And on South...

Heading south from San Clemente, we stopped in Crucita for lunch.

First heading up the hill for the view.

Then stopping for lunch.

And topping it off with shaved ice. This is the standard, blue cast-iron, hand-cranked ice-shaving machine. I bought ice cones from identical carts in San Clemente and Crucita. Yummy!

After lunch, we headed through the kapok woods...

And back to Manta to the Hotel Maria Isabella for one more night and a decent cup of coffee for breakfast at long last!

While in Manta, we found the mall. No, not the new behemoth we heard tales about, but a very nice two-story mall where we found much to buy.

And before we left the next morning, we went to the cultural museum just down the hill from the hotel. They had three exhibits going - local archaeology, chocolate, and modern Latin-American art. Awesome, but all in Spanish and no photos, so strictly a "look at the pictures" adventure.

They don't take donations, but you can make a purchase in the bookstore, which we did. Now to learn enough Spanish to translate these really cool books!