The day started out so good and ended appalling.

Our port's name comes from the Manta culture (500 AD to conquest) . The Manta’s had good navigation skills and are said to have explored Central America, Peru and possibly the Galapagos on balsa rafts.

Since we weren’t being picked up by our transfer people until 11:30, there was a little bit of time to consider what we had packed and to make any last minute changes.

Our group met at 11am and decided we would get off the ship early and wait for our ride outside. There was a little bit of confusion around where exactly the mini bus would actually stop – either next to the ship or outside the port gates. They ended up meeting us right next to the ship.

On the way to the airport we got a mini tour of Manta. We managed to see most of the key sites such as the statue of a tuna (tuna fishing provides important income to the town), where the art and craft market is, the fish market and where they build the tuna fishing boats – the boats are built by hand and cost about $50,000. There is a legal requirement for the large fishing companies to purchase a new boat every year. This keeps the boat building industry alive as well and providing smaller companies with an opportunity to purchase the old boats that had been offloaded.

The flight from Manta to Quito was pleasant. Since everyone was on board on time, we flew out about 10 minutes early. We were on a smallish plane, so we were able to feel some of the bumps, especially when we flew over some of the higher hills close to Quito .

Our flight to Lima wasn’t scheduled until around 8pm, so after checking in and clearing immigration (where for some reason they didn’t like the stamp I got when we were cleared us off the ship, something about it being too faint and needing to photocopy it so that it was darker for their records), we opted to fork out $28 to get access to one of the VIP lounges. This was a good investment as there was food, Wi-Fi, drinks, a room specifically for resting and nice leather lounges.

As our boarding time got closer, we got word that the plane we were suppose to be getting on, was late out of it’s previous destination and that we would be delayed. Interestingly, the flight details on the TV screens still had us as being on time. When our original departure time came and went without the plane arriving, it was a little bit funny to see that our gate status change from being 'on time’ to being ‘gate closed’.

After being issued with a new departure time and a $15 food voucher (due to the fact that we were looking at a 2 hour delay), we continued to hang around the lounge and use the free internet and eat the food .

Once again as our now revised departure time came and eventually went, our gate status once again went from ‘on time’ to ‘gate closed’, except this time by gate closed they meant flight cancelled.

By now it was 11pm and it was now time for the fun to begun.

The first hurdle was to get back through immigration. This meant fighting the hordes of other passengers, thrusting your passport into the hand of a port airline worker who then gave it to an immigration official who then stamped void over the stamp you get when you exit the country. This was when tempers started to fray as the airport staff were giving out little information and only allowing 2 or 3 people through at a time. After about an hour of waiting, one man started asking the staff why we were being treated like cattle and when are we going to get through the door… I think they heard to tone in his voice because within about a minute all the remaining passengers were waiting in the immigration area for their passports to be stamped .

Unfortunately for me, in their haste to stamp everyone’s passports, the staff managed to void my entry stamp thus technically making me still exiting a country where my entry had been voided. Once I nicely pointed out the problem, it got fixed (this involved voiding my exit stamp) and I was assured that there wouldn’t be a problem…. I’m dubious. I wonder if I’m technically considered to be technically in the country? Thankfully and as a back up I still have a customs form that was also stamped when the ship was being cleared.

Getting to the next stage involved navigating out of the secure area to one of the LAN service desks. Easy right? Wrong. Security only had a vague idea of what was happening and while fairly helpful had no idea where to send us even though many other passengers would have passed through before us.

The second hurdle was to get our hotel vouchers. Thankfully one of the people we were travelling with had gotten through hurdle one quickly and was able to scope out what needed to be done to get the voucher . We got our vouchers and headed around the corner to the final stage of our airport adventure.

The third and most frustrating hurdle was to get our replacement flights. Bearing in mind it was now around 1am, we were all getting overtired and several of the people in front of us were taken a long time to organise their replacement flights (one couple took almost 30 minutes).

At 2:30am we finally boarded the shuttle bus to the courtesy hotel and by about 3:50am we were tucked up in bed.

Over the preceding hours, we had been in contact with our Australian travel agent and the agent in Peru to let them know what was happening. They have been quite supportive and now that they know our revised flight details will get the rest of the trip reorganised.

Since we can’t fly out any earlier than 4pm, we’ll miss the last flight to Cusco and will arrive a day later than planned. This means we will miss our half day Cusco tour but should (fingers crossed) be back on track on Wednesday morning.

Fun fact:
The Panama hat isn’t actually made in Panama. It’s origin actually lies in the small village of Montecristi. The hat got its name when President Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal to see how the construction process was going. He was presented with the hat (made in Ecuador) and from that point on it was referred to as a Panama Hat.

Altitude
Quito sits at 2800m above sea level.