People who have not crossed the equator by ship before are called polliwogs. This ceremony chaired by King Neptune grants them the status of shellback.
There was a bit of a hiccup with Ecuadorian Immigration this morning. The Immigration officers wanted to see the passengers' passports. Our passports had been taken from us on the day we boarded. We had been given Landing Cards and a photocopy of our passport information pages last night to be used on disembarkation today. After much discussion between the Silversea staff and the Immigration officers we were all allowed to disembark after our Landing Cards were stamped. The delay involved standing around for over an hour waiting to get off the ship.
Today our excursion was the highlights of Manta which included a visit to a golf course outside of Montecristi for a demonstration on the making of Panama hats and the process of creating jewelry and other items from the togua nuts. Below is a picture of artisans creating the hats. The first two artisans in the left of the picture are leaning into the hat form to apply pressure as they weave.
Below is a picture of a statue of a young woman making a Panama hat found in the center of a traffic circle in Manta.
We then went to a small town named Chorrilla where we watched the process of turning cabuya into burlap bags used for exporting coffee.
The next site on the tour was the small Archaeological Museum in Manta. Some interesting pottery and other items from the early inhabitants here.
Tomorrow is a sea day.....
