Headed to the west coast of Ecuador

Back in Quito, I decided to sleep on my friends floor (the guys from the band Arcabuz) this time instead of heading to a hostal or back to the family I had been living with before. One of the nights we celebrated the 25th birthday of another friend.

My next move was a flight to the coastal town of Manta where I would kill some time before meeting up with Scott in 3 more days. It turned out Manta sucked and I only spent one night there. The one night I was in Manta was right after the huge ¨terremoto¨ (earthquake) in the south part of Peru. I was watching the news and remember the guy talking about a tsunami and wondering if I needed to take off for high ground. I never saw anyone freaking out so I just went to sleep. In the morning I wandered around the beach checking out the fish market and the ship construction. There were lots of small sharks that had been caught and I was soon surrounded by 5-7 local fishermen after I took a picture. I just said I was sorry and they left after they had some confidence that I wasnt there to turn them in (I guess its illegal to catch that type of shark). The ship building was really cool too. They were literally building large fishing boats right on the beach. There was a guy next to the boat shaping logs with a chain saw before they were to be attached to the frame of the boat.

That same day I was on a bus south to Puerto Lopez where I would meet up with Scott. Scott updated his blog site and you can check it out here....

http://sgoolsbey.travellerspoint.com/

Look for the UPDATE FROM SOUTHER PERU entry for a summary and some pics. Scotts blog covers the last week of travels along the coast of Ecuador and then into Peru. Right now we are in Arequipa planning our adventure around southern Peru. We will be in this area (Arequipa, Lake Titicaca, Cusco and Macchu Pichu) for the next 2 weeks!!!!

Send me an e-mail if you have any comments or questions!!!