That makes me wonder why something like the Internet doesn't change this guy's financial situation. So you could, with a camera phone and something like an international version of Stripe, have this guy finish a hat, upload a picture of it to the web, sell it, and then hand it off to a person he pays to take it into town and to ship it.
This is the site of ecuatorian women cooperative. As you may imagine the site is not very up to date nor useful, but it has an email and telephone number. It's so unupdated that seems genuine to me. I think I'll try it.
http://www.unioncañari.com/index.php/home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQZ4DoIdSwA
He does not own a panama hat, he could never afford to keep something he works on for months.
Not making a point or anything, just interesting to see such a big wealth divide between the maker and the buyer.