Manta, Ecuador day tours

[treesah]

Any recommendations for day tours in Manta?  Our cruise ship will be there on December 10th.  Museums, Montecristi, rain forest, beaches?  Thank you.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We're interested in this too--it's the only port on our cruise we have not been to before.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Nebr.cruiser

[agru]

First of all, I hope the recent assassination there doesn't affect the country too far into the future. So many countries in Central and South America are volatile.

 

For our cruise in December of next year, we booked a private taxi to take us on a "day tour" and here are his suggestions:

"Visit the fish market

Rain forest

Lighthouse view in San Lorenzo Beach

And lunch 

And Montecristi to have a demostración of the process to make the hats and you get a good one."

 

Apparently, Manta is reputed to be the tuna capital of the world. I think Thailand is the only place that has a bigger fleet. So, there's that. Also, Montecristi is the capital of the "Panama" hat makers. Probably a great place to get one. We intend to purchase at least one there.

I'm sure there might be other good suggestions as well.

 

[kremerlorraine]

At the Manta cruise terminal yesterday the tourist taxis were quoting $25 per hour per taxi. A tour taking in the main sights including Montecristi was expected to take approx. three hours. We just walked across the street to the Pacifico Mall (quite nice with lots of shops and eateries), where I got my glasses repaired at an optician (for the princely sum of $3!) As we only really wanted to go to Montecristi and back we got a taxi outside the mall for $20 return and he waited for about an hour while we strolled around and chose our Panama hats. I can recommend the Modesto shop if you are in the market for a new hat.

 

[kremerlorraine]

I should have added - watching the tuna boats unloading their huge, frozen catch on the pier opposite us was fascinating. There were also a few humpback whales giving us a good show just offshore and some turtles swimming around the ship.

 

[treesah]

On 8/25/2023 at 11:10 AM, kremerlorraine said:

At the Manta cruise terminal yesterday the tourist taxis were quoting $25 per hour per taxi. A tour taking in the main sights including Montecristi was expected to take approx. three hours. We just walked across the street to the Pacifico Mall (quite nice with lots of shops and eateries), where I got my glasses repaired at an optician (for the princely sum of $3!) As we only really wanted to go to Montecristi and back we got a taxi outside the mall for $20 return and he waited for about an hour while we strolled around and chose our Panama hats. I can recommend the Modesto shop if you are in the market for a new hat.

 

Thank you so much for chiming in.  Great info.

[PhD-iva]

In November last year, my cruise stopped at Manta and our tour included a stop at the archeological museum Hojas Jaboncillo. Here’s the writeup I did.

Today’s very interesting excursion is to an archaeological site called Cerro Jaboncillo. First, we went inside a small museum with exhibits. A very short and tiny local woman took us through the museum and explained everything in Spanish. She was very sweet and I liked her a lot. Our excursion guide translated her explanations to English. I sometimes helped him with the more difficult words.
After our tour of the museum we walked up a hill to three different sites where indigenous buildings were re-created. In one of the buildings, life-size statues of elders (male & female) seated in a semicircle were displayed. A distinguishing feature of the locals was a beak shaped nose,
noticeable in this picture of an elder. Our guide described the lifestyle of the locals prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Not everyone made it all the way to the top of the very steep hill.
 When we got back to the port, the bus dropped us off at the terminal and there were some nice stalls with some interesting handicrafts available for sale. But the ship was going to sail within an hour so I didn’t want to spend a lot of time at the port. I did find some earrings that I thought would make a nice present. I bought four pair.

[PhD-iva]

[pbinpp]

We have a cruise on NCL stopping in Manta in a few weeks.  We selected the excursion to Cerro Jaboncillo but we are a bit concerned that it is described as physically challenging?  Robin, if we can’t climb the steep hill, would it still be a worthwhile experience?  How long is the climb?

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

I'm about to sign up for a cruise that goes to Manta.  So if anyone has more recent comments, I'd love to hear them! Thanks.