Manabi Province
Manabi
The Land of the Old Fighter
Capital of Manabi: Portoviejo
From dry forest beaches to green shores of sand and sun, Manabí is the province with the largest extension of coasts in continental Ecuador.
Most visited beaches
Manta is the main port and the second most important in the country after Guayaquil The most visited beaches are Pedernales, Crucita and Puerto López, Bahía de Caráquez, a strategic places for sighting of Humpback whales attract thousands of tourists every year between June and August.
In its almost 20,000 square kilometers, Manabi exhibits a variety of landscapes and soils, between coffee producing plains, cliffs for the paragliding practice and urban product processing centers like tuna.
The Machalilla National Park is one of the main attractions of Manabi and home to more than 250 species of birds and animal species like monkeys, armadillos, squirrels and pigs in their approximately 50,000 hectares.
Manabí tourist attractions
Places to discover
- Canoa where you can do ecological tourism and enjoy its beach.
- Tasaste (The Arc of Love): The contrast of fresh and salt water makes From this place a favorite destination for tourism. With its beaches quiet and clean for tourists to enjoy.
- Wildlife Refuge Isla Heart : In 2002 it was declared as a Wildlife Refuge by the Ministry of Environment.
- Alfaro City: The building resembles the figure of a condor and it is built with materials used by native manteños 2,500 years ago.
- Crucita: It is a fishing village that has developed part of its everyday life around paragliding and hang gliding flights.
- Los Frailes : One of the most beautiful beaches in Ecuador, they belong to the Machalilla National Park and is surrounded by dry forest with typical flora and fauna of the area.
Manabí Weather
It ranges from dry subtropical to humid tropical and extremely tropical wet and determined by sea currents. In the winter, which starts at the beginning of December and concludes in May, the weather is hot and is influenced by the warm current of El Niño, on the contrary, the summer from June to December is less hot thanks to the cold Humboldt current, although the temperature is not uniform in the entire province, the average temperature in Portoviejo, the capital, is 25 ° C and in the city of Manta, 23.8 ° C.
Manabí Typical Food
In the province of Manabi there is a very varied and exquisite cuisine, being the territory of the province the place where all the basic foods that compose are produced, this gives a particular characteristic to the delicacies that you can find on this place, from a peasant manabita restaurant to the most luxurious gourmet one.
Some of the most popular typical dishes of Manabi are:
- Tonga
- Rice with Milk
- Banana buns with mango
- Banana Bolons
- Meatball Broth
- Banana corviches or
- Corviches and banana empanadas
- Curd
- Caramel
- Manaba cheese
- Guided Chicken
- Hallaca
- White Serum
- Crab Viche
- Shrimp Viche
- Creole Chicken Broth
- Sal Prieta
- Fried Chame
Manabí culture and traditions
The culture of this province is crossed by its multiculturalism, some of the representations of the popular culture of Manabi are related to the tradition of their popular festivals of which we can highlight:
Manabi Ecuador
Saint Peter and Saint Paul
- In Crucita, Portoviejo, Picoazá, Manta, Jaramijó, Montecristi, Puerto López, Pedernales and in general in Manabí
- Date: Although in the Christian calendar it is indicated as a holiday to the apostles Peter and Paul on June 29 and 30.
- Features: Manabí fishermen have done maritime processions for more than 60 years, in honor of their patrons San Pedro and San Pablo. It was declared by the Government of Ecuador as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Chiligualo
- In Chone (El Juncal, Tosagua, Garrapatilla), Montecristi, Pedernales)
- Date: Representation of a game-dance-song that is performed in Christmas Eve every December 25 and culminates in many cases on January 6, "Kings Day".
- Characteristics: From Spanish origins, in this montubio festivity offers consist of prayers, praise songs, games, carols, verses of family unity. This takes place together with an image that symbolizes newborn Jesus dressed in striking colors in a manger made of guadua cane or wood. Family, friends and neighbors gather to sing to the child of God, they form in rows of couples and when they reach the altar of the Baby Jesus they sing verses with established choruses. The singing is interspersed with dances within rounds. In the center of the rounds dances a couple in which the man says a verse and the woman responds. So the game goes on until all couples have intervened. At the end they sing to the child of God again.
Feast of the Virgin of Monserrate
- In Montecristi
- Date: Starts on September 4 and ends with a Mass on the 21st of November with a Eucharistic Mass.
- Characteristics: People from all over the province and the country arrive to venerate the image of the holy and miraculous virgin, some pilgrimages proceed on foot and others in vehicles.
The September Flowe Feast
- In Portoviejo
- Date: Starts on September 1 of each year
- Features: The September Flower is the most cultural festival Manabí important held since 1965, lasts about 2 weeks in which symphony orchestras are presented, they are performed provincial theater competitions, comprehensive reading, spelling, calligraphy and other cultural events.
Festivities of the Virgen de las Mercedes
- In Portoviejo
- Date: September 24-26
- Characteristics: Prayers are made in novena or fortnight, in the early morning. It is massively attended by parishioners, they walk the streets of the city in homage to the date there are those who organize music bands, castles, ribbon dance tournaments, horse races and typical food.
San Isidro Festivity
- In Junín
- Date: May 24 of each year
- Feature: Ribbon games, music bands, mass, sand castles, dances, meals and aguardiente.
San Roque Festivity
- In Junín
- Date: 10 September each year
- Features: Masses, processions, pyrotechnic games are held, dances and other popular entertainment.
Montubio Festival
- In Santa Ana, Chone, Rocafuerte, Junín
- Date: October 12 of each year
- Characteristics: Bullfights, rodeos, quarrels, cock fights, town bands, pretty creole, amorfinos, food and drink as well as enchanted pots.
Festivities of the Virgen de las Nieves
- In San Isidro
- Date: August 5-7
- Features: Masses, castles, cos play, and games are organized. Thera are also local games, food and drinks.
Manabi history
The southern part of Manabí hosted the manor of Cancebí, while the central and northern part was first an indigenous kingdom composed of confederations of tribes and you are at the same time by hamlets, although really there were the hamlets of Pechance in addition to the main manor, which according to the historian from Quito Juan de Velasco was the motor center of the part oriental (Chone, Flavio Alfaro and El Carmen) of what was known
with the name of Kingdom of Los Caras, legal entity that had its headquarters and capital in the current Bay of Caráquez.
The Manteña culture (Capital: Jocay), extended from the center, south of the territory, formed by the following tribes: Los Cancebíes, Apechiniques, Pichotas, Japotoes, Picoazaes, Jarahuas, Machalillas, Pichuncis and Xipaxapas.
During the Spanish colony, in the first half of the 18th century, the area of the former Government of Caráquez, and that today occupy the cantons El Carmen, Chone, Sucre, Pedernales, Jama, San Vicente, Bolívar, Tosagua, Junín and Pichincha, became the jurisdiction of the Government of Esmeraldas, ruled by Pedro Vicente Maldonado. And the area of the also former kingdom of the Manta, which in the Colony was called "Party or
Ownership of Portoviejo ", and that today occupy the cantons Portoviejo, Rocafuerte, Montecristi, Jaramijó, Manta, Santa Ana, Twenty Four May, Olmedo, Jipijapa, Paján and Puerto López became part of the Guayaquil Governorate.
The wise men of the French Geodetic Mission arrived in Manabí, chaired by Carlos de la Condamine, when the current Ecuador was called Real Audiencia de Quito. They landed in Manta on March 1, 1736.
After Independence of the Country from the Spanish domain was sealed, on May 24th 1822 on what is now Ecuador, with the name of the Department of South it became part of Gran Colombia, founded by the Liberator Simon Bolivar. By virtue of this, when the main provinces of Ecuador were created, Bolívar makes the creation of what was called "Province of Portoviejo ", on August 2, 1822, but with this creation he did not obtain legal status for the Province, since it was governed by a Political Judge, that obeyed orders of the Governor of Guayaquil. It had 2 cantons: Portoviejo and Montecristi.
The true political-administrative creation of the Province was operated two years later, when the Bogota Congress, chaired by the General Francisco de Paula Santander, promulgated the First Territorial Division Law on June 25, 1824, which was granted by the desired legal status to the Province, which was renamed Manabí. This law, dismembering territory of Portoviejo, increases a third canton, Jipijapa, and when appointing a Governor in front of the public administration, he placed Manabí on an equal level with Guayas Province. He settled the capital in the city of San Gregorio de Portoviejo.
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