Ecuador: Manta and Monticristi

NOTE: Apologizing ahead of time for the lack of photos. It is taking about 5 minutes per photo to download & I just don’t have the patience!

Sunday,  January 29

We arrived in Manta in the early morning. It's called the tuna capital of the world. Our cruise ship was docked next to the fishing boats so I can tell you with some authority there is a lot of tuna fishing here. Some of the boats have sophisticated equipment on them, including helicopters with pontoons.

Tourists are not permitted to walk in the commercial dock area, so there was an air-conditioned shuttle bus that took us to an impressively modern, equally air-conditioned building surrounded by chain link fencing with razor wire at the top, where we caught our tour bus.

We were on the bus headed for Monticristi by 8:15 am, leaving our antiseptic environment behind. We passed a large open-air fish market, always sold out by noon, and a shipyard with a row of hulls in various stages of construction, and one gorgeous completed boat. 

We stopped at the Museo Municipal Ethnografico Cancerbi before leaving Manta. It was a steep climb up a creaky old staircase to enter the museum, which consisted of creative dioramas depicting traditional life in the area. Families used to be large with 10 or more children. Now it’s more like 2 or 3 children.

Once we reached Monticristi, the bus drove up a steep, deeply-rutted dirt road to a factory that makes sisal bags for agricultural products. The agave-like plants they are made from grow in the hills above Monticristi. Plastic has mostly replaced these bags in the marketplace because it’s cheaper—now there are only 2 factories left out of 40. The one we visited has been in the same family for 3 generations, and they are doing ok with the growing popularity of eco-friendly materials. I buy wheat and garbanzo beans in similar bags from a farm in Washington State; I wonder if their bags come from Ecuador. The only part of the manufacturing process that involves electricity are a few ancient-looking machines that spin fibers into thread and wind it onto large wooden bobbins. Weaving involves 144 of these bobbins that thread onto to a loom, propelled by wooden Stairmaster-like pedals. It’s a wonder the threads don’t tangle. A rope is pulled at just the right moment to shoot the shuttle across. Charlie tried this, and did not find it easy to coordinate all these movements.

Sisal bag loom with 144 bobbins

Now for the product the area is famous for—the Panama hat. These hats actually come from Ecuador, and Monticristi claims to be the birth place. They are not cheap, and now we know why. Each hat is hand woven with strong, very thin fibers that come from a palm tree that grows in the area. The fibers are boiled in water, then dried for a couple of days. Weaving is a painstakingly slow process, and the best hats are not white but slightly buff in color. They will last a lifetime and look like new if properly cared for.

Woman weaving a Panama hat in Monticristi—note she has a chunk of round wood she’s pressing on with her chest to help flatten the top. This represents about 2 weeks of weaving and she’s just now starting on the brim!

Our next destination was a stop on the way back to Manta that had a lovely plaza and swimming pool.  I’m not sure whether it was a commercial property or a home. The covered plaza had tables and a demonstration area set up to showcase “tagua” or vegetable ivory. The plant has many uses. The hard nuts of the plant can be cut into thin slices to make buttons and jewelry. I finally got the shopping bug and bought a necklace, some earrings, and some buttons made out of tagua.

My new tagua necklace

Back in Manta, we were dropped off at the tourist building to catch the shuttle back to the ship. Was there a way to get out of the building and onto the adjacent beach? Indeed there was—through a gate at the back of the property, guarded by an armed policeman. 

The beach was a combination of sand and beautiful varied rocks, the water was warm, and it was nice to soak up some local color. Families were out enjoying Sunday at the beach. We spent a couple of hours relaxing, eating fresh mangos, and drinking thick creamy coconut milk right out of the coconut, hacked open by a young woman with a machete.

We had to show our room cards to get back through the chain link fence to the tourist building. This time there were young women in traditional dresses dancing for the tourists. Once onboard Insignia, we watched the tuna fishing boats unload their catch of the day, using a lift to empty many tons of fish into trucks waiting on the dock, carefully lining up the huge nets full of fish over the trucks. The fishermen were yelling jubilantly and we could see steam from what must have been dry ice billowing out of the hold of the fishing boat. If catches are this big every day, some day there will be no tuna left in the ocean!

Peace & love,

Jill