The small inland town of Montecristi, fifteen minutes south of Manta, is where the world's finest Panama hats — properly called sombreros de paja toquilla — are woven. Toquilla-weaving has UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, and a few master weavers in Montecristi still produce the legendary superfinos that take months to make and can be folded inside a wedding ring.
The town itself is small, hot, and centred on a steep main street climbing to a hilltop church. Workshops along the main street sell hats at every grade from tourist souvenir to museum quality — buy from the named maker rather than the market stall if you want the real thing. The town also has the elaborate mausoleum of Eloy Alfaro, the liberal president born here and assassinated in 1912.