Manta Ecuador

Steve walking from the

bus stop to the hotel.

Manta is a large city on the coast of Ecuador known as the tuna capital of the world.  Here large ships and cruise lines stop to empty their cargo and passengers for tours into the countryside.  We took the bus from Guayaquil to Manta on Tuesday, March 11, 2014, and only stayed two days.  We chose Hotel Lun Fun to spend our nights and we couldn’t have been happier.  We would stay here again anytime!


Celia, the general manager at Lun Fun, speaks perfect English and is most helpful in determining places to visit and places to eat.  She and her staff were very gracious and hospitable.  One evening while showering Steve badly slipped in the shower and hit the nearby toilet knocking it off its seating and dislodging the water line.  While we were embarrassed for the fall and Steve mildly bruise and sore, Celia and her crew came to the rescue and promptly relocated us to a similar room.

Also staying at Lun Fun was a famous Ecuadorian soccer team.  Sorry I don’t know the name of the team, but they were present during our entire visit.  I managed to nudge my way into a photograph with one of the top players, a coach and staff member.


While in Manta we ate at Martinica, the top restaurant in Manta.  Check out the pictures to see how amazing the prices were (in U.S. Dollars) and how great our food was.

A major part of our visit to Manta was to visit the local English group of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  We met in a tiny room on Tuesday evening with about 15 others (not everyone was in attendance) for the Bible study and Theocratic Ministry School.  We joined the Spanish congregation for the Service Meeting.  This group of English Witnesses covers the coast from Guayaquil up the coast to the North.  There are a lot of small coastal towns on the way with Bahia de Caraquez and San Vicente having expats live there.   THAT is a LOT of territory.

One family arrived two years ago.  Their family consists of grandparents, parents and two teenage daughters.  Another family had two pre-teen boys.  Others were retired couples.  One young woman was a native that learned English.  She gave a talk that night.  Guess they all must give LOTS of talks.

While visiting Manta we also took the bus to Monticristi as detailed in another blog.  Something I wanted to do, but didn't get the chance to, was visit the Fish Market.  Our hostess said that was a morning venue and we haven't been much on mornings.  That's Manta folks.