The Entertainer

yo' ... yang here.

OK. So Hope hears rumors that there is another cruiser anchored in the Bay who plays the harp and has one aboard. (What: we're NOT unique?) She discovers her identity, Gayle, and they make arrangements to get together one Sunday afternoon to play for each other, trade tips, techniques, and generally just share in the joy that only harpists understand. (Actually, anyone listening understands the joy as well.)

A local woman, Elizabeth, hears of their plans and indicates that she'd love to be able to hear them practice. So they pick a time, 2 pm, and Gayle goes off to do her thing and Hope goes off to do hers. Later that week, we all discover that the World Cup Final Game is being played from 1pm - 3pm so a postponement is made to the harp practice time but the word doesn't get around to everyone. So when they start playing, Elizabeth comes up and explains that she can't stay any longer, but would they like to come to her establishment that night and play for her and her customers? Turns out she owns the Arena Bar and Pizzeria, a nice place for locals and cruisers, with great food and great prices. So Gayle accepts for her and Hope. Actually, Elizabeth is that sort of person who won't take no (nor even a maybe) as an answer and you feel guilty about even trying to say anything except yes. Infectious smile and energy.

Initially, I'm involved because as the official 'Senor Burro' of ceilidh, I'm needed to schlep the harp from ceilidh, across the water, and into town. (I get to listen as reimbursement.) I brought along my Native American flute to play when they were talking and deciding on music. Gayle was able to figure out chords on the harp to play along with me while I was playing, so now Hope can play with me back on ceilidh. (To those musicians out there, the flute is in G minor, not the easiest thing to match on a C major harp with sharping levers for D and G major keys only.) So Hope plays the bahrain (drum) for some of my playing and next thing I know, I'm included in the performance as well.

So we get there around 8 o'clock on a Sunday night. Now Gayle is a professionally trained singer who uses the harp to accompany herself so Hope and I eagerly agree to let her carry the weight of the 'show'. Can we all say 'knock out voice'? Good, I thought we could. So Gayle starts with about 6 songs, then Hope plays some, then 6 more by Gayle, then Hope, then me on flute with harp and drum accompaniment, then Gayle wrapping up. We each got a glass of wine as a treat on the house, so that makes it a professional gig, right?

Anyway, a number of our friends from the cruising community showed up. Elizabeth had a big contingent of her family there (husband or ex-husband we didn't inquire, daughter, granddaughter, and others). And some local customers even stayed for the performance. Business was good, the place was packed, people applauded just a bit more than they politely needed to, and the word afterwards was it was fun and 'they'll' be back for the next performance.

And we had fun. Hope would have 'disappeared' but between Gayle, Elizabeth, and me, she couldn't. And afterwards we were all glad we came and played. Gayle is talking up another gig for us at the cruiser hangout, Puerto Amistad, and we're sure we haven't seen the last of Elizabeth. Plus we have some other friends in the community who missed the first performance and want to see any others.

So we'll practice some more and look forward to the next gig.

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Panama Hats

.. yang side here.

We took a side trip to a town called Montecristi about 50 or so miles from here. Montecristi is a small tourist town at the bottom of a hill (curiously named Montecristi before there was a town). And what attracts the tourists? It's a center for Panama hat manufacture and sales.

Real, handmade, Panama hats.

Panama hats first gained international fame when they became the unofficial/official hat of the workers and especially the management building the Panama Canal. But even more curiously, the designation Panama hat has nothing to do with the canal or the country. And they have always been made in Ecuador. Even before the US created the country Panama by slicing off a section of Columbia (there's a story for another blog), even before the money was assembled to build the canal (which was well before Columbia got tough on canal building negotiations after France's failure which necessitated a new and pro-US country), Ecuador was making Panama hats. How? Panama hats are made from fibers of the Panama palm. (Clever, huh?) Slit the leaves and stems down to individual, very tough, very flexible, very thin fibers, and you have something to weave with.

True Panama hats of fine to extra-fine designation, come with a box about a foot long and an inch square on the inside. With a true Panama hat, you can roll it into a cylinder (crown at one end brim at the other), store it in the box, and then, when you want to wear it, take it out and it will resume its normal shape. The original ready-to-wear, wrinkle-free. Plus a fine to extra-fine hat will hold water ... the outside won't get wet. Or conversely, your head stays dry in the rain. Perfect for working on canals.

Some cruisers had already visited Montecristi and mentioned a specific shop. Turns out that every shop has hand-made Panama hats for sale. Hope bought a less-than-fine hat with a wide brim and a rounded crown. Quite stylish ... not all Panama hats are made for men's fashion. Size is adjustable by simply slipping on an adjustable hat band and the woven material will deform to a head size (somewhat) without deforming the shape (hardly noticeable usually). Worked for Hope's hat. They originally wanted $12 but with the negotiational skills of our taxi driver, Giovanni, we got it for $8. He was working on $5, but they weren't going for it.

I didn't see anything I really liked so the store owners took us to another store where they had some extra-fine hats. The original asking price was $85, we'd gotten them down to $35, and they probably would have taken $30 if we whipped out the cash. But again, nothing was 'just right' so I passed. On the way out of town, there were many other places with more options so I may go back, or wait until we're in south-central Ecuador around a town called Cuenca which is another center of hat manufacture.

These probably weren't true extra fine hats ... the quality levels being inflated and the pricing not matching. We'd heard of a cable TV special on the making of Panama hats. Apparently there are only two guys left in this region who still weave true, extra-fine hats. It takes them 6 months per hat and they get about $50. All their products end up in New York boutiques where they retail around $10,000 give or take a couple of thou. Unfortunately, these guys are getting old and are going blind. They lean on a post to work over their weaving mold from above and their chests are deformed with the indentation of the leaning post. It's been the only work they've done since childhood. They weave to a round mold and then the round crown is pounded with a wooden hammer on molds of different shapes.

In other, late-breaking news, our main engine seized up last week. The good news is that it is some problem either with the valves or with the fuel system. No clunking, banging, or grinding noises. Work I can do. We won't need a major or complete overhaul. Spanish classes are progressing and we're even having discussions with locals. People are very friendly and consider Americans generally rude because we don't say 'Ola! Como usta?' very much. We tend to focus on the task at hand and don't realize that market day is supposed to be just that: a whole day for about an hour's worth of shopping. Greeting friends, catching up, and making new friends are part of every task.

Enough for now. We're here through sometime in October, then to the Galapagos, then back up to Panama in November sometime.

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