Buttons too!

Our short time in Manta provided us with so many stories to tell, that there simply wasn’t enough time earlier.  But, let’s take over where we left off, on the road to Montecristi.

As we approached the city, we began to see hints of what makes this place famous.

These chaps working on woven furniture waved as we drove past.  The heat was building even though there was still a fairly heavy cloud cover and there must have been hardly a breath of air in that dark little corner.

As always, I enjoyed looking out over the ordinary streets, watching people going about their business.  The flower shop was selling rather large and elaborate constructions, maybe for use in church?  But driving past so quickly, I didn’t get chance to see what snacks were in the glass case, sadly.

Our first stop in the city was the home of former President Eloy Alfaro, because just as I’m spinning it out before we cut to the chase, so did Walter.  There we all were, feeling desperate to get to the real business we’d come to do, and here we were, mooching around this rather empty and featureless house with a creepy dummy of the man none of us had heard of sitting at a desk.

Come on, Walter!

At last!  Down in the garden behind the house was a handful of hat weavers, each one working on a hat in exactly the way we’d been led to expect – leaning over it and working “upside down”.  I have to say, it looked really uncomfortable!

Each woman was working to a different pattern.  We’d learned about the various hat quality standards, what to look for and how to choose a good one, so we did our best to put this new found knowledge to good use and did our best to speak with authority about it all!

In particular I admired this beautifully patterned hat, being made by this older lady.  Walter told us that a hat such as this, of “superfino” quality, could take weeks to make.  No wonder some were pretty pricy.

Having made the basic construction around a block, the hat was washed and cleaned before pressing with an old fashioned flat iron.

Then, of course, the edge would be woven and the hat pressed further into shape.

Yet again, I just couldn’t imagine working in this position for hours on end, can you?

Anyway, as the band stuck up another noisy number, we shielded our ears from the din and made our way across the road and into the square. 

Let the hat buying begin!

To begin with, we were wary.  We tried on a few and decided what shape and size we preferred.  One that I tried was so very small, I could have played a leading role in a silent movie   Another was so gorgeous, so silky and had an almost linen-like drape to it.  Yes, you’ve guessed, it was a “superfino” too, and at $200, would be rather more of an investment than I needed.

So we went on further, to another stall and tried on more.  Eventually, we each found our prefect hat – my hero settled on a beautiful “fino” quality one whilst the hat which fitted (and suited) me best was a mere “regular”.  We were glad of expert advice from the gentleman who was doing the selling, accepting his guidance about the fit and the need for a second, horsehair band to make adjustment a little easier.

He packed our hats into their balsa wood boxes, showing us how to roll them so they will retain their shape for years.

He then gladly posed for a photograph!

We had a little time left, so we took a quick look at what else was on offer.

As well as the hats, there were bags and beads.

A little further on down the street, there were hammocks, too.

Everything was so colourful and hearing music coming from one of the shops, I stopped and savoured the moment.  Yes, really, we were in South America and wasn’t it great?!

As we stopped for a break and enjoyed a cold, local beer in a small corner cafe, I decided to run off and buy another hat to bring home for our boy, so returned to the same gentleman who had sold us our hats earlier and he found me the perfect one, throwing a horsehair band into the box as well.  With a smile and a “thank you!”, he packaged it all up in no time.  A bonus!

And that was that – or so we thought.  I quickly snapped a picture of the ceiling of the chiva which had stopped right by us and made my way back to our bus.  But rather than head straight back to the ship, we had one last call to make.

OK, who has heard of a tagua nut?  Not us, that’s for sure.  But here, in the yard of a small factory, they were laid out in the sun, drying so they could be shelled and made into useful and (occasionally!) decorative items.  “Vegetable Ivory” was the term Walter applied to it.

No, they are not edible.  They appear to have little use beyond what goes on here, in fact.

Picking up the whole fruit, which contained up to a hundred individual nuts, Walter did his best to explain what, where, why… but we stood looking at a heap of what looked like pebbles and tried hard to work out what we needed to know about tagua and why we hadn’t heard of it before now.

We mooched around the jewellery stalls which held our attention for a while.

We looked at the ornaments created from these nuts and came to a swift conclusion that our shelves at home are far too full already and that we have no space for a blue footed booby or a leaping dolphin, for that matter.

Instead, we stepped inside the “button factory” – not really a factory at all but a small place where the process of creating buttons from these nuts could be demonstrated.  At this point, I must issue a warning: If you have anything to do with Health and Safety (yes, I do!) or working conditions, then turn a blind eye to everything you see here and write it off as a tourist anachronism, because otherwise, you are going to shudder as I did!

 

So, the first process was to cut slices from the nuts using an electric bandsaw.  Note the taped fingers and the wooden “pusher”?  The lack of safety guard on the blade?  Yes, I did too…

Next, put a slice in the machine to cut a circular hole.  “"Oooh, yes”, said one lady in our group rather excitedly, “I guess the circle is going to be the button!”.

Assuming she was correct (!)  the solid circles of nut were put through the next machine, which drilled two holes and shaped the top. 

Result, one button.  Simple, yes?  Actually, these buttons were shooting out here and there from this machine and guess who was picking them up from the floor, thinking “I could do something with that…”

 

The final process was to watch as a chap carved the shape of a rabbit from one of these nuts.  Once again, the consequences of a slip of the hand didn’t bear thinking about, for this circular saw had no safety guard at all, the operator wore no safety glasses or any other protective clothing either.  At this point, I wanted to summon up all of those tutors I work with who question Health and Safety precautions and ask if this is how they’d prefer to work!

No, thank you!

But a rabbit was carved and offered to a member of the group and off we went, knowing as much as we were likely to ever know about the tagua nut and it’s potential as a material for both decorative and useful purposes.

Before we left, I took a minute to look out over this green and leafy corner of Ecuador, thinking how remote and unspoiled it appeared from this spot.  Was it altogether a bad thing for these people to make their living from carving rabbits for tourists from an otherwise useless nut?  After all, that beautiful green landscape might have been ripped apart for something far more damaging.

As we drove away and through the next village, school was turning out for the afternoon.

We continued back to the port of Manta, where the sunshine and blue sky was making the beach look rather more attractive than it had this morning.

We’d passed the shipwrights’ workshops on our way out, but now there was time to stop and take a photo of these great pieces of craftsmanship.

Walter shared our admiration and was happy to stop there as long as we enjoyed seeing what was going on.

And there, across the beach with the fishermen and their carts, was our home for the time being.  One lovely white ship on the horizon, beckoning us back.

As we approached the entrance to the harbour we knew how lucky we were to have somewhere so beautiful to return to.  Because, the joy of making a journey like this on a ship as comfortable as the Mariner is not only to go off each morning to new places and see interesting things, but best of all, to come back to a warm “welcome home!”  

We made our way back up to our suite, freshened up and went for a spot of lunch on the pool deck.  The grill was fired up, the beer was cold and we were feeling just a little more than peckish!  Well, it had been quite an early start, hadn’t it?

On the Panama Hat Trail

But they don’t come from Panama, as you probably well know…

We woke and enjoyed our breakfast in Manta, Ecuador this morning.  It was warm and humid, though a little overcast and not at all the tropical sunshine we’d imagined.

I stepped carefully over this chap to take a closer look at what was going on by the large ship opposite, where they were unloading something.  Sand, perhaps?  Or gravel? 

Every time the crane lifted out another bucketful of whatever-it-was, it would spill lots all over the deck of the ship, over the side and then all around the hopper where the lorries were being loaded.  These men were sweeping it all up and pouring it back into the hold – which seemed sensible enough until we discovered it was wheat    Here’s hoping it will be well processed before it becomes anything edible.

Oh look, the tour buses are arriving!  What fun!  Sadly, they weren’t tour buses at all but those assigned to a particular tour by “chiva”.  Never mind, something for next time, eh?

Our first stop was the local museum in Manta.  Not exactly a huge place, it nevertheless gave us a little background to the history and culture of Ecuador.

All the faces represented in the artefacts on display bore the same facial characteristics and it was interesting to look around and compare them all.  Such distinctive noses!

We drove through a few suburbs, for although Manta isn’t a big place and we were soon out in the green, these small communities were fairly well spaced along the road.

In some places, there were modern, social housing developments.

In others, houses sat side by side right there by the road.  One thing was clear – Monday is washing day!

Soon, we came to a small village with a loom by the side of the road.  This could be interesting.

Sure enough, we were to visit the house and workshop of a family whose business was processing the fibres from the agave plant and turning them into a coarsely woven fabric.  Our sweet and very knowledgeable guide Walter, explained each step of the process.

First, the green “leaf” was stripped off, leaving the fibres behind.  This was so reminiscent of a similar process in New Zealand where the phormium leaves produce a fibre just like this.

Next, the fibres are cleaned and pulled through the comb-like heckle to get rid of any weaker strands and straighten it all out a little, ready for spinning.

The result is soft and clean.  And yes, Jane, the manicure is holding up well as you can see

Next comes the spinning.  These ladies were sitting at the noisiest of machines, creating a rough, string-like fibre.

 

Some of this was destined to be wound onto larger rolls of warp threads, others were split into smaller, shuttle sized weft.

See how rough it is?

The final stage of the process is worked on the loom and we stood and watched as a piece of fabric was created on this manual, treddle-operated machine.  There’s something satisfying about the clatter of a loom, the throwing of the shuttle and the gentle turning as the fabric is produced, though the operation must be so very tiring.

The resultant fabric is pretty nice though and yes, that piece is in my bag!

We were curious about these people filling sacks with a rich dark brown material in the field by the village as we left, wondering what they could be doing.   Walter explained that the building next door was a coffee mill and these were the spent grounds, composted and recycled into bags of rich growing material.  Interesting!

But still no Panama hat?  You’ll have to stick with me until the next post, I’m afraid, since it’s time for trivia and it looks like we could be a team of two today!  Two of our number have swanned off to Quito overnight and the others are enjoying an Ecuadorian Afternoon Tea somewhere else.  So, my hero and I will see what’s what and try not to embarrass ourselves!

I promise, the next post will contain at least one hat.  Maybe two.  Possibly three!

It’s not looking good for Denver…

Or so we’ve just been told.

I thought I’d use a little time this evening to do a bit of a catch up on what’s been going on.  We’ve enjoyed a super quiet dinner this evening because almost all of the ship’s company is sitting in the theatre watching the SuperBowl.  Having not a clue about the game (?match?) we are mere onlookers.  But that’s not to say we don’t enjoy the emotion of it all!

As you’ll gather, we are really enjoying our cruise.  We had a great time in Cartagena and will take fond memories home of the time we spent there.  As we left on our tour that afternoon, the crew were moving furniture around and I referred to them clearing the decks for a party that evening.  Now, we’ve heard of such events but have always narrowly missed them, because we’ve been going home before they took place.  But this time, we were lucky!  An overnight stay in Cartagena was a great opportunity to have an outdoor event on the pool deck and whilst we were out in the afternoon the crew managed, somehow, to transform the whole place into a huge, elegantly dressed dining room.

 

There was a place for everyone to sit at a table and food enough for three times as many!  The buffet and grills were arranged around the pool and we couldn’t believe the range of food on offer.  Suffice to say, we were spoiled for choice.

But what was really impressive – and I apologise for the blurry photograph – was the speed with which it was all cleared away.  When the time came for the buffet to close, to make way for the band and the dancing, the way the whole crew came together to wheel away those grills, the serving tables and all the associated equipment was remarkable.  That it was all done with such fun and spirit was particularly special, because as we realised, most of these people had been working hard all day to get it all ready, too.

The Beatles show which followed was good fun too and well targeted to those of us who were there!  The dance floor was full and the party really would have gone on all night but for the fact that many of us had an early start the next morning, to continue our tours of Cartagena.  Never mind – but quite what the local inhabitants made of the rousing choruses of Penny Lane and She Loves You on such a still, quiet evening, who knows?

The other thing which I’ve not really mentioned here is the range of talks available to us when we have time to go and listen.  This morning, we were treated to two particularly memorable presentations: Firstly, David Pogue’s “Tech Update 2014”.  David is an influential writer and presenter on several media platforms and his talk this morning was not only thought provoking and informative, but was also very funny indeed.  We’ve added YahooTech to our bookmarks and will follow it with interest, the more so for the lack of irritating advertising!  He was followed by Terry Breen, who offered another of her insights to our next destination – Ecuador.  Now we know exactly what to look for when buying a Panama hat and will bear her advice in mind tomorrow when we’ll be in Manta and visiting Montecristi, the home of the original and best.

This evening’s theatre show was scheduled as a matinee today, because of the SuperBowl and once again we marvelled and Hana and Alex’s remarkable strength, balance and sheer courage!  Every time we see them, I think they perform more breathtaking routines and they are really the stars of every show they participate in. 

So, this evening, the ship was quiet.  Well, shall we say most of the ship was quiet – the theatre was anything but!  As we went to the bar for a pre dinner drink, we noticed the crowds waiting to get in to see the SuperBowl and wondered if there would be anyone left to join us in the dining room?

Well, not many, that’s for sure!

So, we had a quiet table for two by the window and enjoyed rather more time than usual chatting to those who are normally way too busy to spend very long standing around.  It was an interesting menu tonight too – I began with the intention of taking photographs of each course to share here but sadly was enjoying it so much, I forgot!  So, you’ll have to believe me that the gravlax was great, the monkfish moqueca was interesting if not quite as spicy as I expected and that the chocolate fondant hit the spot perfectly.  Oh, and the white frascati was pretty good, too.

When we’d finished, we couldn’t resist taking a look at what was going on in the theatre, where it was shortly after half time.  One lady wearing an orange, Denver Broncos shirt came to get another tub of popcorn and shared her disappointment that her team weren’t doing so well.  We commiserated and declined the offer to sit and watch the rest of the match in favour of returning to our quiet, comfortable suite and following the match on TV.

Sadly for the lady in the orange shirt, it’s still not looking good for Denver, but our friends supporting the Seahawks will be thrilled when we see them tomorrow!  (Not that the match is over yet…)

At 3am tomorrow, we’ll cross the equator and we are told that King Neptune will be dropping in for a drink in the evening.  Now, the last time we encountered him was a bit of fun but I guess there won’t be quite as much time for such an elaborate celebration on a day when most of us are going out all day.  Because, of course, we’ll be arriving in Ecuador first thing in the morning – yet another new country for us both and so there will be a loud “kerching!” when our feet touch the ground.

What fun!!

The far side

Having spent the day enjoying the Panama Canal transit, we’re now sailing in the Gulf of Panama, according to the map on our TV.  For those of us who enjoy watching the process of managing a huge ship like this one, the whole canal thing was a dream.  One process after another, all very watchable and involving a great number of people doing a wide variety of jobs which came together so well.

So, where were we?

Well, I think we were floating along in the Gatun Lake, making our way towards the central point of the canal and from there, to begin our descent to the Pacific Ocean.

We came indoors – me to write my blog for yesterday, my hero to enjoy a few more chapters of his unputdownable book, but both to cool down a little.  But as we sat there, looking out of the patio doors, we simply couldn’t resist leaping up every time a ship sailed past. 

And believe me, that was pretty frequently!

Some were prettier than others, of course.

Some were noisier than others.  “Welcome to Panama!” shouted the man standing at the front of this little cruiser.  Well, thank you – we were loving being here!

But the whole way along, we enjoyed looking out over the rainforest and hoping to see what the Captain had pointed out on the other side: an alligator!  (We didn’t)

A little further along, beyond the lake and into the  Gaillard cut, the canal is being widened and we watched as a dredger was working.  We couldn’t believe how deep this digger was working

nor the size of the rocks it was hauling up from the bottom!  This is big stuff – and presumably, expensive work, too.

Around the corner, we could see a bridge appearing; the first bridge over the canal that we’d noticed so far.

The Centennial Bridge was the second permanent crossing and as we sat enjoying lunch with friends on the pool deck, we all agreed that it’s a very elegant design indeed.

We soon hot-footed it down to our suite again, though, because we spotted the next set of locks coming up.  The Pedro Miguel pier was right there and we’d already missed the old line-throwing business.  I smiled to myself when I saw this chap standing in the middle of a loop of rope though, being reminded of all kinds of cartoon mishaps when someone pulls on the other end   When I saw the expression of his hands in the photograph later, I was amused (I know, it doesn’t take much!)

Back to more serious business, alerted by the whistle of a train and the rumble on the tracks opposite.  I’d read that some shipping lines, including Maersk, had taken the decision to stop sailing through the canal and sure enough, this railway engine was hauling a number of Maersk branded containers from the Pacific Ocean terminal to the Atlantic.  My hero could offer all kinds of information about the railway operation but I was simply happy to have yet another thing to watch!

That included the ship alongside us in the neighbouring lock.  We’d seen the Astir Lady earlier, in the Gatun locks but now we got a closer look at the immaculate presentation.  Once again, the ipads came out and our favourite MarineTraffic app fired up so we could satisfy our curiosity.

Oh, and the usual friendly waves were exchanged, too.

Whilst we transited these locks, we got a look at what Terry had been talking about earlier, too.  See the target and what looks like a rugby goalpost there on the lawn?  That’s where the line throwers get their practice in!

Soon, we were out the other side of the locks and another couple of ships were following close behind.  Oh yes, one of them is the Hanjin Elizabeth!

Just a little further on, the Captain sounded the horn which appeared to alert two small tugs to hurry to our side.  We were approaching the Miraflores locks – the last ones before the ocean.  We glanced at our watches and hoped we’d make it through before the 4.30 Trivia time!

Now, these line throwers were a bit of a rum lot!

There was a bit of a commotion, a great deal of shouting and carrying on before they were in action.

At last, the ropes were secure and they looked back to check all was well.

But something didn’t seem quite right and one of the mules had to reattach something…and we were getting restless because it was now well past 4.10 and we were going to have to leave.

We heard a cheer go up from what appeared to be a visitors centre as the Astir Lady tooted her horn and went on her way.  Were we going to have the same reception?

We admired a pelican which flew and settled in the empty lock next to us and wondered if we could expect action soon?  Noting the time, we decided we’d just have to go down to the lounge, meet our Trivia team and watch the last bits from a different level.

Actually, it was quite interesting to see the mule at close quarters, to wave to the driver and to watch as we made our way out of the final lock sometime around 4.45pm.

Our friend the Hanjin Elizabeth was right on our tail as we sailed out into the Bay of Panama.

We stood, watched and counted as sixteen linesmen, pilots and assorted local crew disembarked the ship via the rope ladder and then, just when we thought all was done…

Another small boat came alongside and the last one left – minus a lifejacket we noted, which seemed a little foolhardy!

In the distance we could see the skyscrapers of Panama City.

And just as we were about to step inside, feeling we’d seen the last feature, the Bridge of the Americas came into view.  Our transit was complete.

Oh and yes, we were pleased we’d gone indoors to play Trivia, too

We spent the evening with friends in Signatures, one of the speciality restaurants and enjoyed the best combination of interesting conversation and excellent food.  I was going to add that at the end of the evening, all that was left were the three petits fours that none of us could manage (yes, really, even I managed to resist a raspberry macaron).  But actually, all that was left was a little trail of chocolate, leading to the one who snaffled the truly irresistible chocolate truffle almost as soon as it arrived.

He knows who he is

(Thank you for your comments, Wes and Lesley, I’m pleased you’ve enjoyed the journey!)

The early morning show

We woke at 5:50am this morning and turned on our TV straight away.  Though it was dark outside, the best show in town was about to begin and we didn’t want to miss a thing.

Actually, it was just about getting light by the time I’d showered and dressed, so whilst my hero had gone out onto the deck, I simply poked my head out of the balcony door to see what was going on.

We’d reached the breakwater at the entrance to the Panama Canal and the commentary about to begin.

As my camera acclimatised itself to the warm, humid air outside, I decided to go and join what appeared to be the majority of people up on the top deck. 

I-Made was already out there with his drinks trolley serving hot drinks.  (Did I tell you how well we are taken care of here?!)

Inside, in the observation lounge, a more substantial breakfast was on offer but we decided to stay out in the open and make the most of the journey.  After all, this was one of the highlights we didn’t want to miss.  Considering it was only just past 7 am, the ship was buzzing!

By now, we were approaching the entrance to the canal proper and could see where the new locks are being constructed.  We’d heard about this from Terry Breen, the on board lecturer making her 80th transit today and who has shared so many interesting points about the canal with us during the last few days.

There’s a huge amount of work going on but sadly, the build is behind schedule and the new, enlarged locks won’t open in time for the centenary celebrations on August 15th this year.

We were heading for one of the two operational locks here, following one of the ships in there already.  We had a specific booking for our transit, we were told, because we have “precious cargo” on board.

As we approached, we passed by the site of a new bridge which is being built across the mouth of the canal

then, right by buoy 16, we could see “the French Cut”, the site of the first, failed attempt to build a canal.

Having ticked off these things we turned to our port side and made note of the new lock gates, brought from Italy to be fitted to the new locks.  Hard to get the scale of them, but the green box to the right is a standard sized shipping container, so they’re huge, right?

At this point, I-Made passed by with his tea trolley and I took advantage of his offer.  So, it was with a cup of Earl Grey tea that I stood and watched as we approached the first set of lock gates.

Actually, I was distracted, because there were things happening on the shore.  People were going to work and a brightly coloured bus was tootling along the road, possibly making the same trip as it does every day.

But I needed to concentrate on what was going on ahead.  Look, there’s the lock gates – before long we’ll be starting to go through there.  But just a minute, did I see a car drive along that “shelf” near the water?  Surely not…

Whoa!  Look what just crossed there, in front of my eyes!!

It is such fun to simply stand and watch.  There is so much happening, so many things to see and to work out how they work.  We love it!

At this point, we heard the news that we were going to take the right hand lane, and thinking that we’d have an equally good view from our own balcony, we stepped inside and came down one floor to watch the next stages.

Now, we’d been told to look out for the arrow sign which would indicate which lane we should take.  We spotted it there at the end of the jetty and became confused – surely, we were going to wrong way?

Well, no, because someone else was hard on our tail!  That arrow was intended for the Hanjin Elizabeth, who was going to sail through the neighbouring lock alongside us.

Just beneath us, though, action was happening as the rope men were rowing out to throw the line to our crew.  This was another thing we’d been advised to look out for – apparently all kinds of modern methods have been tried and tested, but the good old, low tech way remains the best.  So, these men row out to each ship, they throw the line by hand and practice their aim at targets along the canal side so they become pretty good shots!

Having checked that our crew member had caught it, they returned to the shore.

With a friendly wave of course! 

The line was going to attach our ship to one of these engines, known as “mules”.  The mules (we were attached to four on each side I think) don’t actually pull us through the canal but hold us steady in the middle of the lock.

We looked back and spotted the same procedure going on with the Hanjin Elizabeth.  My goodness, those chaps have to be able to throw pretty well, don’t they?

As the Hanjin Elizabeth sailed alongside us in the neighbouring lock, her crew were taking photos of us too!  Lots of waves, friendly greetings and interest on both sides.

We popped inside to see the view from the bridge.  We appeared to be making good progress.

Whilst standing outside we couldn’t help but feel curious about the contents of those containers!  Stacked twelve deep and five or six high, there was row upon row of them, the whole length of the ship.

The two small tugs were tucked in the locks behind us and as we went for a spot of breakfast, we took the chance to look around and see what was what behind us.

By the time we returned to our prime viewing spot, we were approaching the next lock, keeping pace with the Hanjin Elizabeth alongside.  As we are raised to the next level, the little mules travel up a steep incline to keep at the right height to continue with us.  Interesting, isn’t it?  

After a while, the Gatun Lakes were in sight.  These man-made lakes form part of the canal route and also form a holding place for shipping waiting for a passage through.

We watched as the Hanjin Elizabeth let go of the mule connections and sailed on past us, out of the locks.  Her crew waved bye to us as they passed.

Look what a tight squeeze it was!

But actually, she wasn’t going very far, for as she tied up alongside, we sailed out of the lock and right out into the lake, leaving her behind.

And that’s where we are now.  We’re sailing through the Gatun Lakes on our way to the next set of locks and taking the chance to catch up on blogging, journalling and cooling down.  It’s hot and sticky out there, believe me!