55. Manta, Day 2

Manta, Ecuador      Day 2               

Hot    84 F (29C)

Is it hotter with a hat on?  Naturally, I wore my new Hat when we took the shuttle bus to the main gate to just explore the neighborhood on day 2.

All Kinds of Hats

Once we stepped outside the Port compound, there were sellers of hats everywhere, but…it was strange…they looked at me with my Superfino Hat and most did not offer me one of their hats. I had the feeling they could tell immediately what a good hat is supposed to look like. While I was pleased with that, I was also a bit apprehensive walking through the streets, flaunting my ‘expensive’ Hat. It’s like an advertisement that says; “Hey, look at me, I got money”. Compare it to wearing a Rolex watch in some slums. I never thought about that when I bought my hat yesterday. Well, I guess I have to hold on to my Hat, literally.

Manta

On this day 2 we just wandered around a bit near the harbor. We found a cool mall with good Wi-Fi and did nothing much else.

The news from the internet is not always good.

Carol’s youngest son’s Mother-in-Law, Renate Pratt, had passed away. She was a semi ‘famous’ person in Canada, working on Anti-apartheid for South Africa right here in Canada. She wrote a few books and used the Corporate and Banking systems to help defeat the Apartheid Rule in S. Africa. A smart woman in her prime years, she was stricken with Alzheimer’s Disease and her death, although painful for her family, might have been a blessing, too.

We just doodled the day away, had lunch, a late dinner and we totally missed the crossing of the Equator around 9 PM.

We skipped the nightly entertainment performance. 

We had dinner with Charlie and? They were married for 52 years. They met in High School, in Phoenix, AZ.  Charlie loves Jesus. 

Do you think they were interesting to talk to?