MANTA, ECUADOR - We arrived today, Day 15 in Manta, Ecuador to partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 80's. It looks like it’s going to be another hot day on tour.

There were 24 of us today on the Manta tour. First plan was to go to Pile, which, is about 30 minutes outside of the port area. We got off to somewhat of a shaky start – we had a driver and a guide in our 14-passenger Volkswagen van , but neither of them had a clue it seemed. We got lost and had to ask for directions, the driver couldn’t drive and as a result we got separated from the other vehicle.

After the third time for the driver having to pull over, I had about enough – I got out of the van as he approached a broken down, squalor of a house and I told him that this wasn’t cool – people were going to get upset , and he said "no senior – we’re here" – I said “what do you mean we’re here” – apparently we had arrived at the home the Panama hat maker. The process is somewhat amazing given that he uses thousands of tiny plant fibers from pods coming from twelve baha tequia plants. The shocking thing is that he makes just TWO Panama hats a year and they sell for $25,000.00 each. He receives a $350.00/month salary from a Hawaiian businessman along with a $6,000US commission from the sale from each hat. I told him that if his hats sold for $25K, I offered to double his salary immediately if he came to work for me.

We traveled further north to the small town of San Lorenzo, which was about 42 km south of Manta. It was here we climbed a 600-step hill up to a lighthouse that overlooked the Pacific Ocean and then headed down to a local seaside restaurant where I had a fish lunch – “camotillo” ($10US) with my Coca-cola and two large local beers. According to our guide was the best fish on the menu – eyes, head, and lots of bones – it was quite actually quite good.

After lunch we went to Pacoche Lodge, an environmental reserve that housed the howler monkeys, sugar cane and the baha tequia plants that they used in the construction of the Panama hats. While most of the monkeys slept during the day, they did come out based on their curiosity of the two-legged homo sapiens walking below.

The last thing on the agenda was a tour of a local church in Montechristi where a funeral service was under way – a quick couple of shots and we left to head back to the ship.

We’ve got one more sea day ahead of us before we arrive into Salaverry or Trujillo, Peru. I have not been able to get any access whatsoever to wi-fi so I’ve got days of postings piling up. Hopefully in Trujillo.