I’ve been to Ecuador several times, including Manta. It’s been 10 years since I was there (the last time was a year after El Nino) but I didn’t know there was a US base at Manta. Anyway, Ecuador earns the tag, “banana republic,” for a variety of reasons. Driving through Ecuador, you will see banana plantation after plantation owned by Dole. Politics are a joke, the typical presidential race may have something like thirty candidates in the general election. During the campaign, homeowners will let political parties paint murals on their houses, advertising this or that candidate, just so they get their house painted. Whoever wins the election immediately replaces all the public officials, including customs agents, etc., with their friends family etc. The typical government employee is looking for a bribe on a routine basis, but mainly only from Ecuadorians, not tourists. Lawyers are merely money changers, the person arrested hires the lawyer to broker the bribe with the judge to avoid jail. Ecuador is beautiful, and it’s economy makes vacationing there a bargain, there has never been much tourism to Ecuador, except Galapagos.
Now found on the ‘web, the ‘reception’ is better, which does me no good in my RV while on the road.
www.radiohcjb.org