Manta, Ecuador calls itself the tuna capital of the world. (Itinerary)  

Our ship arrived at 5am and would stay until 9pm. When we came out to the dock at 6 or so, they wouldn't let us walk out of the port and the shuttles wouldn't start until 7am. We came back out to the dock at 7 and were the only ones out there for the first shuttle.  

 
Dean had read about an amazing fish market about 1.5 miles down the beach, but it would be the most active for a limited time in the morning, so we were anxious to get there.

 
A cute fish fountain occupied the center of a traffic circle at the port gate.

 
We found a public bus going in the right direction to shorten our trip to the fish market. The US dollar is Ecuador's currency, so that made it easier for local transactions. The tuna was in the next traffic circle.

 
This is Tarquí Beach and many locals were walking and running on this end of it. Note all the fishing boats anchored off shore. 

Looking back at The Amsterdam...

 
We loved all the birds.  We thought the wreck in the background here looked sorta like a fish skeleton. 

    
We were headed toward the blue roofed market space...

 
What we didn't realize before is that most of the "action" was on the beach with fish being unloaded from boats, cleaned on the spot and loaded into all manor of vehicle including wooden wheel barrows, bicycles with cargo space, and trucks of all sizes. We did not see much accounting for the incoming fish.

 
People were friendly and wanted to tell us about the various fish.

 
The birds were awaiting the guts and carcasses.

We guessed that some fish waste was dumped here...

 
Meanwhile, bicycle powered breakfast carts and a coconut guy fed the fish workers.

 
Some activities, like scaling these small fish, were clear, others like what the guy hauling the cart through the fish action were not.

 
Woven palm frond fish mobile.

 
Farther back from the shore, people were selling shrimp and smaller fish.

   
Things were calmer under the roof.

 
Jumbo shrimp is not an oxymoron here. We wondered how much fish the ship bought here. We thought later that these rock lobsters, might have been the lobster tails we had the next night.

 
When we both take photos, we often catch both sides of the story. This black-crowned night heron was about to take off with a small fish, but these pelicans were watching its every move.

 
When we went back out to the beach, a bunch of fish were being unloaded. 

 
As we made our way further down to beach to see the wooden boat building area, the birds were closing in on the fish parts.

 
Right next to the far edge of the fish market (Note the blue wheelbarrows.), although it's in a different town, the wooden boat building operation begins. Boats old and new are propped up with wooden beams and scaffolding is made from large bamboo poles.

A new wooden boat...

 
New planks are fashioned from logs with chainsaws. 

 
A repair job underway matches up the new planks within the existing structure. Some of the boats seems precariously close to the water.

 
The chainsaws require sharpening on a regular basis.

 
Carving a keel from a log is labor intensive.  The bow shaping done here is done with adzes, the ancient methods. 

A power sander provides a smooth finish.

We walked through the fish market again on the way back to catch a bus. Even just a half an hour or so later, it had calmed  way down. We were so glad we got to see it in its full chaos.

Serious soccer practice had taken over the beach where only walkers had been earlier.  

We think that some of these players will be the future stars of Ecuador's national team.

 
A monument to fishermen is close to the river crossing. The river smelled of sewage. We head to our left to find a bus to Montecristi, a town at the edge of a mountain.

On our way, we were surprised to see giant mosaics covering the supports for an overpass.

  
There is a market under this end of the overpass.

  
This man is tying his live crabs together. Several crates hold chickens that are for sale.

   
The chickens have had their beaks rounded, to reduce damage due to pecking.

 
We boarded a bus headed toward Montecristi and took some photos through the open window. We thought this was an interesting mural.

 
This giant hat-weaving lady mosaic-covered statue occupied a traffic circle as we approached Montecristi. The main road to this town is the Avenue of the 4th of November. 

 
We walked up the road to the church. On the way we saw a house with a lush garden, ...

 
... a house with twirly columns, and a bar or restaurant with a Day of the Dead mural.

 
A park adorned with some traveler's palms and a bust of Eloy Alfaro, who according to the plaque was the father of the liberation of Ecuador.

 
This extensive 3-D mural was next to the church.

 
Before we headed up to the church, we turned right for a short walk. An old fire truck dating back to the mid 1800s and a modern car with an interesting detailing job.

 
There were a couple hat shops where hat weaving ladies were on display. The Panama hats originated in Ecuador. Dean talked with this guy, a Canadian expat, about where to see the processing of the fibers. He told us that it no longer happens in Montecristi, but there was another fiber processing operation at a village up the road from the coffee factory that we passed on the way from manta—we'd smelled the aroma from the bus. 

 
We headed up the tiled stairs to the church.

 
This is a Catholic church, but we'd not seen a church with the body of Jesus or such public confessionals.

 
The ceiling art and Dean was taking photos of the Mother Park next door.

 :
One of the Montecristi buses: they are hard to miss. We walked on down to the main road to catch a bus back.

The main road from the bus window shows the local shops and the street vendors selling pretzels car to car.

   
We got off the bus and stopped at a gate to the coffee factory to ask about a tour—none were available. Just outside the gate a couple of guys were tying down the load of pallets and other scrap lumber from the factory. 

 
We started walking the mile and half up to the village and saw these guys shoveling coffee grounds into their truck. They said it was for their garden and since there were acres of it, it's a never-ending supply of free mulch/humus for them. We were happy when someone offered us a ride the rest of the way up to the village. There was no sidewalk and it was hot and fast trucks kicked up a lot of dust.

We found the area where they process fibers from a type of agave plant.

 
First they strip the soft parts of the leaf away leaving only the fibers (xylem). 

 
The fibers are dried and then carded like wool.

 
Then it is spun into a coarse, jute-like twine.

 
The spools of twine are fed into a loom.

 
The loom is powered by a foot treadle. This guy was weaving a bolt of something that looked like a natural colored burlap with a red stripe down the middle. What fun. We were the only tourists in the village, but fortunately for us, there was a driver who would take us back to the bus stop for $1.