New friends

Linda invited us to join the ex-pat group for lunch in town Saturday. We all met at a Manta beach cafe. Since this is a major fishing port I decided to throw caution to the wind and have the grilled tuna steak. Those aware of my feelings about eating any fish not deep-fried will be impressed. I even ate my plantains and snacked on some interesting chips until I found out they were fried banana chips. By that time it was too late - I don't like bananas, but made an exception this once. All the folks we met were friendly and fun. They made us feel part of the group right away. It was a fun 4 hour lunch.

The worse we can say at this point is that the condition of the roads (I use the term loosely) is bad. A couple paved miles littered with deep potholes, then a couple miles of dirt road, then gravel sprayed with a thin asphalt coating, then back to pavement for a while.