South America Cruises
Leg 1
Manta, Ecuador
Feb. 12, 2013
Manta – Part 1
Manta – Part 2
Description & Accessibility
Now that we are in South America, most ports used transfer shuttles / buses to get you from the pier to off the port, this is one of them. If you where on a carnival cruise tour you board the tour bus at the pier itself, and you could not walk off the pier. We had a tour in the afternoon called ‘Fine Panama Hats’ starting at 2:30 pm but had considerable time before then so we took the transfer bus to get off the pier / port.
This is just outside the port entrance beyond this gate is where the transfer buses take you to and from the pier.
Your mobility device must be able to fit in the under bus storage compartments. I did not see anything that had roll on capabilities.
Once out of the port we went on our own up to a local shopping center there…
It was a decent shopping area, unfortunately it was the last day of the carnival holiday period so most of the stores where closed on the day we where there.
It was located about a mile away from the port entrance.
As you face away from the port turn right, then up a piece the road to the shopping center is on the left.
However many took advantage of the free wireless internet there the password is the name of the shopping center, there is a post with the shopping center name and list of stores there.
Going there in the morning was very little traffic but coming back the traffic increased significantly. Can be challenging in a wheelchair and may have to use the edge of the road in places. Coming back getting close to the port entrance I had to get back on the sidewalk with an uneven ramp, I was worried about tipping backwards and had my wife stay in back of me just in case but I was not expecting a sideways shift and ended up tipping the mobility scooter over, just a few scratches nothing major some others nearby helped me back up.
We never had the time to check out areas in the opposite direction of the port entrance.
We had to go back to the pier because that was where the afternoon tour was leaving from which meant getting the transfer bus again from the port entrance to the pier.
One of the traditions here is that during the carnival period they can throw water even buckets of water at anyone on the street which is something we were forewarned about on the ship.
The lady in the back of the truck in the picture to the left had a large bucket of water thrown at her.
The tour in the afternoon went through some scenic areas and to a location where they made the Panama Hats where it was explained how they where made….
Interesting tour, some ruff areas but I did not have issues with my travel scooter here.
The mobility device must be storable in the under bus storage compartments and you must be able to manage the steps into the bus.
After seeing the panama hats location we did some further sight seeing on the way back to the port…
Including going through some open shopping streets but we did not stop there.
By: Donald Kerr