Monticristi Part 1

Our day with Joffrey and his Amiga, RosaLinda was quite a day! We thought Joffrey had told us to wear bathing suits and bring a towel and warm clothes, made a gesture like whoosh, down a slide, so we thought waterpark, but no...when we got to Charapoto where RosaLinda lives, he told her to wear long pants and to change out of her sandals into closed shoes, hmmm this is where we knew we weren't doing a water slide. At this point we really didn't know what we were in for, can you say Adventure? Two buses later we were in Monticristi, and we started walking up the hill to where we could see some large structure, it was quite the walk and RosaLinda was recovering from allergies, so Joffrey found a driver to drive us up the rest of the way. What we saw at the top of the hill was a huge complex with three different museums and shopping and tons of photo ops.

We went into this museum first, and it highlighted the artisans of Manabi Province. The interior of the round building was very cool, the exhibits were very nicely laid out and info cards both in Spanish and English.

The very first artisan on the picture wall was a local from San Jacinto. She does shell art.

The other exhibits spoke of the local clay pots for cooking, misc utensils and woven mats. Shutters and saddles, loom work using fiber and yarn made from the Ceibo tree, and of course the coastal artisans making fishing nets and langostinos traps.

Monticristi is the birth place of the Panama hat, unfortunately mis-named for the "international" city they traveled thru to get to the far corners of the earth. They had some beautiful ones on display, and in one of the shops we could have bought one for $20, but decided to wait.

Pottery statues were on display, "antiquities" Joffrey kept calling them, and wanted us to get pictures with everything (which is why this is part 1, over 70 pictures were taken).

The metal shelving units were as interesting as the artifacts, very pretty. After this museum we went to another highlighting Eloy Alfaro Delgado a local hero, and I'll do research on him for the next post. Because we were here on Sunday, many of the shops in town weren't open, so if you do go visit and want to shop come during the week.  Hope you've enjoyed the first installment, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Did you know?

The Amazon spans 9 countries, the majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname andFrench Guiana. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remainingrainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. 

There are more than 1million tribal people who call the jungle home, divided into 400 tribes. Some have land rights, and healthcare, and some remain "uncontacted".

Some interesting flowers found in Peru and Ecuador, Monkey Orchid

Panama hats were created in Ecuador, they were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas and Europe, subsequently acquiring a name that reflected their point of international sale, "Panama hats", rather than their place of domestic origin. The term was being used by at least 1834.

The popularity of the hats was increased in the mid-nineteenth century by the miners of the California Gold Rush, who frequently traveled to California via the Isthmus of Panama. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States visited the construction site of the Panama Canal, and was photographed wearing a Panama hat, which further increased the hats' popularity. 

Good Panama hats are so pliable they can be rolled up, and will maintain their shape. 

Just some more fun facts, found the pictures on Pinterest, and researched with Wikipedia. Isn't the internet amazing! All this from my couch...this month, but 42 days and it'll be researching on the ground! Stay tuned, you never know what you might learn! Adios.