Visited Cuenca and bought a hat or two...

[PabloElFlamenco]

Hungary Tom: the disaster of the Japanese visitor to Paris standing before a closed Quai d'Orsay door could be only worse if this person actually already knows exactly what's behind it...a phenomenal, fantastic, museum (AND the restaurant there, what exquisite level of professionalism of the waiters, I owe it to them to express thanks! We chose a relatively inexpensive lunch there, with half a bottle of dry white Loire, the place is splendid, glorious, befitting the meaning and purpose of Paris).

Alas, I can only conclude that I must take peace and be happy with the few paja toquilla hats I have already. Every once in a while, I search "vintage Panama; vintage paja toquilla -whatever- on the internet, including eBay, and...not much there! All in all, not many tourists in Ecuador really take the trouble of buying such hat, and when they do, mmmm...nay (even if I did spot one gent with...a very nice new hat!)

That is the way of vintage: old. Like my "collectible" short-wave radios: there's nothing on the waves any longer, except these ham-radio amateurs "chewing rags" or trying to log in a kazillion stations during contests. Who needs SW-radio when there's FB, WhatsApp and Spotify? Even though: hats cannot be improved upon, they're technologically limited in scope.

Thanks for your comment, Tom, always interesting.