Left: Manuel A. Cobos and Dagfinn on horseback, Progresso. Right: Karin, Tony, Dagfinn and Manuel Cobos. The photograph was taken in 1933 and was sent to friends Ruth and Alf Ødegård who, at that time, were back in Norway. The picture does not reveal anything about the great finanical crash which had already ruined both Manuel and his brother-in-law, Rogerio Alvarado.
Hacienda El Progreso eventually succumbed to financial ruin. Its assets reverted to Lorenzo Tous of Guayaquil. In the early 1930's Cobos and Alvarado, lost the schooner, the factory, the store and the plantations. Tous had no interest in living there or sending others to administer for him: "Soon the great sugarcane fields and the factory were but a memory." Alvarado managed to regain ownership of the schooner which was later sold to the government. In 1933, Cobos had the house and the coffee plantation successfully returned to him; however, coffee prices fell while freight charges on the schooner increased.
