I went on a tour in Manta that was a sort of overview of the area. Our first stop was a cultural museum, which had displays of cultural artifacts and some information about the various indigenous peoples, beginning with the Vegas from about 7500 BC. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed, not even without flash, and the museum had no gift shop where pictures could be bought, so I will have to try to remember what I saw. I was not a happy camper, particularly since there were some pieces that were unique in my experience: many instances of water jugs that had other clay sculptures appended to them, including human figures and buildings. When I asked the guide why these were made that way, he said "for ritual," so I am not sure he understood the question. (I was already a bit suspicious of his knowledge/understanding because there was a large map showing where all the indigenous peoples lived, but the Vegas – the most important ones according to the guide – were not shown anywhere. When I asked where they were, I was told they were a culture, not a place. I think the real answer was that he didn't know.)

We then went to a Panama hat making demonstration; the guide called it a factory, but what we saw was clearly only a demonstration of the steps in making a Panama hat . We learned that it takes 80 hours to make the average (not the finest) Panama hat, which was entirely believable, since it is apparently done entirely by hand. The Panama hat is called that because they were worn by the workers building the Panama Canal; the hat was invented and still is made in Ecuador, not Panama. The best Panama hats can cost $800 and are so finely woven that they can be rolled up and stored in a box about eight inches long by two inches high by two inches wide.

We next visited a local market, where I bought a couple of figurines carved out of ivory nut and some alpaca wool gloves. I even did some bargaining, although I still feel it was amateur versus pro, but I did get about 25% off the price.

After the market, we went to a factory where ivory nuts are made into buttons. The factory was fairly primitive: they had power tools to cut the nuts and punch out the buttons, but all sorting and finishing was done by hand . The buttons are surprisingly like ivory; just like the figures I bought.

Our last stop was a factory that makes burlap bags. They showed the steps in producing the bags, from the leaves being split and carded and spun into thread, to the weaving and sewing of the finished product. One of our group remarked that it was very much like Colonial Williamsburg – about the same level of technology.

On the way home to the ship, we passed an area where fishing boats were being built, and a fish market on the beach. We also passed a huge monument to the tuna (atun in Spanish); Manta is a fishing port and tuna is their main catch. Both Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee have big processing plants in Manta. The monument shows a tuna leaping over a tuna can (see picture). The picture I got is not the best because I had to take it out the bus window as we drove by.