It has been a busy few days. We visited two cities in Ecuador: Manta and Guayaquil. We had been to these cities before, but there was a notable difference. There were police officers everywhere. We actually had a police escort on one of the tours we took. Apparently crime has surged in Guayaquil over the last few years and the government’s response was to put cops on every block—at least where the tourists went. 

While we were in Manta we visited a Panama Hat factory. Panama hats are actually a native Ecuadorian invention. The story goes that when the US took over construction of the Panama Canal from France, Teddy Roosevelt paid a visit to Panama. And he donned a hat he bought from an Ecuadorian street vendor. So the hats, invented in Ecuador, became known as Panama hats. Needless to say, when we visited an Ecuadorian hat factory, we bought a couple. 

Then we made our way to a chocolate farm (where they grow cacao beans) and a chocolate factory where they made the finished products. One of the workers was wearing a Nestle branded apron though. 

After that it was off to the port city Guayaquil. There we took a stroll down the Malecón, a boardwalk of sorts that runs parallel to the Guayas River. According to legend, the city is named after a local leader Guayas and his wife Quil who were symbols of the resistance to the Spanish Conquistadors. 

We finished up with a visit to the Guayaquil Metropolitan Cathedral and then Iguana Park which is full of Iguanas–in the middle of the city. And now we are on our way to Peru. 

JFB