Panama hat of the first towns to start weaving the hats in the Andes is Principal, part of the Chordeleg Canton in the Azuay province. Straw hats woven in Ecuador, like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas and Europe, subsequently acquiring a name that reflected their point of international sale—"panama hats"—rather than their place of domestic origin. The term was being used by at least 1834. The popularity of the hats increased in the mid-19th century when many
Geography of Panama all, there are some 1,000 islands off the Pacific coast. The Pacific coastal waters are extraordinarily shallow. Depths of are reached only outside the perimeters of both the Gulf of Panama and the Golfo de Chiriquí, and wide mud flats extend up to seaward from the coastlines. As a consequence, the tidal range is extreme. A variation of about between high and low water on the Caribbean coast contrasts sharply with over on the Pacific coast, and some up the Río Tuira, the tidal range is still over . Nearly 500 rivers lace Panama's rugged landscape. Mostly unnavigable, many originate