Montecristi, Ecuador – Panama Hats

This village is internationally renowned for the high quality of the “Panama Hats” they produce (yes, you read correctly, Panama Hats are and always have been from Ecuador and not from Panama). Lying at the foot of a large hill called Montecristi, the small town of the same name has many attractions such as Eloy Alfaro’s (an ex-Ecuadorian President) house, the Hermanas Largacha Museum, and the Monserrate Sanctuary, where thousands of Ecuadorian and foreign pilgrims traditionally flock, especially on the weekends. Another place of interest is La Pila, whose artisans make a variety of sculptures and replicas of Pre-Colombian ceramics. In addition to hats, these artisan centers display other handmade crafts made of different types of straw and iron.

Avenue of the Volcanoes

Chimborazo and Cotopaxi volcanoes 

Ecuador’s “Avenue of the Volcanoes” is a 325 km. long valley between the major Cordillera ranges. Massive and standing alone, the volcanoes provide brooding, snow-covered contrast to the green equatorial lushness. They also provide mountaineers a rare opportunity to achieve very high altitudes without technical difficulty. Volcano climbing offers an exciting, unforgettable challenge. In the Indian language, Chimborazo means “mountain of snow”. It is an enormous mass of overwhelming scale. Alexander Von Humboldt made an unsuccessful attempt to climb the Chimborazo in 1802, and believed it to be the highest mountain in the world (6,526 feet). This distinction lasted until the discovery of Mt. Everest fifty years later. Chimborazo was finally climbed by Edward Whimper in 1880. Today it is climbed fairly frequently, but less than Cotopaxi, which is the highest active volcano of the world (6,005 meters).