Tom Miller, The Panama Hat Trail at Village Hat Shop

[Panamabob]

Village hat Shop

Tom Miller, author of The Panama Hat Trail, will visit the Village Hat Shop on April 17th.

I?Ǭ¥ve read the comments about the shop. Personally, I?Ǭ¥ve tried contact and haven?Ǭ¥t been received.

The book, The Panama Hat Trail (Tom Miller), isn?Ǭ¥t terrible. The problem is that it almost totally focuses on the junky Cuenca hats, with only a few mentions of the Montecristis. Of course literary license is used and facts blur at times, but what else would we expect.

Eloy Alfaro is from Montecristi and he is oftmentioned in the book, yet Montecristi is little more than an interesting aside.

I?Ǭ¥ll have to find my copy and reread...correct me if I?Ǭ¥m wrong.

 

[rayk]

Robert, I just finished the book last week, and your memory serves you well: very few mentions of Montecristi or the famous eponymous hat. The book seemed to concentrate on the Cuenca hat markets, expatriots, and hair-raising bus travel. What I thought was well presented was the cruel poverty of most Ecuadorians, and the irony that they profit little by the hats that often, at least in the case of finer hats, bring obscene multiples of what the weaver receives for his skill and labor. Of course, the book was published in 1986, and so we may hope that the situation there has improved at least some.

 

[Andykev]

I have a copy

of the book and read it last summer. I was told by someone in the "business" that Tom Miller took "license" with his stories, promised things, then didn't deliver. He garnered a lot of ill will, but that is just someone's opinion.

I enjoyed the book, and it was almost like going down there personally.

Panama Bob, is travel down there dangerous given the world situation? Are there "bandits" everywhere? Expensive? How are Americans received?

Consider posting some of your experiences in the travel.

 

[Panamabob]

I?Ǭ¥ll expound in the travel.

Dangerous? No more dangerous than walking downtown...use your sense.

Off to travel to tell some tales.

I?Ǭ¥m sure I?Ǭ¥ve been told by the same man in the ?Ǭ®business?Ǭ®that Miller is not wanted back in Cuenca. If not the same man then it is probably true because the ?Ǭ®business?Ǭ®man that I refer to is well known.