Manta, Ecuador: Where Panama Hats Are Made and the Galápagos Is Within Reach

Montecristi, the town 20 kilometres east of Manta at the base of the Chone Hills, is the historic center of Panama hat production and the source of the finest hand-woven toquilla straw hats in the world. The superfino grade — woven from the youngest, most pliable shoots of the Carludovica palmata plant over two to four months by master weavers who work only in the morning hours before heat and humidity make the straw brittle — represents the summit of the craft. A genuine superfino Montecristi hat can be rolled into a cylinder small enough to fit through a ring, unrolls without creasing, and costs from several hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the weave count. The hat workshops in Montecristi are open to visitors; the distinction between machine-made imports and handwoven local production is visible under scrutiny. The birthplace of Eloy Alfaro, the Ecuadorian president who promoted the hat trade internationally, is in Montecristi and operates as a small museum.

The Parque Nacional Machalilla, 40 kilometres north of Manta along the coast road, protects the largest dry tropical forest remaining on the Pacific coast of South America — an ecosystem where the vegetation includes dramatic cacti, kapok trees, and the endemic balsawood tree, populated by howler monkeys, condors, and the Pacific coast dry-forest birds found nowhere else. The park's most visited feature is Playa Los Frailes, a protected beach accessible only by walking through the dry forest and reached through a gate closed to private vehicles; the water is clear and the beach sees few people relative to its quality. The archaeological site of Agua Blanca, within the park, preserves remains of the Manteño civilization (700–1500 AD) and has a community museum run by the local village that covers the pre-Columbian cultures of coastal Ecuador.

Isla de la Plata, 37 kilometres offshore from Puerto López and accessible by boat from either Puerto López or Manta, is nicknamed the 'poor man's Galápagos' by local operators — a hyperbole, but the island does host nesting blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, and Galápagos sea lions, making it one of the few places in Ecuador where endemic Pacific species are accessible without the significant permit costs and flight requirements of the Galápagos proper. Humpback whale season (June to September) brings whale-watching boats to the area; the feeding grounds between Isla de la Plata and the mainland concentrate whales at high densities during these months.

Manta's fishing heritage is visible at the Tarqui fish market in the older part of the city, where the day's catch — tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo, marlin, and the small corvina that is the basis of ceviche — is sold at the dock by weight and prepared at the surrounding cevicherías. The local ceviche preparation uses a citrus-tomato broth called leche de tigre ('tiger's milk') as the marinade, served with the fish still half-raw after a brief cure rather than the fully cooked preparation common in other countries. The chifles (fried plantain chips) and patacones (twice-fried green plantains) served alongside are made from the plantain varieties grown in coastal Manabí and are different in flavor from the commercially produced versions available outside Ecuador.