Thursday 31st March - Manta Day 2

The view of Manta from the back of our ship

It's incredibly hot here, apparently it's an "El Nino" year, and temperatures in the area are the highest on record. It's also very, very muggy. But today is a lazy day, no tours and only ourselves to please, so we decided to go into Manta to see what was about.

I still have a red v at the bottom of my neck where I'd been caught out by the sun a couple of days ago, so I was well covered up with a hat and some sunscreen in my bag. Peter, as usual, wore a hat but left his arms exposed. We'd got some info about the city from reception, and shortly after breakfast we were out in the baking sun exploring the streets of Manta.

The main coastal road in Manta.

It's a busy place - traffic is as manic as we'd seen in Guayaquil but with less dents. We managed to avoid getting run over as we headed towards where we'd been told there was a market and a cathedral. We didn't find a market or a cathedral, but we did find a little park - with iguana's. Naturally, we were delighted and spent a good 20 minutes or so taking pictures.

This magnificent tree was also in the park, I don't know what type it is, but I loved it.

Also seen in the park was this little flock of geese, goslings and ducklings.  There were being herded through the park by their owner.  So cute. 

The park was surrounded by shops and we then spent a little time looking for a carabina clip for Peter, but by now the heat was getting to us, so we headed back to the ship and the beach that was right alongside.

We had swimming costumes underneath our clothes, so we hired a couple of shaded sunbeds, stripped off and were straight into the water. The sea was shallow for a long way out but the waves were quite forceful, knocking us over. As we moved further out into deeper water, I noticed the sunbed seller waving us back. I thought someone had tried to take our bags or something, so I called Peter and then, luckily I remembered something we'd been told by Neil Bonner yesterday, along the lines of "quite an undercurrent". Looking across the beach and the sea, it was obvious that no-one was heading into deep water to swim, so we guessed that the undercurrent was probably a real problem. We moved a little closer to the shore and then spent 20mins or so messing around in the waves, the water no more than waist deep.

Then it was another hour or so on the sun beds to dry off. The sun was really strong and I could feel it burning my feet which weren't under the shade of the parasol thing over our heads, so I covered them with a towel. A guy wandering the beach sold us chilled drinks, and a cool breeze coming off the sea made the moment perfect.

The beach at Manta, right next to the port

A little before 2 o'clock we decided to get back to the ship for a late lunch. The sun felt hotter and brighter than ever, so I lathered up sunscreen. It was that hot, even Peter wanted to use the sunscreen!

It turned out that we'd missed lunch, so we headed for a shower instead. Stripped off, neither of us could believe the colour of our skin. It was very, very red, and getting angrier by the minute. We were both well burnt, but couldn't understand why? The only time we'd could have caught the sun was when we were swimming. Either we were in the water a lot longer than 20 minutes, or that sun was really, really strong. My neck, ears, shoulders, back and arms were well overcooked. Peter could add the whole of his front to that list, and his arms were the worst.

So we spent the rest of the day covered up and feeling a little bit delicate, or tingly as Peter describes it. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot that can be done about it. I plastered aftersun moisturiser all over (Peter is too manly for the stuff), but we were both glowing red and generating enough heat to boil a bath of water by night time. We're going to feel sore for a couple of days, and I'm quite miffed with myself over it. I was being so careful!

Tomorrow is going to be a restful sea day. Peter will be doing his first class, and we can both hide inside in the air conditioned cool for a day or so and give our skin a chance to heal. Fingers crossed eh?

Wednesday 30th March - Manta, Ecuador

Today we acted as escorts on a tour to Machaililla National Park. It's down as an extended half day tour, and the park is supposed to incorporate all sorts of environments including fog forest and dry forest. There was a chance of seeing some of the wildlife of Ecuador, with a little bit of walking and a visit to a hotel where we could enjoy the beach. and perhaps a swim.

We're getting to be old hats at this. After breakfast, Peter grabbed the rucksacks and all the necessary bits n pieces like clipboard, first aid kit etc - we collected our lunches and towels from the main lounge, and were ready at the buses at 8.30 ready to welcome the passengers.

It takes two hours to get from port to the park by bus. On my bus, the guides provided various bits of information about Ecuador, and sent round samples of various things, like old ecuadorian money, shells, and fibres used to make Panama hats. That filled an hour of the journey, the second was spent looking out of the window.

At the park we got to see a very small museum and take a very short walk. The two busloads of passengers had ended up splitting into three groups. Peter went with one on a "hike" to look at a sulphur lake. I stayed with the "short walk" group that then split into two. Due to the way things panned out, it ended up with one of the short walk groups crossing a creek, seeing a few birds and having a whale of time, the second short walk group didn't cross the creek or see much, but were given a lot of information about the plants, particularly the algarroba tree. The sulphur lake group didn't really get much of a much of a hike, and the participants couldn't understand how the short walk group seemed to have had more fun and adventure than they had. Confused? So were a few of the passengers.

Everybody got back on the bus, and we were then taken to a hotel on Los Frailes Beach. It was a secure hotel, with 8 foot high metal fencing, the gate of which was opened to us by an armed guard! It was very nice inside though, and from the hotel grounds we could go out onto the beach for a wander.

A very happy hour and three quarters followed, We sat and ate our packed lunch - not exactly gourmet I'm afraid, but it kept hunger at bay until dinner. Peter and I walked along the beach and practiced zooming in with our cameras on the several brown pelicans which were perched on fishing boats. And back in the hotel I tried to capture the swifts drinking the swimming pool water on camera. All very civilised.

A turkey vulture on the beach

Los Frailes Beach

So many of us would love to travel the world in one of these. 

We might not have seen much wildlife in the park, but we saw plenty on the beach

I'm quite proud having captured a picture of this swift getting a drink from the hotel pool. 

Another two hours on the bus and we were back at the ship and reporting in. Then straight up to the pool deck to enjoy a cup of tea. Peter went off to work, and I spent a little time up there with my binoculars and camera. Pelicans, gulls, and royal terns kept me entertained, as well as a shoal of quite large fish that that toured the harbour. The fish kept leaping out of the water and drawing attention to themselves, but neither the birds nor the fishermen took any notice. Quite amazing.

Looking out of the window on the bus, poverty is obvious. 

I haven't got access to a decent bird book to check these out.  I think the ones with the black caps are Royal Terns, and I'm not sure about the gulls.  I'll find out when I get home.  

Later in the evening we enjoyed dinner in the Veranda Restaurant and watched the show in the Darwin Lounge. All very relaxed and holiday like. Cool eh. Tomorrow we don't have a tour and will probably take a walk into Manta and maybe check out the beach. Even more holiday like. (Don't tell Peter though, cos actually, he has to work for this.)

Tuesday 29th March - Guayaquil, Ecuador

We were in bed about 9.30 last night, the equivalent to 3.30am England time and meant we'd been up nearly 24hrs....... Yep! We slept well.

Add captionA view from the ship at Guayaquil Port

And woke at about 7.30 to our first proper day in Ecuador. I've been reading up on Guayaquil, (Why-a-kil) and the locals think it's the most unsafe city in Ecuador. Bars on the windows and high security type fencing around houses and estates sort of gives an idea of the environment so we'd decided that we'd stay on the ship today, and catch up on ourselves after all the travelling.

Except..........

Well. It was all down to that little island next door to us. The port of Guayaquill is not on the coast, it's on a river, and the little island that I could see was just loaded with birds. I couldn't see them properly and I'd been using my camera on full zoom to get a look which was not ideal and very frustrating. I was kicking myself for not bringing my binoculars which I knew I would want on the various tours I'd planned that Peter and I should go on.

A view through the full zoom on the camera. I can make out the Heron, but is that a stork or an ibis - I think there are ducks over there as well as the cormorants, and what is the little black and white bird. I can't see properly!

I didn't know what to do about it at first, but at about 11 o'clock we made the spur of the moment decision to "nip" into town and buy some. That shouldn't be difficult should it? We had 2½ hours to find them.

So armed with the name of the shopping centre "Mall del Sur" or "Centro del Sur", we set off to get a legitimate taxi (we'd received instructions from security people at the airport). We managed to hail one down just as we left the port. I told the taxi driver where we wanted to go, he immediately said, "no, you want to go to Mall Del Sol". I'm like, well, I know I was told "del Sur" but he's saying that the other mall is bigger and better. This is all by sign language by the way, because he didn't understand a word of English, and we had absolutely no idea what he was trying to tell us in Spanish.

Anyway, we told him we wanted binoculars, he insisted we went to Mall del Sol and we drove past Mall del Sur. Driving in Ecuador doesn't seem to follow any rules. They don't stick to lanes, don't use indicators, they squeeze through wherever they feel like and blast their horns a lot. Just about every car we saw on the roads was dented - and the roads were hectic. As our taxi driver negotiated his way through the mayhem, Peter and I started to wonder if we'd been right allowing him to take us to Mal del Sol. We sat in the back, getting more and more worried as time ticked on. We had to be back by half past one!

We finally got to the mall at 12.25 and we'd worked out that we needed to leave by 12.45 to meet our curfew. We charged around the mall, asking one shop assistant after another if they knew where we could get binoculars. Just as time ran out, the last girl said "Radio Shack, over there" (in Spanish of course). Halelujah! It didn't take long to identify a suitable pair, and then the taxi driver (who'd waited for us), drove even more manically than the rest of the traffic back to the port. We were just 5 minutes late, but still in time for a quick bite to eat before the Emergency Drill. As far as I'm concerned, the binoculars are worth it, we're going to be on the ship for four weeks, and I would be so fed up without them.

After the safety drill it was Peter's meet and greet thing with the other entertainers. Neil and Louise Bonner are on board, which we are very pleased about. The ship set sail at 3pm and took a few hours to travel downriver to reach the sea. I spent an hour or so on deck, watching the jungle go by. Using the binoculars I managed to see a few more Roseate Spoonbills feeding on the riverside. Later on in the day, the sky became filled with Frigate birds. Several passengers tried to photograph them. The birds were a magnificent sight, line after line of them almost stationary in the wind currents as we sailed beneath.

Showered and fed, it wasn't long after dinner before the difference in time zones caught up on us again, and we were in bed by 10. Peter woke a little later though and a good job an' all. Paperwork had been pushed through the door for us to be on tour in the morning. We're going to a National Park which we hope will be interesting. As Peter says....... "Bring it on".

Day 1 of our Latin America Cruise - A long long day.

It started at 4.30ish, cos I woke up before the alarm. Truth be told, I'd woken about 5 or 6 times through the night because of the noise of storm Katie, and because I was sleeping in a strange bed, and most importantly, because I knew we had to get up in the morning, and we couldn't afford to oversleep.

So we were out of bed and dressed by 5am, had a quick coffee and then were at the entrance of the hotel waiting for our minibus transport by 20 past.

Our flight was due to take off at 7:50 and apart from a couple of little hiccups, such as "Where is our check in desk?", everything went smoothly. In fact they called us early from the gate to board the chartered plane, so we were all on board by about half past 7. But our luggage wasn't! The storm was making it difficult to load stuff, so we waited. And waited. And waited.

At about 9 o'clock, the captain announced that the luggage was on board (Yippee) but now we had to wait for flight clearance (Boo). So we waited a bit more. After nearly two hours the plane finally started it's taxi towards the runway. Then, with hardly any turbulence at all, we were in the sky and heading for Ecuador.

It's a long flight to Guayaquill from Gatwick. 12 hours and 25 minutes to be exact. I managed to sleep away an hour or two, watch a couple of films, played endless card games and soduku and got fed at regular intervals. All these things helped pass the time. Filling in our immigration took up a few minutes more and even added a little excitement.

We landed in Guayaquill at about 3.45 Ecuadorian time, which is actually about 6 hours behind English time, so our internal body clocks were telling us it was 9.45, but daylight was telling us it was the middle of the afternoon? Buses waited outside the airport, ready to whisk us off to the ship and our next adventure. We walked out through the airport doors, and the heat hit!

It was like opening the oven door, the hot air hits full in the face as we walked outside. And it was so humid, we felt damp and clammy in the two minutes it took to reach the bus. The (thankfully) air conditioned bus ride got us to the ship in 45 mins, where sniffer dogs checked the luggage before it was loaded. I was puzzled? What sort of drugs could be produced in England for import into Ecuador? No matter, we were here now. It was 6pm Ecuadorian time, and there were some ice cold drinks waiting for us in the bar.

We sat on the deck, in the warm, muggy evening taking in our surroundings. Guayaquill is a very industrious industrial port, and the cranes and trucks worked nonstop to load and unload ships. This was right next to a small island covered in all sorts of wildlife and on which I managed to loads of large wading birds including Herons, Egrets and Cormorants. Overhead, a thunderous storm was building up, and the air was so clammy our clothes clung to our damp bodies.

Turns out that a couple of the birds I'd seen over on that little island were Roseate Spoonbills. How pink are they?

We ended the day on the top deck at the end of the day. This is looking down on the pool deck.

So this is the start of our Latin America adventure. Awesome!

Latin America - A New Adventure

I'm all excited!  Tomorrow we'll be boarding a plane and heading over the South American continent to Ecuador.  We'll be landing in a city called Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-kill apparently), which as well as being the largest and most populated city of the country, is also a place where tourists need to be a little bit careful.  I checked out Trip Advisor, statements such as "it's safe for women to travel on buses, as long as they sit at the front near the driver"  or "be careful to get a legitimate taxi, to prevent kidnapping/mugging" do not inspire confidence.  But hey, we're off on holiday - to lots of new and strange places.  How good is that!

Peter is going to be working on the Voyager, on a Voyages of Discovery cruise -"Contrasts of Latin America", and we'll be visting Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica,  Honduras, Belize and Mexico, and that is only the first two weeks - how lucky am I?  Or mebbe it's cleverness, landing a guy who is talented enough to work this way.

So we are in the Cambridge Hotel near Gatwick Airport, just chilling before we go and find some food.  The drive down was easy enough (of course it was, Peter was driving) and we got here about 5pm.  The hotel is OK, obviously used to dealing with hoards of people needing to get to the airport.  Our room is a little dated, but clean and we are happy.  There is just one little niggly thing.

Storm Katie is on her way and she'll be hovering over Gatwick Airport in the early hours of the morning. Knowing our luck, she'll hang around until about the time we are due to take off.  We'll just have to wait and see.......