Manta, Ecuador 2025

Manta, along with a couple other places, considers itself the World Capital of Tuna. They certainly are up there in that they have a huge quantity of tuna production, outstanding quality, and industry revolving around it.

I never realized how gigantic the tuna nets are. Some go for a mile.

That’s me in 2013

Down the road a bit is Montecristi, home of the Panama hat. They work well in the tropics being lightweight, light color, and breathable. The good ones can keep out rain as well as sun and can be folded to carry in luggage.

The best ($1,000+) can be wound so tight you can pull them through a wedding ring and put it right back on your head and they will look like new.

Regarding the name, executives working on the Panama Canal wore them and Teddy Roosevelt made them famous when he was down there.

When we were here in 2017, we actually went to Monticristi to watch them make the hats. Very interesting. See https://jetsetway.com/manta-ecuador/.

Allyn bought me a small one then.