54. Manta, Ecuador

Manta, Ecuador 

                      

84F (29C)                  Day 50 on the cruise

We were supposed to have a stop at Guayaquil but were told by the Ship that the water levels for our ship were too low to make port. Bummer, we already had an excursion booked in Guayaquil so now we are 2 days in Manta instead.

The trip we had booked in Guayaquil was to a hat factory. 

And With His Panama Hat

So what is the big deal with this ‘hat’?  Ah, ever since I was small and read a story about the famous Panama Hat I wanted one. Oh, it’s not just a hat. It’s a Panama Hat. No, they are not made in Panama, they are made in Ecuador. Panama Hats became ‘famous’ because in about 1910 or so, then U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt wore this hat when he visited Panama. It’s not just a hat; it’s an emblem, an heirloom, a status symbol, an icon. The real deal hat is hand woven. It takes up to eight months to make just one hat. It’s made from a plant fiber.

 

“The price of these hats depends on the time and quality that a weaver puts into the hat. A master weaver could take as long as eight months to weave a single hat. Weavers could sell a single hat to buyers for $200. Once the hat is sold to a buyer it then would pass through more people who would "finish the brim, shape it, remove imperfections, bleach the straw, and add interior and exterior brands.  After this one hat has been through at least six people it can then be sold outside of Ecuador for $450 to $10,000. The best hats can sell for up to fifty times more than what one weaver is paid for eight months of labor.

The best quality hats are known as Montecristis, after the town of Montecristi, where they are produced. The rarest and most expensive Panama Hats are hand-woven with up to 3000 weaves per square inch. In February 2014, Simon Espinal, an Ecuadorian 47-year-old Panama hat weaver considered to be among the best at his craft, set a world record by creating a Panama hat with four thousand weaves per inch that took eight months to handcraft from beginning to end.” 

According to popular lore, a "superfino" Panama Hat can hold water, and, when rolled up, pass through a wedding ring.

Looking for the perfect Hat

So how do you choose one of those Hats? The price ranges, the variety of finished products in Manta, I guess anywhere in this region, are broad. There are many, many sellers. The ship’s bus tour we took to Montecristi dropped us of at a Hat Market, a section of the city set up just for tourists like us. The guide who was on the bus with us educated us during the trip from the Ship to the Market. She had samples of Hats and told us what to look for. We saw some ‘production’ of how the Panama Hats are made, but it was more a demonstration of hat making than a sales pitch. What a workout this is, to weave one of those Hats. The weaver is bent over a post all day and it is pure handwork. 

Weaver at the Store Where Hans Bought His Hat

The weaving position to make a Hat is a must to get the shape of it just right. There is no better or other way to make the Panama Hat. It is an amazing feat of human ingenuity and dedication to make just one Hat. The fibers the weavers use are hair like, cut down to size by hand. All of the materials used on the Hat, except the decorative bands at the end, are natural fibers from the Toquilla Plant.

Small Centre Circle, Tightly Woven With Fine Strands of the Toquilla Plant

This is a 10 minute video, but it is very interesting to see how a Hat is made.

Hans' Hat Being Trimmed

So how did I buy this hat? Our guide told me to see a seller who has a store in town, she told me he is one of the best in Montecristi. I listened to her since I saw she was not being paid to say that, so I trusted her judgment.

I went to: Modesto Hat, (this web site does not always work), Calle 9 de Julio y Olmedo, Montecristi , Ecuador.

                  

Great Hat Hans.

And I bought a ‘superfino’ hat. It had to be trimmed and banded and that took some time, but I love this Hat. It feels as light as a feather. Carol also got a Panama Hat but hers was very different, a more ‘open weave’ kind of hat, and it was not superfino.

 

Carol's Hat Is Like One of These

While my Hat was being ‘processed’ Carol went to take pictures of the church nearby, wearing her ‘new’ Panama Hat with a smile.

Statue On the Edge of Town

 

Tagua Nuts In Various Stages of Drying In the Sun

 

Not Yet Dry Tagua Nut

Our next stop with the bus was the Tagua Factory, or better explained as the Vegetable Ivory factory. This ‘factory’ was a huge parking lot totally covered with the nuts that need to be sun-dried for some weeks before they can be processed. The Tagua is a vegetable nut, originally very gelatinous, but when dried, turns white or ivory-like and becomes very, very hard. Before plastics it was used to make buttons. 



Today, while the use of true ivory is banned worldwide, the use of Tagua is encouraged. When I compared chess pieces made from Tagua for example, there was a hardly discernible difference between the 2 materials. Buy Tagua, it’s economical, renewable and organic.

Tagua Ivory Inside the Nut

Painted Beads From Tagua Nut

The Ones That Fell Were Quickly Snapped Up By the Workers

Look What I Found

 


Manta is a major port for Ecuador. A shipping port for tuna fish, both blue fin and yellow fin tuna.  Ecuador also exports shrimp, bananas and cacao. The cacao grown here has special appeal to Switzerland and Belgian chocolates. It is said that cocoa has different flavors, depending on what grows next to the plants that produce the cacao nuts. 

Ecuador has many climates: beaches, highlands, Amazon like jungles and the famous Galapagos Islands that are totally unique on earth.

David Pengelly, a ukulele player was our evening entertainer.  Really, he was not bad at all.                      

On a sad note, Stephen Hawkins passed away today, he was 75.  RIP