Manta - Manta

No, not the car with a fox tail, our next stop up the coast - to Ecuador 🇪🇨. Manta, the capital of yellowfin tuna. We didn't know beforehand that there is yellowfin tuna. The port was exceptionally beautiful this time. In the port, you are never allowed to walk around on your own, even a few meters and you will be driven by a shuttle bus. Then we continued on foot into the city. The goal was the market for local handicrafts.

In Ecuador, the Panama hat is made, it comes from there. The hat has nothing to do with Panama except that US President Theodore Roosevelt wore it during his visit to the construction site of the canal, making it famous worldwide. The canal workers also often wore these hats, hence the name has established.

Another highlight there are tagua nuts. These are really hard as a stone and traditionally processed into buttons, combs, etc. And nowadays, they are carved into jewelry figurines for tourists. The nuts are cheap but look like ivory.

However, we confused the market with the local market on our map and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of an Ecuadorian food court. Just great. Since Ecuador also grows coffee, we had a little coffee and wonderful juices. Freshly mixed, the ice is scraped off a large block with a shaver. Genuine manual labor, delicious and inexpensive. There are fruits galore, juices or freshly cut fruits are sold everywhere on the street. I had a bag of mangoes, really great. There were also great fish dishes at the market, but at 11 o'clock in the morning, it couldn't lure us yet. So we explored the city, bought some souvenirs, and as always, enjoyed delicious coffee in a café with Wi-Fi. The cheesecake with passion fruit was also worth the temptation.