The Panama Hat Trail: A Journey from South America

From Library Journal Though offering perhaps more about Panama hats than the reader might ever want to know, this is a satisfying travel book that tells much else about Ecuador and its peoples. The growing, harvesting, and processing of straw, the weaving of it, the finishing of the hats, exportation, and all the bartering along the way is the glue that holds this book together. Visiting the countryside and towns such as Quito, Guayaquil, Lago Agrio, and Jipijapa ("among the ugliest towns south of the equator"), Miller tells us, among other things, about the Indians and their sad centuries-long plight, expatriates, illegal Ecuadorian emigration to the United States, precarious third-class Andean bus trips, the small Jewish community, and a wild and tragic Corpus Christi fiesta. Maps, index, and glossary not seen. Recommended for most travel collections. Roger W. Fromm, Bloomsburg Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more jlw-phx.ThePanamaHapTrail