This is one of the classics of travel writing. It
follows the making and marketing of a single Panama
hat (Panama hats are actually made in Ecuador) and
is an account of Ecuadorian life.
On a lively and quixotic quest that takes him from
Ecuador to Colombia and finally to a hat shop in San
Diego, Miller travels from the basement of the third
world to the penthouse of the first. Along the way,
he encounters cultures in collision, raw capitalism,
and “bus-plunge highways.”
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