Shopping in Caribbean Islands
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Moro
Jacmel is a souvenir buyer’s paradise. Its most famous output are the papier-mâché Carnival masks, unique to the town, that you can see being made in the months before the festival. One of the better artisanat-galleries is Moro, although it’s not the cheapest.
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Harmony Hall
Six kilometers east of town, Harmony Hall has the best quality art. It’s renowned for its Christmas, Easter and mid-November craft fairs, and regular exhibitions.
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Jamaica Agricultural Society Shop
This organization has been championing the cause of the small farmer in Jamaica since 1895. Here you can buy local honey, spices and Blue Mountain coffee at a fair price.
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Taj Mahal
Soni Plaza and Ocean Village Plaza, both on Main St, host duty-free stores, including Taj Mahal, which offers a vast array of watches and jewelry.
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Galerie Monnin
Port-au-Prince’s oldest private art gallery, in a lovely building. Lots of landscapes, but with a wide selection of different Haitian schools.
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Caribbean Walk
Tiny, but full of local art, this creative shop in Isabel Segunda harbors intricate jewelry and plenty of other dexterously sculpted crafts.
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La Tienda Verde
For groceries, La Tienda Verde near the baseball field in the center of town is your best bet in Esperanza.
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Morales Supermercado
If you’re looking to stock up on provisions, try Morales Supermercado.
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Sovereign Centre
A large shopping center with whole floor dedicated to fast-food outlets.
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Plaza de Armas Secondhand Book Market
A book market stocking old, new and rare books, including Hemingway, some weighty poetry and plenty of written pontifications from Fidel. It's all here under the leafy boughs in Plaza de Armas. Browse to your heart's content.
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Janet’s Supermarket
This is the biggest and best supermarket at the eastern end of town.
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Estanco de Tabaco
A good choice for cigar shopping.
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Coronation Market
In the exhilarating pandemonium of Coronation Market, shoppers come face to face with the dynamic – and sometimes daunting – aspects of life in downtown Kingston. Stall after stall is stocked with every manner of bric-a-brac, from handmade tools to sound-system speakers. In negotiating with the vendors you’ll need to penetrate their artful patois. Coronation Market’s proximity to the unpredictable Tivoli Gardens district means that you’ll need to choose your friends carefully; many visitors feel more comfortable arriving with a local companion who knows the territory. Don’t go wandering any further west downtown without a guide who’s respected locally. Leave…
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Nueva Plaza Del Mercado
Winding through crowds of shoppers on Paseo Atocha will lead you to the city’s most exciting indoor market, four blocks north of the Plaza. The selection of produce – freshly hacked off the vine – is marvelous, and can be complimented by less healthful options like cheapie sweets and fried snacks, as well as lottery tickets. Just up the block, the slightly more crowded Mercade Juan Ponce de León has stalls hocking pan-religious voodoo charms and salsa tunes on vintage vinyl platters, reconditioned boots and hand-rolled cigars.
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Mercado Modelo
Housed in an aging two-story building just north of the Zona Colonial near a neighborhood of Chinese restaurants and stores, bargain hard at this local market, which sells everything from love potions to woodcarvings and jewelry. The more you look like a tourist, the higher the asking price. It’s best not to dress too sharply or wear any fine jewelry yourself, in part to get a fair deal and in part because this isn’t the best neighborhood to wander around, especially after dark.
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Coconut Grove Shopping Village
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
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Dunn’s River Craft Park
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
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Pineapple Place
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
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West Coast Surf Shop
Downtown on the Plaza de Recreo you will find the West Coast Surf Shop, a cool and funky place with some excellent graphics and big-screen TV images. Aside from selling all the appropriate gear, the owners have great local knowledge and can organize lessons for any standard or age at short notice. Hot Wavz Surf Shop is on the lighthouse road and can rent you a surfboard to fit conditions for $20 to $25; boogie boards cost about $15.
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Variadades Galiano
The main shopping streets for Cubans are San Rafael and Av de Italia (Galiano). At the point where the thoroughfares meet stands Variadades Galiano, the Bloomingdales of Cuban department stores (and a former Woolworths), which sells everything from mesh tank tops to old records. With its strangely evocative interior that mixes aspiring 1950s New York with dingy 1970s Moscow, this place offers an authentic glimpse into how Cubans go shopping.
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Wassi Art
Family-owned Wassi Art employs over fifty artists to make its colorful, richly decorated terra-cotta pottery. It is named for the ‘wassi’ wasp, or potter wasp, which makes a mud pot for each of her eggs and stuffs it with a caterpillar for food for her hatchlings. Free tours are offered, detailing the entire process including painting and firing. A store sells work (US$5 to US$5000). The owners will ship.
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Mountain Maid Gift Shop & Restaurant
The Mountain Maid Gift Shop & restaurant is located near the entrance to the town of Fermathe. Run as part of the Baptist Mission, it sells crafts and produce from local cooperatives and self-help groups – everything from greeting cards and carvings to jams and cakes (the granola cookies here are famous). The restaurant is more a burger bar–cafeteria joint, but it has good sandwiches and great views.
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Boutique del Fumador
If you want to see tabacos being rolled, drop by the Boutique del Fumador. It is located on Parque Colón and is owned by Monte Cristi de Tabacos. You can watch as one or two workers roll cigars in the shop window – a sampling of the 45 workers who roll away the day on the 2nd floor of the shop. Montecristo, Cohiba and Caoba brand cigars are sold at the shop.
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craft shop
Local craftsmen still make goombay drums here. These - along with an array of medicinal herbs, calabashes and abeng horns - are for sale in the tiny red-and-green-painted craft shop as you enter town. The hand-carved goombay drum is box-shaped and covered with goatskin, and makes a wonderfully deep and resonant racket.
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Sundial
A colorful store that strives to bring you ‘natural and traditional healing remedies from the laboratory of the Most High for what might be ailing you.’ On the shelves you’ll find booklets, videos and tonics produced from old Maroon recipes with ingredients including African eyebright, woodroot, manback and koromantee.
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