Caaoa, Coquimbo Current mood: animated Category: Blogging
Well last night we totally rocked out the last two sets. Most passengers were busy packing to disembark , & only our regular listeners were there. This included Steve & Terry VanPelt , Arocker couple from Seattle -(one Keg who got up & Sang some Stones & Doors with us) & the great couple from Ireland who have been dancing all night ,every night since Halloween ! After that we needed to say farewell to Steve Lee , (our bandmaster) & wind down somewhat, so I never got back online. Now its morning & I'm trying to sort out how confused I am about which city was what the last few days ! Its 5 hours ahead of B.C. time here , & the days are long as its summertime ! ( Unlike T.O., where its 20 below , or Calgary where they got a dump of snow yesterday) !
So I will move on to Calloa Equador now from my last blog. This was a nicer city , actually , come to think of it , I got talked into taking a cab from Manta into the neighboring city of Quito. He spoke some english & said it was $20 for several hours of touring the city. Sounded like a heck of a deal , so off I went instead of the shuttle. It took about 45 minutes to get to the city. Was taking random photos from the cab , but my driver didn't like that much , & tried to keep closing my window as he says there are many bad men about. The most of are driving around was in tough neighborhoods , lots of traffic , construction , demolition , new buildings being erected, american signs , banks, casinos, mini-stores etc. Will try & upload some of my photos soon. There was some fantastic old buildings from hundreds of years ago once we got way downtown where the square was. This was sort of nice , in a mexican Europe kind of dichotomistic sort of way. Big doors , sculptures about, old & ornate architecture, potholes , scrappy little makeshift magazine & candy stands.
So I turned down the american buffet place my driver took me to, but did use the bano (bathroom) in the place we parked at the square. ( No seat or toilet paper, I had some cleenex , & didn't sit down)! We went to another joint away from the beach , & I bought us some lunch.( avacado & cheese for me , greasy meat for him). When we got back to the ship ,( I had to trADE off with colin as I actually had ship duty this day ), the cabbie says $80.00 ! Well , he certainly never said it was 20 an hour , & made it sound like the whole thing was 20, even after I questioned him repeatedly. So anyhoo , I had some of this equadorian cash , and $60 I gave him. He wasn't very happy as he probably thought he was going to get a big tip, but neither was I. It was raining a bit this day , & most of the pictures are through a window.
So we had two sea days then, and landed in Manta Chile. This is way nicer place. Tripped around the local area till noon , when we had to attend a meeting. ( This also after & between a drill & crew rounds). The area by the ship is full of bars , pubs etc. It is a holiday this weekend. Everyone was up partying till 5 am apparently. Its a roman catholic populace I hear. We found some papaya juice & nectar we like. ( Papaya has exelellent enzymes which aid digestion).
So afterwords , when we got off the ship again , we shuttled into the neighboring city of Serena. This was $5.00 each way. Rob missed the shuttle on the way back because they left early & paid ten to get back on another bus of some kind. (they wanted $15.00) . In general, you have to try & haggle for everything or you get burned. In this city , its 615 pesos or so for $1.00. So it gets confusing very fast.
The square we went is absolutly beautiful. We only had a couple hours , & I ran around taking pics like mad of sculptures & buildings. Lost the other fellows immediatly after the park. They saw a reggae band. I walked down San Fracisco drive ( Its twin city) & took photos. After this , I was famished. Didn't have much time left. No-one understood me , & I couldnt figure out how much food cost or what to order. Ended up going into a busy place anyways , with no air conditioning. Had completed eating a fabulous & succulent 1/2 chicken & fries with appetizer & orange fanta (in a bottle)! in about 20 minutes. Actually ended up with 3000 pesos change from a ten ! I have a photo of the meal will try to upload soon.
I lost a few blogs/ letters when my computer card runs out on me , so will cut this short & go visit Valpraiso !