Bécal is one of the villages where the local craftsman offers his products: the beautiful and famous Jipi hats. If you want to wear a good hat, this is your detour on the road to Campeche.


Bécal is a town of Campeche with the soul of artisans where we can buy and see the elaboration of Jipi hats, a tradition of years. The basketry, the art of weaving vegetable fibers, usually by hand, was part of the Mayan civilization, making baskets and baskets, useful products in the daily life of the Mayan. This art has been redirected in history, until the Jipi hats.

Basket weaving has been practiced for centuries in these lands, making products with different materials, depending on what grows in the area. At the time of the splendor of the Haciendas, in the early 1800s, the planting of the palm of jipijapa, along with henequen, in some haciendas of the state of Campeche.

Bécal, Campeche

Bécal and the jipi hatjapa

With the arrival of the Spanish colonizer, the hat it is implanted in the local dress. The chronicles place the first jipi hat in the year 1872. Surely the Panamanian hat is better known to you, right? Well, it is about this same hat, only that here it is known by this name. Currently, the artisan hats of Bécal, are so important in the local economy, that the main statue of the population is that, a hat

In the village of Bécal you find other products made from this plant palm of jipijapa and huano, such as shoes, purses, bags or earrings.

In 1930 the cooperative "Hats Becaleños del Norte" was founded, the first cooperative to promote the Jipi hat at the local level, after the disappearance of the Haciendas. For many years they have been organizing cooperatives in Bécal, a very common form of association in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Learn about the history of Haciendas in Yucatan

campeche scholarship

Hat processing process
from Jipi
 

Throughout the entire main street of Bécal find different families selling their products. The interesting thing is that they teach you the product development process, something that can be seen in the same inner courtyard of the family home. This makes the visit and purchases of these crafts, an enriching and curious experience. I really liked visiting the place, it made me interesting.

becal_campeche
jipi_sombrero
Traditions in Bécal, artisans of hippie hats 1
Part of the process is in a cave, so that the sun does not shine
sobreros_jipi
sobreros_jipi

Buy jipi hats

The elaboration process that artisan families teach you in their own homes, I leave it for you to live it live. Hats range from 300 Mexican pesos to 3000 pesos, depending on their quality.

Traditions in Bécal, artisans of hippie hats 2

The material and the technique used to make them allow you to screw a hat as if it were a ball and to recover its shape without a single wrinkle. These hats are a chulada. Bécal It is a place to take off your hat and leave with a new position.

Traditions in Bécal, artisans of hippie hats 3

Bécal, towns

LOCATION: Bécal It is located 96 km from Campeche (1h15 ″). Highway via Campeche-Mérida.
HOW TO GET IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION? Transportation arrives until Bécal from Campeche, from the bus terminal ADO. They also arrive collective.
HOW TO VISIT BÉCAL? You can walk the town walking or tricitaxis, which take you to the craft houses. The main street is full family houses that are dedicated to the sale. With them you can see the elaboration process. You can visit it in the same day from Campeche.
ACCOMMODATION: you find simple accommodation in Bécal.

Good way,

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Sandra Salvadó Training photographer, traveler by vocation and certified tourism guide by the Government of Mexico. We promote natural wonders and contemporary Mayan culture. Great fan of pre-Hispanic history. Author of the blog and co-founder of The Shortest Path Travel, agency that guides you through alternative paths in Mayan lands. Social and sustainable tourism in the Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas.
I am at your disposal for whatever you need. Let's talk.

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