea for two days and then when we dock at Lima, Peru we will take the overland trip to Machu Picchu for three days.