Manta, Ecuador - Just like the States

Friday, 10/8/10 – Monday, 10/11/10. I spent this weekend in Manta. I had been communicating via email with an expat named Linda and she invited me down to visit her. Some people who had been staying in Bahia and had a car were heading down that way and offered me a ride with them. I wanted to check it out as I am thinking of spending November there. We drove down on roads that went from sand to newly constructed highway. That’s how it is here. Anyway, when we arrived at Linda’s house on Marianita Beach, I was pleasantly surprised. Linda has a new house which she has divided into a quadraplex. She has two studio apartments downstairs that she rents out and a one bedroom upstairs which she uses and a two bedroom where she puts young adults that she hires through HelpX. HelpX is for people who travel around the world and stay free at participating locations in exchange for room and board. All they have to do is any work requested by the host. It usually is about ½ days work. Anyway, I stayed in Linda’s apartment and she took me all over Manta where I was happy to see a place with good restaurants, a mall, movie theater, and large grocery store. Manta is a growing city of about 200,000 and although you still see areas of poverty, there is a lot of new construction. Sunday morning was expat brunch at M.R. Frogs which is a lovely new place on the beach and is owned by an American. The meal was delicious and cheap ($6). I am falling in love with ceviche which I never had before coming down here. I have feelers out for apartments for November and hope one comes through.

OK, now several of you have been kidding me about the chicken bus. I came very close to riding on one today. When Linda dropped me off at the bus terminal, I asked for Bahia. They kept directing me down the line until I got to the last window. When I said Bahia, they told me it went to RocoFuerte and I changed buses there. Then the guy grabbed my bag and lead me to the “chicken bus.” Now, it wasn’t really one, but the seats were small and there was no air conditioning. We also stopped a lot of times along the road to pick up or drop off people. When we got to Roco Fuerte, I was lead to another terminal and told the bus to Bahia would be there in 20 minutes. Trust me, my Spanish is still basic, but I was able to figure this out. This bus was a much nicer one and I sat next to a guy from Florida who shared a taxi with me from the terminal to CocoBongo, my current home away from home.