Pronounced why-a-keel this city in Ecuador is the largest. It creeps along the tangled banks of the muddy Rio (River Daul whee it meets up with the Rio Babahoya to on the Rio Guayas,
Today we were suppose to go to the Galapagos Islands and since it was cancelled we decided to do the Coastal Hacienda /Chocolate Plantation Now you all know I love chocolate so why not. We had a scenic tour of the city of before heading out of town to the plantation. Outside the pier as far as the eye could see there blocks and blocks and blocks of trucks loaded with Bananas they were loading them onto the freight ships for export to US and Europe. Bananas are big business here. In fact as we were driving back from the plantation we wee on a road right out of the moview "The In-Laws" all we needed was someone to shoot out all the banana trucks! My overall impression of this country is the port area is poor and dirty like most ports but was we ventured into the city it became much nicer and modern. The Governor's office building is really pretty couldn't get a picture from the bus we walked through a beautiful park and the Botanical Gardens. They have the most beautiful flowers. We also past a wonderful flower market they export lots of flowers. When we arrived at the chocolate plantation they took my scooter out of the bus for me but this scooter is not the heavy duty one I was suppose to get so it konked out again half way up the hill. We pushed it the rest of the way well not me Bill, the bus driver and some nice man on the tour with us. I the hit the reset button and it worked the rest o the way. Except there were no pathways and it was up and down hills. the bus driver was a great guy he borrowed one of the workers Nissan's SUV and drove me all around so I wouldn't have to walk. At one point we had to go over this narrow bridge with no railings. I covered my eyes he looks at me and he covers his eyes also the two of us where hysterical! Got to try fresh off the tree Guyva it was pretty good and Mangos, Next we got to try the chocolate right out of the pod, It is white and the seed is really the chocolate. We had a wonderful lunch and then we headed down the huge hill to the factory. The bus driver held onto the scooter so I would not fall. I tell you he was wonderful! WE were shown how they make the chocolate got to taste the raw chocolate syrup like and then we got to sample the real stuff. YUMMY................. We even bought a bar to eat on the ship. It won't make it home but it was good. We tasted milk and semi sweet. Dessert was chocolate chip pound cake, bananas, strawberries, pineapple and mango with chocolate sauce on it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, yummy.
All to soon it was back to the ship where we were each handed a long stem rose before we got back on the ship.
Bill eating his first piece of sushi not sure what it is going to taste like but he really liked it and ate it all. Then had a box of food served it had black cod, beef and chicken. I had Japanese Steak with tempura veggies....
For some reason this is the only picture it would let me upload and since the internet is so expensive I am going to wait until tomorrow.
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