Montecristi is:
- A canton with the town of Montecristi as the capital
- Montecristi is the birthplace of Eloy Alfaro Delgado (25 June 1842-28 January 1912), president of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911 and the leader of the Ecuadorian Liberal Revolution.
- The town is renowned for the production of Panama hats, the best quality of which is named montecristi superfino after it.
- As of the 2010 census Montecristi had 70.292 inhabitants
At the center of the town is a square in front of the church called Plaza Cívica de Montecristi. A large bronze statue of Eloy Alfaro Delgado takes center stage in the plaza with the stately white church in the background. 200 steps lead up to the church.
Although the church had a long history and was in itself quite beautiful we found it not quite as opulent as some churches we have seen in other cities. One thing we found odd was an alcove where there was a statue of Christ in a reclining position covered in a Ecuadorian blanket. It was obviously a depiction of the tomb after crucifixion but seemed strange to see it displayed that way. And of course like all Christian churches there were numerious slots in the top of the display where visitors had dropped money into it. So there was a plaster version of the crucified Christ covered in a nicely patterned blanket, with the crown of thorns still on and half covered in US dollars. Sheesh !!
The street leading to the plaza was lined on both sides by shops all selling pretty much the same things. Woven goods, hats, dolls and jewelry. As expected the color were vibrant and the shop owners more than anxious to call you in. My main challenge was to buy a Panama Hat. I had read enough that I knew the range of costs and why they ranged from 25 dollars to 10,000 dollars. Much like fabric for sheets that is in thread count so are the hats rated by fibre count per inch. The higher the count the finer the hat and of course the higher the cost. The superfino hats can take up to a year to weave and looking at them you can really tell the quality.
The salesman layed out hats from $25 to $300 for me and checked my size. Don’t know what it means but I am a size 60. Sounds big I know. I chose the $100 dollar hat because it wasn’t the stark white one and it had a nice tight weave. Negotiated a while and finally agreed on $60 and a wooden box to bring it home in. Poor Marianne almost had a stress attack seeing him show me how to roll it up to fit in the small box.
Finished the visit by M buying the gifts we were bringing home.