December 30, 2024

MANTA FISH MARKET

Today we had 2 busloads of residents doing this tour, very popular. The first stop for us was the Manta Port Fish Market. Fisherman had just brought in their catches of the day - mainly tuna and sadly sharks caught in process of tuna haul. This area is the TUNA capital of the world and there is a cannery right in town. Ironically the local people don't like to eat tuna, they view it as an inferior fish because of it's dark color, they pay more for white flaky fishes, brought in from other regions. I was itching for some amazing sushi grade tuna!  

The Fish Market has tons of vendors selling every type of seafood desired along with fresh peanut butter, chickens, vegetables,etc.

Next, we drove about 30 minutes to the famous town of Montecristi, Ecuador inland, in the hills. Teddy Roosevelt came here when he was President and wore one of the handmade artisan hats, to the Panama Canal construction site the next day and it was in photographs all over and dubbed The Panama Hat by all the news outlets. So, the authentic Panama Hats are actually made in Ecuador!

View more

Next, we drove to the overlook of Montechristo and looked down at the town. We did some shopping but sadly, we had no time to explore the town. Our bus got blocked on one of the roads and we wasted 20 minutes dealing with that and had to take others back to the ship. Lesson learned, we don't like to be part of big group excursions!     

The final stop was the Pacoche Rainforest National Park with a chance of seeing Howler Monkeys. We scored big here !!

View more

SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA .....

By Pat Patrick • June 1, 2026
Somewhere in the South China Sea, i n a galaxy far, far away ... was the Odyssey and a bunch of fun loving travelers....who had an idea for a fun cocktail party!

CORON, PHILIPPINES

By Pat Patrick • May 30, 2026
Yesterday we joined in with many of our fellow residents to take in some of the many water spots around Coron . We signed up through Get Your Guide, others used Trip Advisor and they both contracted with Psalms Travel Services in Coron. As I've explained before, figuring out our excursions in each port, is a big time suck for me. We prefer to find local venders without having to go through the big agencies (because you usually can get better service, pricing and customization) but sometimes it is just easier to stick with the big guys, when the excursion is super popular. Psalms turned out to be an excellent operator and I laughed when I saw they had used the below images on their Facebook page today. Didn't realize my pink dry bag stood out so much!

CORON, PHILIPPINES

By Pat Patrick • May 30, 2026
We are currently docked at the port of CORON , in the Palawan archipelago islands, of the Philippines . While the port itself is nothing special, and the surrounding town is hardly thriving, the people here are amazingly friendly, joyful and so happy to be around! You can see from below, they have a ton of hotels and restaurants but mostly it's their water actives that attract a fair number of tourist. Known for their crystal clear water, dramatic limestone cliffs and powdery white sand beaches. June is the start of the rainy season, but so far the weather has been good.