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The straw hats of Celendín are famous and of very high quality. The reason is that they use the quality taquilla-straw and they make them with positive energies and a lot of patience and experience.
It is said that this tradition started in 1850, when an ecuadorian guy (who had followed the girl he loved) decided to start to produce this kind of straw hats.
There are all kinds of straw hats, for ladies, gentleman, children, low or high quality ... etc. A straw hat of fine quality takes about three or four weeks to finish it, and there are even finer ones, that can take up to two months!
First they weave the straw by hand, mostly done by women, and then they iron them to form the shape of the specific model. There are a couple of houses where every day people are working on this particular job. If they let you get a glance at them working, of course afterwords it's possible to buy one of those original and special hats.
The fine ones (without glue) you can roll up to take with you, without the hat loosing its model. The finest ones are said to be able to roll up even so fine you can put them through a wedding ring. They are very strong and stay that way even when they get wet from the rain.
If you like these kind of hats, be sure you buy one now, before the rest of the world discovers the quality and prices will rise quickly!
Last changes: 26-10-06 © Q'espe design © Fotos Susan van der Wielen