Transportation from Quito
I flew into Guayaquil but I do have some information...During my trip to Montanita, I encountered several people that were robbed on several buses (from Guayaquil). I have been told since the first day that I began traveling never to ride a bus at night. These people all rode buses in the early morning or after dark and were robbed. They all knew not to ride at night but figured it was more convenient. One had $500 cash and his laptop stolen while the other had every possession that he had owned stolen. The others, had a small amount of cash taken.
I was with a large group of well-traveled Europeans and each one of them had a story of being robbed on a bus (or waiting for a bus) in Latin America at night. So I guess you should follow conventional wisdom and stay off the buses at night. There are flights from Quito to Manta if you don't want to do the long bus ride (my girlfriend did the bus ride a few years back and was terrified the entire trip...the driver had a hard time going down the mountains and the bus was out of control several times). The bus ride from Guayaquil is about 3.5 hours by bus. There are no flights from Guayaquil to Manta.
Everyone I spoke to preferred Quito over Guayaquil and in retrospect, I should have flown in to Quito.
[QUOTE=El Greco]Great report, keep up the good work and many thanks for sharing.
Any transportation info from/to Quito?
Thanks[/QUOTE]
My first visit to a REAL chongo.
After several attempts to go to the chongos in Manta, I found a cab driver that was anxious to take me to a chongo. The other cab drivers told me it was too dangerous and too far away to go there, but in the end, I found out that it is just out of the way and really not worth their time. They can stay in a small area and pick up a lot of fares in an hour or they can drive a person to the chongos pick people up there and drive them even further out of town. The further away they are from the central area, the greater possibility they have of being robbed, so for many, especially those with new cabs, they were not willing to make the drive. I met my cab driver on Sunday afternoon and he told me that I had to go to the chongos because the girls were much cheaper than the girls at Nashville South and El Caribe. Like everything else in Manta, the chongos are closed on Sunday, so he set up a time and place to meet me Monday evening; he was only 45 minutes late (that is a good thing).
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not just looking for a wet vagina. I really do like to meet the women and talk to them awhile and actually like them before I screw them. I’ve been to Lima, but never bothered with the brothel there, I was able to meet girls on the Calle de Pizzas and take them back to my hotel for $20. In Guatemala, I spent most of my time in chongos, they were just normal bars with attractive women sitting around in them. A person would hang out, have a few beers, talk to people and when the urge hit, he would grab a girl and take her in the back room. In Guatemala, I would sit for an hour or two drinking beer and chat up the girl that I wanted, when I was ready, we’d go in the back for 30 minutes. Afterwards, I would stay and talk to other girls or hang out with her some more. Many of the Guatemalan guys would get the girls really wasted and then take them in the back and screw them, at first I thought that was pretty shitty of them until I did it once and I have to admit, screwing a drunk prostitute is much more fun than screwing a sober one (I now believe that this is true for regular women too). Anyway, in Guatemala, after one or two lays, the girl would go home happy as a clam because she made good money and would then take several days off of work.
This was nothing like El Puente. My cab driver and I showed up and the place was packed. When we pulled up there were guys outside begging my cab driver to take them home. This is something that is important to remember, because both El Puente and El Infierno are quite a bit away from all the other open businesses and there aren’t cab drivers sitting there waiting to take people home. So finding a cab back to Manta could be a problem. As we were leaving, there were many groups of Ecuadorian men walking down the road in search of a taxi. This is okay for them because almost all Ecuadorian men do things in groups, but for the American or European that is uncomfortable inviting their friends to a chongo, they are alone and I can’t believe that walking that street alone could be safe. Anyway, inside there were more than 100 guys (on a Monday evening) gathered in one large circular room. Around the exterior of the room there were 34 doors. Each door had a prostitute in from of it. Many of the guys had been drinking for hours and were completely wasted. The men outnumbered the women about 3 or 4 to 1. If a guy wanted a prostitute, he simply walked into the room that the prostitute was standing outside of, she would close the door and that was it. After the guy left, the prostitute would walk over to the gate, pay the house its share and then go back and stand by the door and another guy would get up and walk in. Over an hour, I was able to see every prostitute in the place but over that I hour I saw many prostitutes disappear 3 times. It was a busy operation, so busy that I felt sorry for the girls. I couldn't imagine having sex with that many people in a day (well, actually I could, but it is probably different for them). The attractive girls had guys lined up waiting for them. As I said previously, Ecuadorian men like a different type of woman than American men, they like them a little thicker, so if you’re into skinny chicks, you probably won’t have much of a wait. I did speak to one girl and she was just an absolute sweetheart and for the first time in years I felt bad. She was such a sweet kid and all I wanted to do was stick my dick in her for a few bucks. It wouldn’t have been an issue if she was mean and nasty.
Anyway, the cost for the girl is $7 or $8. I believe it was $8, but looking at my e-mails that I sent immediately after I went, they said $7. None of that matters because you will probably be charged a gringo surcharge. The girls do oral, anal and regular sex. Oral and regular sex should be the amount that I quoted above, anal should be higher. Unfortunately, with Americans and Europeans the price will probably be 1.5 to 2 times higher depending on how good your Spanish is. At the same time, because this place is so busy, your options are limited…yes, you can drive a hard bargain and refuse to pay extra but why would she even bother with you when there are 3 guys lined up outside her door waiting for you to finish?
After I left El Puente, I made a quick stop at El Infierno since it is less than a mile from El Puente and on the same street; it was pretty much the same thing. It was much smaller but the men outnumbered the women at least 5 to 1 and like El Puente, it simply wasn't my thing...the prices were the same but I didn't partake.
Probably the most interesting part of the trip was the ride home. I paid the $7 or $8 bucks for the cab driver to go with one of the girls...mainly because he was irritating me by trying to get me to go with the first available girl in the place instead of giving me time to look around. As we were leaving El Infierno, he stopped and picked up two of the working girls and gave them a ride home. As they got out of the taxi, there was a family waiting for a taxi, he picked them up and gave them a ride home. As they got out, he picked up another group and gave them a ride home. At that point, we were not only just outside of Manta, but were also way outside of Montecristi…another town/city quite far from Manta (probably not terribly far, but when you can only drive 30-35mph on the roads, it’s far). At some point, he was showing me the knife/machete that he keeps under his seat to use on people that try to rob him and it occurred to me that I was in the middle of nowhere, at night, alone and with a cab driver with a gigantic knife that was slightly nutty. My first inclination was to jump out and run, but I had not seen another cab for about 40 minutes, so I was stuck with him.
He turned out to be okay, but I have to remember that I have a family that depends on me and I probably shouldn’t be getting myself into situations where I can get killed. So even though I wanted to, I didn’t make any more trips out to the chongos.
Next up…
My final comments on Manta and tips that I received from local men on scoring local girls…unfortunately, they all came 2 days before I was to leave town.