We arrived in the port of Manta (Ecuador) early morning (6th August) & as it is a working port we were not allowed to walk into town so shuttle buses were provided (at a cost) I was going on an excursion to a wildlife refuge - I couldn't wait to see some howler monkeys. We were advised the excursion was strenuous so Cliff chose to stay in town as his back was still playing up. The drive to the refuge was a real eye opener - as we left the city, the landscape looked as if it had been poisoned, the hills were covered in dead scrub due to the dry season. The closer we got to the refuge the greener it got but it still wasn't as I had imagined
When we arrived 2 howler monkeys were near by (good thing I had Rob's binoculars). The strenuous excursion turned out to be about 40 mtrs down a hill & 40 up where we watched a demonstration of sugar cane being crushed - that was the extent of the walking :-( A number of us were not happy & we asked our guide if we could walk along another path, which he reluctantly did.
After a disappointing excursion I met Cliff back in town where he took me to a very friendly cafe for a yummy lunch of local seafood.
We met a lovely Canadian couple Janet & Paul - they moved to Ecuador for a more relaxing lifestyle. Our waiter, Pedro joined in for this photo.
The beaches are nothing like we have in Australia but they were full of people enjoying themselves.
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