The road from Manta to Guayaquil was fairly isolated as there were long stretches of dry tropical forest giving way to dry low shrub areas with a few trees, no villages and hardly another vehicle. Then out of the blue we'd come across a small banana plantation or tropical fruit trees growing out in the middle of nowhere. These people are very resourceful. We saw many examples of family enterprises being set up along our road route. Bananas and other tropical fruits are also trucked to the bigger cities by some families who have managed to buy a truck but these areas were still isolated by long distances of virgin forests areas in between.
We had read in the safety section of the guide book to Ecuador that armed robbery or car-jacks and hostage taking can be a constant hazard throughout Ecuador and especially on lonely stretches on the highway and it was easy to imagine how quickly an ambush could happen to unsuspecting travellers. 'Express kidnappings', where victims are forced to withdraw funds from ATMs to secure their release, have increased in recent years. Express kidnappings often involve unofficial taxis.
We felt reasonably safe with our guide and coach driver until we stopped to look at kapok trees, on the side of the road in a deserted spot. We could tell the driver was nervous as he kept scanning the highway in front and behind as we stood beside the coach and took our photos. Once back on board we plied our guide with information about these magnificent and magical looking trees.
