1/12/2007 Manta, Ecuador

From: Sherman Rootberg
Date: Jan 12, 2008 10:31 PM
Subject: 1/12/2008

1/12/2008

Manta, Ecuador

Yesterday I forgot to mention the main event. At 3 PM, in the theater, the popcorn movie was Borne Ultimatum. If you haven’t seen it, the action is great and the popcorn is good even if it does not have butter on it. I don’t know where everyone else was but the theater was very empty. We sat in the second row and we had the whole row to ourselves. Maybe I need a shower?

This afternoon we took a tour of the highlights of Manta. The bus was a large and comfortable Volvo with US size aisles and seats. The guide spoke perfect US English. Besides that, I could make this very short. There aren’t any highlights. Lots and lots of lowlights but nothing I saw that was redeemable about this place. Everything they showed us was a big garbage dump. I don’t think we saw one building that was not in disrepair with the exception of one or two bank and corporate buildings. Housing was nothing but squallier. There was almost no green anywhere. Most places looked like they were recently bull dosed. Garbage was everywhere, like I said, one big garbage dump. It may not be a great place to visit but you really would not want to live here either.

First we went to a museum in a bank building. This was a modern building in good condition but had four floors and no elevator. On the main floor were many displays of small modern sculptures done by a local artist. Almost all was gorgeous. We have some of the type in the house in Northbrook. There were numbers on the pieces. The dummies never told us until we were leaving, that those were prices and they were for sale. The cost was nickels and dimes on the dollar of what we would have to pay at home, for the quality. I suppose I saved some money this way but I would really like to have had some of those great pieces. I didn’t see anything else in there that made it worth going to see.

Next we went to a button factory. This was a mostly out door yard with roof covering over the junk they try to sell and over the few button making machines. This so called factory is really just a place where they demonstrate and there was not anywhere near the equipment needed to really produce buttons in quantity. The real factory was behind and they did not show us that. This was interesting though. They call it Tagua Ivory from the Tagua Palm. It starts out looking like a large badly formed coconut that is heavily grooved. These trees grow wild in the rainforest and the seeds are harvested without harming the trees. Inside these coconut like things are four or five balls which are the nuts. They take about seven years to harden and they do feel and look like ivory. They peel and cut up these nuts and place them in various machines to shape, polish, and put button holes in them. They did cut one of these nuts and ran through the process with it. They gave us packets with different kinds of buttons. The shavings from making the buttons are swept and sold as cattle feed.

Next was supposed to be a hat factory or so everyone thought. If you read the small print it says we are going to the town where the hats are made. On the TVs on the ship they talked about how Panama hats are made and how to tell a good one from a cheap one. Panama hats were not made in Panama. They were used there. Originally they had another name. They make them here in Montecristi, a small town or suburb near Manta. Some of these hats were $500 and more we were told. We were told how to judge the weave and the softness of the hat. Naturally I had to have one. I wanted only the best, so I offered $10 for the $400 hat. I was told, “impossible”. So we ended up settling for $12. Then Bobbi wanted a ladies hat. That one came out to be more like $25.

No factory. Just many, many tables of junk to buy. That was the last stop and then it was back to the ship. The reason given us by our guide, for all the garbage and disrepair of homes and other buildings was their 1999 government. They closed all the banks for one week and stole tens of thousands of millions of dollars and fled the country. The banks were empty and 70% of the population lost all their savings. Now houses are sitting half built and others are falling apart because there is no money to repair them. Their present president is very anti US and wants to kick the US military bases out of Ecuador. He is friends with Chavez from Venezuela and Castro. According to our guide, he is not popular with the people and he keeps talking about a revolution. Before the grand theft there was 8% unemployment. Now there is 70% unemployment.

The harbor is filled with fishing boats. Tuna is the main catch but they also take other varieties. They also have a small amount of oil but not enough to export. They do export bananas, coffee, flowers and a few other things I can’t remember.

Each year, on past cruises I have mentioned the wonderful food on the ship. We were going to be good this cruise and not gain a bunch of weight again. As you may or may not know, we turned in one of the cars in Florida that was on a lease. I was not going to replace it until we get back. No I see it’s a good thing I left one of the garages empty. I am going to have to get air conditioning installed in that garage before we get back. I will also have to have a bed and a TV put in there. The food has been so outstanding in every restaurant on the ship we will not be able to fit through the house doors if we keep eating like this. Only the garage doors will be big enough to allow us entry. Two nights ago we ate at Latitudes, the Indochin restaurant. It was so fantastic we reserved more nights. The last two nights we ate at the Veranda which is now a Mediterranean Steak House. The soup, sauces, pastas and foods are unbelievable. Then they turn you loose at a multitude of fantastic deserts you thought you had no possible room for but then you do find some. This ship is like going to much better restaurants then your favorites at home, every night. There is no way the service could be better either. How are we ever going to be able to go back to the farm?