18 Apr 2025
We booked a private tour for four through Manta. We were supposed to have 10 hours in port, so we wanted to create our own itinerary and spend the whole day touring. Unfortunately, the ship was late in disembarking passengers, so we missed 1.5 hours of our tour. There was a bit of a mix up on the itinerary too...the guide Shaskia had an itinerary from her boss that was different than what we agreed to...for example, we wanted to see the Panama hat factory, but that wasn't on her itinerary. But she quickly changed things and although we missed a few things we wanted to see, we still had a great tour. She is very smart and friendly, happy etc. That always smooths out the wrinkles. I would certainly recommend her as a guide. The Panama hat place was very impressive. The chocolate factory also did some booze tasing for us. We initially didn't plan on going there, but it was a nice experience. And the restaurant Shaskia suggest for our seafood lunch feast was delicious! Too bad we had to rush through it because of the ship's delay. In any case, I would book through Manta again, but be sure you agree on an itinerary and make them stick to it.