Hat Shop in Cuenca

Cuenca, Ecuador is famed for its hats. The most famous hat from Ecuador is of course the toquilla hat, more commonly referred to as the Panama hat. If it is from Ecuador then why is it called a Panama hat? Apparently in the 1800s Ecuador wasn't the best place to sell hats so many of them were exported to Panama. After gold was discovered in California many people traveled through Panama on their way out west and many of those people bought hats in Panama. So when someone would ask, "Where did you get your hat?" The answer was always "Panama."

Later, during construction of the Panama Canal, many of the workers used these same hats from Ecuador to protect themselves from the sun and when Theodore Roosevelt visited the canal he was photographed in one of the hats and that pretty much guaranteed that it would be known as the Panama hat for the rest of eternity.

The hats in the picture are of course not Panama hats. These are made more for locals and I just liked how they looked hanging from the ceiling.