Something smells fishy...

White sandy beach?

Even though Guayaquil is a major transportation hub, it doesn't always mean you can travel to another city directly. After perusing the different bus companies and their services, we decided to settle on spending a night in Manta, a couple hours north of our final destination Puerto Lopez. Luke was a bit overwhelmed by the whole bus finding process (perhaps because the bus station was like its own little city), Kyra was too worried about the safety of the other buses, and Liz just wanted to get back to the beach.

Smells grrrreeat!

We made the best of our stay in Manta by observing the fishing culture. In the morning there were trucks, boats, fish, and fishermen crowding the beach. Up from the beach they had a fish market with huge tuna, sharks, shrimp, and some salmon colored fish we couldn't identify. We were daring enough to get up close in the action on the beach, but not brave enough to take any samples to go. Instead we found cappuccinos for breakfast and dipped our toes in the Pacific. But, the prevading smell of dead fish and garbage along with noisy streets and smog were not what we imagined for our beach getaway. We were happy to leave the Hotel Miami that afternoon, in search of hammocks with a sea view.







Bolones for breakfast! They make A LOT of foods out of verde (green plantain) in Ecuador, including bolones. The delicious balls contain verde, cheese, cilantro, and probably some other things we don't know about. Liz could eat these for days!