Peru,Equador,Chile. Current mood: imaginative Category: Blogging
Three countries this week ! After leaving Puerto Amator ,(which is basically the Panama Canal), we travelled for a day to the city of Manta Peru. This was not the most happening place, & it did not appear that the economy was in a great state of affairs. I think that they have changed there system of money to the U.S. dallar ,in fact. People were friendly , although the housing etc. seemed pretty scrappy compared to what I expected.
Another day at sea , and thurs. we arrived in Manta Equador. This was another place which didn't appear to have a totally thriving economy , & in fact Bobby Milton had arranged to rent a bike to cruise around the town on with some of the orchestra members , but they were not allowed. I was thought I would take the bus around & view the sites that way at the three stops mentioned. The first stop was within walking distance of the ship . I wasn't even sure if this was actually a stop. The guide on the bus didn't say anything, & hardly spoke english. Also she was talking to people in spanish.Nobody got off. There was a hotel there , & a supermarket within eyeshot , but the neihgborhood was kinda scrappy , & I got the feeling that people on the bus were aprehensive about walking around here. I didn't really think it would be a problem ,although my spanish is pretty much nil, but figured maybe the second stop would be more interesting. The second stop turned out to be a fenced in market. Just a bunch of cement in an enclosure (kind of like a prison), where some locals had hats & some shirts for sale , along with the odd trinket or fairly bad painting. Mostly hats. Couldn't wait to get out of there, but had to for the next shuttle.
The third stop turned out to be a mall. Nothing there for me , except I bought an extension cord fo I could use a different lighting fixture I have in my cabin. Had to wait in line for a shuttle for like 40 minutes. Oh, I also bought some beer, rice milk, & an avocado.
The best thing it seemed was the mail service right off the ship. Cool stamps here ! So I dashed off another letter , & sent it off to Winnipeg. (Jason Nowicki of the "Perps". While doing so, the band master & a guest entertainer were just getting off the ship. They wanted to know what they should do , where to go. I told them what I had done. They wanted me to come with them & try something else. We took a cab , to a place I saw that wasn't far away & looked interesting. It was a $5 cab fare to the museum, which turned out to be very cool. There was a history going back 9000 years B.C. ! Lots of ancient pottery & artifacts. I took some photos I hope to include here one of these days. The guest ent., (Jackie), was drawn to some raw emeralds that held & eminated a powerfull force. They were round & deep green like the water here. They had been found by shell divers , along with other artifacts of onyx ,silver & copper jewellry which no-one knows the date or history of presicely. (oops , bad spelling ! Also, have to go play a couple sets now). More on todays adventure in Coquimbo soon ! ( The ship was out of computer cards , so I have some catching up to do ) !!!