Colombia, Panama Canal, Ecuador, Peru, Arica Chile, LaSerena Chile, Valparaiso and Santiago Chile, The rest of the trip, and South American Flowers
A view of the port of Manta in Ecuador
From our ship we could see a fishing boat unloading its catch and some pelicans waiting for anything that may be dropped.
Several of our group toured in the city where they saw artifacts that had been discovered here.
At other stops they saw buttons and Panama hats being made.
The original Panama hats and still the best ones come from Ecuador.
Other sights.
We took a bus to Agua Blanca.
A little of what we saw along the way.
This is a balsa tree.
We stopped at this home.
Where we were given a demonstration of the process of extracting the fiber from which hats and other handicrafts are made.
The little village of Agua Blanca inside Machalilla National Park.
It is said to be Ecuador’s most important archeological site.
It has been occupied since the Inca era.
I found some kids and we had fun with string figures.
A neat little vehicle. I bet it gets great gas mileage.
There was a small museum where we saw some artifacts from excavations here.
Most of the items that have been found have been taken to museums in Guayaquil and Quito.
Then we started on a walk where we were shown some burial pots that were excavated after they had been exposed along a washout.
Here is the foundation of a building that was probably built thousands of years ago.
A termite nest, an iguana, and a candelabra cactus about 30 feet tall.
A few of the birds we saw.
The first is a vermilion flycatcher.
The last was identified as a Snowy Egret by Mary Callahan.
She said "You can tell by it's yellow feet - it's nickname is "Golden Slippers." "
The other three are currently unidentified.
More of what we saw as we drove along.
We had lunch at the seashore.
While we were there we saw frigate birds and pelicans.
Three varieties of crabs.
We rescued the one in the middle from a tangle of fishing line.
The pattern of little balls of sand was probably the creation of another crab, though we never saw it.
