Ecuadorians Encounter Obamaland

Ecuadorians Encounter Obamaland

The scenario - on the beach in Manta, Ecuador

"Where are you from Mon??" A strident, high pitched, yet powerful, voice rang out from a small group of truck drivers who had gathered on a slight rise of the beach where boats were ferrying in the daily tuna catch. Ane and I had ventured away from the tourist crowd on the busy quay in Manta, Ecuador. Our habit was to explore areas purely local in nature. And here on the beach a drama was unfolding in the moving of the very large tuna onto smaller crafts for transport onto the beach and the awaiting small trucks. Local color photo opportunities galore! We headed for the center of activity.

Ane is surveying the lighters waiting for the
 order to go offshore to the waiting large
fishing fleet to pick up the tuna

      When there, Ane had turned to watch the small fish ferry boats in their activities, and I had wandered toward the many small trucks, camera in hand, ready for the good shot, when that commanding voice rang out. The crowd of truckers surrounding the voice was paying little attention to me until the voice focused it. Then a dozen faces turned as if mandated, none very friendly in their gaze at this foreign tourist clearly out of his element. Thoughts rushed through my head. This was Ecuador, a country for which the US had been recently quarreling over oil field expropriation threats and the very real capture of American tuna boats in waters claimed by Ecuador. Further, I reflected, it was governed by a revolutionary leftist regime led by Rafael Correa, who was seen in conservative circles of the US to have too much in common with the Venezuelan President. How wise would it be to be open about my citizenship? At other times when Ane and I had been in places not at that moment much admiring of the US, we had reverted to our Danish heritage. We still speak that language fluently. In this case though I wondered if, in fact, the following week's inauguration of Obama as President of the US might not be an ameliorating factor. He was viewed favorably, as a voice of the masses, in much of Latin America much like Kennedy was in Europe in an earlier day.

Literally tons of fresh caught tuna was unloaded as
we watched; this is one of the smaller fish.

As the faces in front of me grew impatient, and, if possible, even less friendly, I burst out, "I am from OBAMALAND!" A stunned silence followed. Then gradually faces turned toward one another, questions were flying about, when -"ah, Obamaland" came from the voice, followed by a broad grin, and an onset of nodding, now smiling, faces. Crisis averted I had no difficulties having people pose for photos.

 Above: The 'voice' with ball and friend. On the left: This is actually one of my favorite shots on the beach. This old, battered, fishing boat had been converted to a home. A boy with his school sack on back was emerging from the bottom of the host as I was preparing to take the photo. Unfortunately I did not get ready in time to catch him. But you do see the daily wash lying on top of the cabin.

      A bit of background to this story. On a Holland-America Line cruise in January, 2009, Ane and I had a most enjoyable encounter with tropical coastal Ecuador. We stopped thrice in the country, in Manta, going south to Lima, Peru, and in Guayaquil and Manta, on the return north. On the first stop in Manta we chose to take a bus tour to the Machalilla National Park with its many miles of scenic beaches, several hundred square miles of tropical dry and cloud forest, and its archeological museum of Agua Blanca. This allowed us to see a wider variety of the coastal countryside than otherwise might be possible, and simultaneously become acquainted with some serious contrasts in living standards. On our second Manta stay we ventured out into the city on our own, and wandered off the well trodden tourist path with some rather interesting consequences.

The dry coast of Ecuador (so named due to its equatorial location) is here barren of activity. A goodly number of small fishing villages do exist along the several hundred miles of coast, but it remains one of the more isolated and exotic coastlines along eastern South America. The political situation in Ecuador is only recently beginning to loosen up for large scale recreation/tourism development. Come before it is too late!

Ecuadorian rural life. The outhouse is in
the central courtyard, close to the
sheds containing chickens, rabbits, et al.

Rural 'Panama Hats' entrepreneur

     The contrast between the wide-spread rural poverty, and a unique coastal resort we visited is palpable. The Rafael Correa government is emphatic in its desire to elevate the quality of life of the lower class, which actually comprise the vast majority of its population. Yet, we saw a surprising amount of individual entrepreneurship. I must say that I am uncertain of this being a dichotomy. Rural areas still are absent in basic amenities: electricity, water, and sewage facilities. But witness this photo of the family owned and operated Panama Hat 'factory'. Everything is done 'in place'!
      So, it may surprise folks that Panama Hats are primarily manufactured in small scale 'plants' in Ecuador. Here, the owner is standing on the veranda. A straw pre-woven hat is brought to the hot water owen at the right and the straw mellowed to the desired contours. After finishing work the hats are displayed to the left in an open shop available to bypassing tourists, especially those on bus tours. (enlarge the photo for better detail)

Mantaraya Resort, a somewhat gaudy yet colorful affair, on the coast south of Manta; to the right of the photo is the swimming pool, and beyond an accessible beautiful beach 400 feet below are the shimmering waters of the Pacific off to the horizon.

      There are not so very many of these rather extreme examples of resorts for the wealthy on the Ecuadorian coast. The one shown here thus exemplifies a conundrum in a national policy favored by the current regime. How to accommodate the needed inflow of investment in a golden, largely uninhabited and truly enticing, pristine coastline (photo above), with the essential need of having the funds necessary to economically boost an impoverished country. So far there appears to be no winners, though the populace has just, this spring of 2013, reelected Correa their president.

Driver of jeep approaching us took it upon
himself to warn us, obvious tourists, about
walking into this particular neighborhood

      One of the issues of traveling in South America for the average tourist is: What are the necessary personal safety precautions, and where are we to apply them. Criminal activity from pickpockets to kidnappers has run rampant in various places and at various times in different countries. Americans are generally well aware of this and tend to chose organized tours to avoid these threats. We ran into repercussions of this syndrome in Manta. We had decided that our second encounter with Manta was to be our exploration of, to us, the unknown. So we went forth. Having initially walked away from the ship dock side and comfortable arena, on a beautiful Monday morning, after the peak of commuter traffic, we felt Ok to take a short cut through the most concentrated residential area of the city to the harbor.

I took a number of photos along this walk through the central city residential neighborhoods en route to the harbor. But none intrigued me as much as this one. Along the narrow, and quite colorful alleyway, here close to Noon, is a six year old girl in her mother's high heel shoes peeking in the window to see whether her mother was yet missing the shoes - a treasure!
   
      We returned to our cruise ship at the end of the day. While plodding on the crowded quay through the throngs of tourists checking out the dense agglomeration of vendors here to snare their dollars (yes, Ecuador is entirely on the dollar monetary system - very interesting!), I reflected on the two different Ecuadors that we had experienced in just two days - Oh my, I much prefer the local native communities, unfettered by the machinations of tourism. These represent natural environments and people, their livelihoods and activities as well as their habitats plus the spaces they occupy and tend to on a daily basis, and all are so clearly human(e) - like the rest of us! And, alas, were Ane and I not able to be 'tourists' we might not have this extraordinary opportunity!(?)

Availing ourselves of the 'opportunity' - this marvelous, undisturbed natural beach is actually within a national natural preserve and thus likely to remain this way even when developers 'find' the fabulous coastline of Ecuador for their developments.