It’s On My List

February 5, 2025

Sometime in the night, sailing from Panama to Ecuador, we crossed the equator. At his port talk the day before, Cruise Director Daniel mentioned that we would have a big equator-crossing ceremony when we cross back over on our way back up the other coast of South America, since that crossing will be in the daytime. “But that’s a different equator!” someone in the audience cried out in dismay. Without missing a beat, Daniel replied, “yes, a different equator. And tomorrow night, since we will be in the Southern Hemisphere, you will notice that there is a different moon.” I kind of love him.

I feel like I gave Ecuador a bit of a short shrift because we only had one day here, and I chose to go to the beach that was right next to the port. In my defense, I really wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean and the water is going to be quite cold for swimming as we head further south. I have swum in the Pacific before, but not in South America!

The day was a bit overcast, but hot. The beach was literally right outside the cruise terminal, so no risk of getting lost here. The sand is golden brown, with a bit of volcanic black, so certainly different from the sugar white sand one sees in the Caribbean. But it was soft and clean. It was a weekday (Wednesday; I had to look it up because every day is Saturday for me now!) so there weren’t many people at the beach.

The water felt cool at first, but I quickly got used to it. The surf was a bit rough, so I didn’t go out very far. I just enjoyed jumping around in the waves for a while. I then relaxed in the little cabana tent I rented for $5. I had a nice conversation with a local man who had studied engineering in London many years ago and wanted to practice his English. His English was excellent, which is good because my Spanish is very poor. They have started offering some basic Spanish lessons on board, so hopefully that will help a bit. I’ll probably get comfortable with basic Spanish by the time we reach Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

Speaking of poor Spanish, for lunch I meant to order a quesadilla from a beach vendor but got a grilled cheese instead – tostada queso. I think I inadvertently ordered from the kids’ menu. Oops.

I walked along the beach for a while because it was a very pleasant place to spend the day. I then made my way back on board where I decided to try out the aft pool since I was already suited up. It was much more refreshing than the Lido pool, which I had found to be too hot.

After cleaning up, I was relaxing in a lounge when I noticed how beautiful the golden hour light was on the water. I scrambled to the aft to snap some photos. Manta is the tuna capital of the world, and all the boats moored in the harbor for the night made a pretty sight. A fellow passenger told me I should see the sunset from the bow, so I zoomed up there (loving this small ship!) and got the photo at the top of this post.

I may not have seen a lot of Ecuador, but what I did see – the sea, the sky, the sand, was beautiful.

Making our way now to the first of three stops in Peru!