Manta is a fairly large city located in Manabi Province on the Pacific Ocean. Manta is an important port city in Ecuador. It has a population of around 350,000. The climate is a dry climate with temperatures of between 65 degrees to 80 degrees F during the day year round. The night time temperatures drop into the 60's at times. We were in Manta for three weeks and the temperature varied around the mid 70's. There was always a cool ocean breeze coming from the Pacific Ocean.
The Port of Manta is the largest Tuna exporter in the world. We like the variety of fresh fish available year round. If you want some fish, just go down to the Tarqui area fish market and purchase some fish in the morning for that day's meals.
We started out this trip to evaluate whether we wanted to live on the Coast or in the Mountains of Ecuador. When we got to Manta, all of the evaluation went out the window.
Linda had seen this property in Manta a few months previously, she had called me up to the computer with the advice, "you need to come and see this property before I purchase it". After a time the property had disappeared from the Website and we thought it had been purchased. While in Manta, Linda had asked our realtor, Pilar, if she was familiar with the property. Pilar said she was and it was going back on the market in a few days. When we came back to Manta from San Clemente on Monday, we went out with Pilar to view the property. It was and is the house of our dreams.
We met the owner and his realtor, the next day and agreed on the purchase price. We will close around the middle of December. We will come back to live in Manta on 12/22/2009.
We stayed in Manta at the Howard Johnson Hotel for about three weeks. We walked on the beach, relaxed in the Sun and ate at most of the restaurants in Manta. Our favorite restaurant is MR Frog’s located on a beach west of Manta Beach community. The owner is an American from Nebraska, who lived in Key West for a number of years. This restaurant is decorated like a tropical village with cabins for rent. The construction is an open bar and restaurant using bamboo with palm fronds for a roof. There is always a breeze blowing and keeping the place very comfortable in the tropical Sun. We have watched whales migrating in the ocean while we were sitting on the deck eating Sunday morning breakfast with good Ecuadorian coffee. It is a highly recommended place to enjoy the meal and watching the ocean waves breaking on the beach. Also we looked for furniture and appliances for the new home during the time in Manta.
We traveled to the west on the coast to Puerto Cayo, about an hour or so from Manta. We saw all the beaches including San Mateo, San Margaharita and San Lorenzo on the Ruta del Sol. A wonderful group of beaches.
|  | 
|
