Days 9-11 (cruise days 8-10) - We had two full sea days before arriving at Manta, Ecuador. During this time I mainly kept to structured days of work, exercise, and a bit of relaxation. One thing I do appreciate about my job is flexibility of work time and space - much work can be done remote. Technology does have its benefits and facilitates flexibility, but many of us work way more hours and sacrifice balance because of it. To this point in my trip I had opted to keep socialization to a minimum (it is a work trip, after all) and I boarded not knowing anyone.
My solitude ended back in Puerto Quetzal when I met a couple and their friend from the UK who invited me to join them for drinks and dinner - one of them snapped the pic of me to the right. This trio has been quite fun and entertaining to connect with and have interesting backgrounds. One is an authentic Londoner, while one is originally from the previous Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and the other from New Zealand via Australia. In addition to being avid travelers and well-read, they are also of the same generation and so conversations have common points of reference whether music, movies, history, or 2SLGBTQ+ trivia. I gave up my solo dinner seating to join them for occasional happy hour cocktails and suppers that is fulfilling.
Manta is known as the self-proclaimed tuna capital of the world and the port housed a huge fishing fleet in addition to fishery production support. The port was pretty much industrial and the cruise ship was one of those uneasy visitors nestled in amongst the fishing fleet, container ships, coast guard vessels, and navy ships. The area was pretty congested, noisy, and dirty - even the malecon was kind of sad compared to most other places where it is usually a focal scenic point of communities. There were some examples of old colonial buildings but, in general, the area was pretty run down and the immediate neighborhoods seemed to be quite impoverished. My mission in going ashore was to do a bit of a walk through the area neighborhoods to get a sense of the city and also to find a place to get a hair cut. There were a few interesting murals and, of course, Catholic churches every other block. I covered about 8 km that satisfied my need for exercise and ended up at the mall.
The mall was pretty much like any urban shopping centre we have but, unlike our malls, there were security guards at each door and no one was allowed in until exactly 10:00. a.m. Whilst standing outside the main entrance I happened to see a sign for a "salon & spa" across the street, so went over to investigate. They happened to be open and I was ushered over to a young hairstylist, Robert, who was setting up his station.
Robert did not speak English and, having a severe language deficit, I spoke no Spanish (outside of "Hola!" and "Donde esta el bano?"). Robert saw I was dripping sweat from my walk (Eeew!) and took out his hairdryer with low setting to cool me down. Talk about customer service! Robert then tried to ask me how I wanted my hair styled - I just pointed to his head and said "Like yours, por favor" as he was sporting a pretty clean-cut look. His attention to detail was amazing and I was really impressed with the quality of the experience. After thanking Robert, I went to the reception to pay and the lady said, in pretty good English, it would be $10 USD. I think she was amused by my shocked look - I really expected it to be about $20 USD. At home it is about $25 CDN and on the ship it would have been $59 USD plus an automatic 20% gratuity đł I was also surprised as it seemed like no tip was expected but I ensured Robert got $5 for the great work...and he got a referral later in the day as one of my new UK friends needed attention.
One of the things I have observed is the relative buying power of our money in each of our stops. Yes, the quayside souvenir stands pump up the prices of their wares but outside of the immediate port facilities things are way cheaper than what we pay for. I picked up a few toiletry items that, even in our dollar stores, would have easily been $10+ and paid less than $3 USD.
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