Panama Hats

I don't know about you but I've always wanted a Panama Hat. I found a great forum called The Fedora Lounge and from there I found my way to Panama Bob's run by Robert Weber and his wife.

Making Panama Hats is very time consuming and very difficult process. And they are not made in Panama but rather in Ecuador. They were sold to the US from Panama and so the name Panama Hat stuck. Perhaps Robert should rename the site Ecuador Bob's? Nah, doesn't have the ring to it that Panama Bob's has.

After talking to Robert for awhile, I decided on getting a Cuenca Diamante and I also got Montecristi Cuencano which looks a lot like a Havana but has a little tear drop push up in the crow, thus saving my head from getting swished.

My hat is the one in the upper left corner in the picture above. That's the Diamante.

And this is my other hat, the Cuencano, which means from Cuenca, even though this is a Montecristi hat, from Montecristi, Ecuador. The little tear drop push up is going to gave me a lot of wear and tear on my hair, or so at least Robert thinks. This looks almost exactly like a Havana style hat.

This is the Havana style Panama Hat. Notice that there is no teardrop so the theory is that that indentation will hit your head. I haven't had any problems with my Cattlemen Western hat. Those of you that are friends with me on Facebook have seen pictures of it or you can just look at previous posts. I was wearing it on the 4th. And it seems to me that my Western hat has a much bigger crown.

The Cuencano is blocked in Equador. I bought these two styles because they were in stock, had my size and they were very nice looking hats. I'm jazzed about getting them and I expect that I'll get them on Monday and I can hardly wait. As soon as my hats come in, I'll take pictures of me in the hat and post them on this blog. I can hardly wait. I'm very excited. This is going to be epic. Robert says that these two hats will blow away anything I have in my collection. And to think, these aren't the top of the line. Well, now I know what I want for Christmas next year. (These are counted as my Christmas and Birthday Presents.) Now all I need is a white linen suit and Tattoo, to make all your fantasies come true.

Unfortunately, Hervé Villechaize is not available for the role of Tattoo, so I'll be talking applications. As many of you know, I lived and studied in Colombia and I have also visited Ecuador extensively. I've even climbed Cotopaxi. Afterwards, I had altitude sickness. It may not look high in the picture below but you Quito is already 9,350 feet above sea level. (So, I know what I'm doing when it comes to running Fantasy Island. Yeah, I'm ready for another Fantasy Island Throw Down!)

Cotopaxi

On a more upbeat note, we just finished enrobing our beautiful Banana Saffron Caramels, not an easy thing to do in the summer. Hurry before they are all gone.