How to Buy the Perfect Panama Hat
By Heather Rath
ITWPA Member
What do actresses Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow and celebrities like Miss Ecuador have in common? (Hint: When they were alive, President Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper were already part of the trend.)
Wearing a Panama hat!
Contrary to popular belief, the glorious Panama hat originates in Ecuador -- not Panama. This remarkably functional, fashionable fedora has existed under its misnomer for more than a century, when the hats from Montecristi and Cuenca, Ecuador, traversed difficult Andean mountain ranges to Panama, where they were exported to the world. Hence, the false signature name Panama hat.
Light, flexible, durable, and a life-saver in the hot sun, a Panama (oops, Ecuadorian) hat is expensive but worth every penny. Several hundred dollars -- or even thousands of dollars -- for the best of the best is not uncommon, but you can actually purchase one of these straw gems for a reasonable amount.
The original hat was made of toquilla straw, a name that has ancient roots. When the Spanish first arrived in Ecuador, they saw indigenous people wearing a strangely woven hat that looked as if it had vampire wings. In 1630, the people were persuaded to wear these hats without the brim; this new version was called a toquilla. In 1796 Charles V encouraged the introduction of craft leagues in Ecuador, including one for this straw hat. Because of their growing popularity, the meticulously woven hats became the principal export product of Ecuador between 1944 and 1945.
The palm-like plant that produces the straw used to weave the hats is native to Ecuador. When tender leaves sprout, workers cut them from the parent plant. Removed from the sun to air dry, they transform into thin, blonde, cylindrical fibers. This important step requires great patience and care because the fibers’ strength and color depends on this process. 
The quality of the hat depends not only on the thickness of the raw material but also on the manual skill of the weaver whose dexterity is passed from generation to generation. The weavers work at home, often in poor light in difficult surroundings, and deliver the hats in their first stage to the factories. It takes at least four months, and often more, to produce a tightly-woven, earth-scented, cream-colored, true ‘panama’ hat.
When you enter one of the hat factories in Cuenca, the array of styles and colors at different prices makes even the most ardent shopper stop, think, and shop wisely. Attendants can easily alter the fedora so that it fits snugly and will not blow off even in a strong wind. My husband and I visited two high profile factories in Cuenca, coming away with a passion for the workmanship and an Ecuadorian ‘panama’ hat we are proud to wear.
For more information check out these links:
www.homeroortega.com and www.sombrerosecuatorianos.com
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There’s More to Albuquerque than a Left Turn
By Bob Starink
Albuquerque is hard to spell and you may only recognize the name from Bugs Bunny’s directions to turn left there. However, not only is this city in the desert a great place to use as a base camp to travel to exotic places in all directions, it is a tourist attraction in its own right.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, is an easy flight from all major U.S. cities. From here, the Rocky Mountains in Colorado are to the northeast, the magnificent desert national parks of Utah lay northwest, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is due west and Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Monument are southeast.
The road system in Albuquerque makes navigation to the variety of attractions easy. These attractions include Old Town, which celebrates the city’s history dating back to 1706; the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which, as the name suggests, concentrates on the 19 local native tribes; the Sandia Peak Tramway, a cable car ascending nearly two miles from the desert floor to seasonal snow fields; and the Albuquerque Aquarium, which is very popular with kids. 
Albuquerque’s greatest claim to fame, though, is the annual Balloon Fiesta the first week in October. Balloons from all over the country converge for a spectacular air show where up to 700 balloons take to the sky in the Mass Ascensions. This balloon festival began in 1972 with 13 balloons and has developed into the largest event of its type in the world. A unique weather combination makes Albuquerque ideal for ballooning -- varying winds at different altitudes allow balloonists to circle the area rather than fly away in a single direction.
The many different shapes of balloons make the show even more fascinating for spectators. During some of the Fiesta nights, balloonists fire up their crafts on the ground to create a multi-colored light show. Food and souvenir stalls that line the field provide more entertainment after the balloons are done.
Entry to the Fiesta is only $6 per adult and parking is $10 for those who drive in. The Mass Ascensions occur just after sunrise (about 7 a.m.) so a pre-dawn awakening is necessary.
For a special treat, Rainbow Ryders provide rides in their balloons during the Ascensions. Aloft for up to two hours, you can watch balloons taking off from the field below, landing in nearby clearings and surrounding you in the air. This is an extraordinary way to appreciate the Fiesta. With only about 50 people per day allowed, the price of $375 per person is not that unreasonable for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Visiting Albuquerque during any season of the year is worth your time but doing so in October adds remarkable memories that are treasured forever.
If you go:
A flight from Los Angeles to Sunport International Airport in Albuquerque costs around $150 per person. An interesting alternative is to take an Amtrak train. A seat from Los Angeles will set you back approximately $65 for the 16-and-a-half-hour overnight journey (a sleeping car is extra).
There are many good hotels in Albuquerque, especially around the airport. Prices during the Fiesta are naturally higher than the rest of the year. Car rental is cheap. Advantage has cars for $55 per day (including all taxes).
Food options are plentiful. Try the Genghis Mongolian Grill at least one day. It’s a stir-fry chain restaurant but it’s a great value and very tasty.
For more information and photographs, visit www.balloonfiesta.com and www.rainbowryders.com.
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Lerici -- Poets’ Paradise and the Italian’s Italy
By Keely L. Herrick
Every Italian tour includes the greatest hits of Rome, Venice, and Florence, but if you want to vacation in Italy like the Italians do, spend a few days in Lerici on the Bay of Lerici. (Be careful to pronounce it “Lay-ree-chee,” with the emphasis on the first syllable, or the locals won’t know where to direct you!) This postcard-perfect beach village is accessible by bus or taxi from the La Spezia train station and provides access to the more-frequented hills of Porto Venere and the Cinque Terre by ferry several times daily.
The Bay of Lerici is nicknamed Golfo dei Poeti, or Poets’ Gulf, for the first famous English-speaking tourists in the area, Romantic writers Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. A plaque in Porto Venere commemorates the Byron Grotto, where Byron was said to have started his swim across the bay back to Lerici. Sadly, the seas were less kind to Shelley, who drowned in a storm attempting to sail home to Lerici from Genoa. Today, you have your choice of bards -- you may stay in Hotel Shelley or Hotel Byron, among other places.
Take a walk down the serene boardwalk to see Casa Magni, the last home of Shelley and his wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Enjoy your early-morning cappuccino while watching the waves, and for lunch follow your nose down a side street to one of the tiny trattorias offering simple, well-made meals such as squid ink pasta with seafood fresh off the boats in the bay.
As late as October, vacationing Italians can be found on the shores of Lerici, swimming and sunning with their families. It is nearly impossible to reconcile the clear, gentle waters with the tragic storm that claimed Shelley’s life.
The hilltop Lerici Castle is accessible by stairs or elevator, although you may have to wait a minute or two for the call button to rouse the operator -- like everyone else, he is often lost in the view of the bay from the castle walls.
Even Fellini admitted that La Dolce Vita was difficult to find in Rome, but in Lerici, the sweetness of doing nothing flavors the air. You may claim a boardwalk bench for your afternoon gelato and find yourself still sitting there as the sunset quietly dazzles its way below the horizon. At night, leave your window open and let the bells of the boats lull you to sleep. It’s not on the standard itineraries, but Lerici is a tranquil treasure with stories to tell.
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How to Vacation Like a Movie Star in Mexico
By Connie Werner Reichert
ITWPA Member
It’s easy to vacation like a movie star in Mexico. All you have to do is cross the border from San Diego into Tijuana and drive south for a few miles until you reach Rosarito Beach, an area in Baja/Cal-Mex known for its Puerto Nuevo lobster, glorious coastline and movie stars.
What do Sinatra, Hayworth, Douglas, Peck and Monroe have in common besides the obvious? They all stayed and played at the beautifully-renovated Rosarito Beach Hotel Resort & Spa.
2011 marks the 86th anniversary of the legendary Rosarito Beach Hotel, a haven for the cinematic stars of the golden age of Hollywood. To celebrate such a milestone, they are offering free historical tours of the famous resort throughout the year.
This is the place that was proudly proclaimed as Frank Sinatra’s favorite bar, and where Rita Hayworth had her steamy love affair with the son of the Shah of Iran (later, they were to marry). And now, this luxurious hotel invites you to be a part of its history and a member of the family. They certainly know the definition of “high-class hospitality.”
The hotel had a humble beginning as a 12-bungalow hunting lodge in 1925. Their star-studded era of the 1940’s and 1950’s included a galaxy of luminaries as guests. Now the Rosarito Beach Hotel has completed its brand new, exquisite, 18-story Pacifico tower. 
As part of The Legend, which is more like a hotel-condo, the tower is a montage of the tradition and beauty of Mexico’s past and all the current creature comforts and excitement of Mexico’s future. The suites are beautiful and zen-like, while also being luxurious and very modern. There’s a coffee table in the great room with a sand tray of pebbles to play with, and a full kitchen with stove, fridge, cupboards full of dishes and drawers filled with cutlery. There’s a huge bathroom with a sunken bath tub and separate shower. Plus some of the most comfortable beds and pillows you’ll ever sleep on in the beautiful master bedroom… complete with dramatic lighting. All the suites boast two plasma TVs.
Aside from the many tourists, pop-performer Britney Spears recently spent a few days there, and actor Mickey Rourke (9½ Weeks) decided he liked the atmosphere and surroundings so much he stayed for several days. Movie studios are located just a few miles down the coast, where Russell Crowe starred in Master and Commander, Brendon Frasier was spotlighted in The Eye and Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet demonstrated their on-screen passion in the award-winning film Titanic.
At Rosarito Beach Hotel, their free tour will allow you to learn about the couple who started it all -- businessman Manuel Barbachano and his gorgeous wife, Mexican actress Maria Luisa Chabert. Not only do their descendants still own the hotel, but Chabert’s nephew is actually the Mayor of Rosarito Beach. You’ll be amazed as you look around the beautiful mansion they called home. It’s now the decadent Casa Playa Spa and the elegantly refined Chabert’s Restaurant, known for its “Frenchican” fare, serving up escargot, flaming crepe suzettes, grilled Puerto Nuevo lobster, traditional fluffy Mexican rice and freshly hand-tossed tortillas.
The tour takes you to the beginnings of the hotel through the Pasillo Maya corridor, where you’ll discover unique, ancient art as you go along. From there, you’ll revisit the past as Rosarito Beach Hotel began to grow and expand -- preserving the past while still planning for the future.
Why not travel to Baja and book your suite at the Rosarito Beach Hotel? It’s a memorable journey through Baja’s largest and most historic oceanfront hotel -- and through time, one you’ll always remember. So put on those movie-star sunglasses and scarves and come travel back in time and tradition as you vacation at the exclusive, but not elusive, legendary Rosarito Beach Hotel. See www.rosaritobeachhotel.com.
10 tips on what to bring to Rosarito Beach:
1. Cash (American money is accepted in Baja)
2. Casual clothes
3. A formal outfit with the appropriate shoes
4. Sandals
5. Sunscreen
6. Camera
7. Always bring a sweater or wrap -- no matter what day of the year it is it might get chilly!
8. Always bring some shorts -- no matter what day of the year it is it might get warm!
9. Your partner
10. A feel-good attitude. Be ready to have some fun!
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Art in the Sun
By Allen Dale Olson
If you could create the Mediterranean village of your choice, you’d create Ceret. Ancient stone houses along cobblestone streets. Roman arches. Plane trees shading the village square and the cafe tables that spill out into it. Only 7,600 inhabitants. Backed up by the eastern slope of the Pyrenees, including the snow-capped Mount Canigou. Fronted seven miles away by the Gulf of Lion, home to France’s sandiest beaches. A ten-minute drive from the border with Spain. A half-hour ride to the nearest airport.
Ceret already exists. And there’s even more to it than those fantasies already identified. Consider the Pablo Bar and its walls lined with sketches Picasso used to pay his bar bills in 1913. The village is filled with mementos of the great artists of the early 20th century who hung out here from time to time -- Braque, Gris, Matisse, and Miro, to name a few. Artists like Dufy and Dubuffet fled to Ceret to escape Nazism in World War II, and Salvadore Dali even popped over for visits from his home just across the border.
By the 1970s, the Ceret Friends of Art Association had gathered a sufficient collection of art left behind by their famous visitors to start a small museum. In 1993 they proudly dedicated a new building they named the Musee d’Art Moderne. After the d’Orsay in Paris, it would be hard to identify a more significant collection of contemporary and 20th-century art. Today it is supported primarily by the private Friends of the Museum Association with backing from corporate sponsors and grants from regional and national arts agencies.
For an admission fee of five euros (free for children), you can wander through the intimate but brightly-lit salons to see original work by Picasso, Dali, Gris, Chagall, Miro, and the locally-born Aristide Maillol along with splendid collections of Catalan painting, pottery, and sculpture.
The museum is closed Tuesdays and opens at 10 a.m. on other days, staying open till 7 p.m. from May 1 to September 30 and till 6 p.m. the rest of the year. It is also closed in November and on January 1, May 1, and December 25.
This fantasy village has six comfortable hotels. Our favorite is Les Arcades, home to the Pablo Bar and delicious snacks. For upscale dining, though still boasting a Catalan flair, we like Les Feuillantes. No matter where you stay in Ceret, you can walk to any place in town. The cordial Tourism Office staff can suggest other accommodations in the mountains or bed and breakfast country lodgings.
Tourism Office
1, avenue Georges Clemenceau
F-66400 Ceret, France
Tel: 04 68 87 00 53
www.ceret.fr
Museum of Modern Art
8, boulevard Marechal Joffre
F-66400 Ceret, France
contact@musee.ceret.fr.com
Hotel Les Arcades
1, place Picasso
F-66400 Ceret, France
Tel: 04 68 87 12 30
hotelarcades.ceret@wanadoo.fr
Restaurant Les Feuillantes
1, Boulevard La Fayette
F-66400 Ceret, France
contact@feuillantes.com
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