Shopping in Peru
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Mercado Modelo
Make sure not to miss a visit to Mercado Modelo, one of Peru's most interesting markets. This place sprawls for several blocks and is a thick maze of fresh fruits and vegetables, woven goods, handicrafts, live animals, fish, meats and, most interestingly, the mercado de brujos (witch doctors' market) in the southwest corner.
This area is a one-stop shop for medicine men and has everything you might need for a potent brew: whale bones, amulets, snake skins, vials of indeterminate tonics, hallucinogenic cacti and piles of aromatic herbs. If you'd like to make contact with a brujo for a healing session, this is a good place to start, but be wary of sham shamans. It's best to…
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Artesania Alpasuri
This humble family-owned shop sells handmade alpaca goods of all types, from sweaters to hats and mittens. If you're a knitting fan, you can even buy skeins of yarn dyed in natural colors.
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Casa del Artesano
Casa del Artesano, on the south corner of the plaza, has a wide range of art souvenirs for sale in a somewhat secure environment.
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Mercado del Indios
This enormous market is the best place to browse through handicrafts from all over Peru. Prices are varied so shop carefully.
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Wayo Whilar
The shop of a longtime Peruvian surfer who sells his own line of hand-shaped boards.
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Alfonso Sulca Chavez
Ayacucho is famous as a handicraft center, and a visit to the Museo de Arte Popular will give you an idea of local products. The tourist office can recommend local artisans who will welcome you to their workshops. The Santa Ana barrio is particularly well known. The area around the Plazuela Santa Ana has various workshops, including that of Alfonso Sulca Chavez, whose family has been weaving here for three generations.
Sulca's weavings cost considerably less when bought directly from the artist rather than from shops in Lima.
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Feria Dominical
Feria Dominical, the Sunday craft market, occupies numerous blocks along Huancavelica to the north-west of Piura. There are numerous non-craft items as well as weavings, textiles, embroidered items, ceramics and wood carvings. Mates burilados (carved gourds) and many other items from various villages in the Río Mantaro valley are also sold here – handy if you don’t have time to make the trek out to the villages yourself. Keep an eye on your valuables though.
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Horno Típico de Santa Lucia
Huge clay ovens for baking empanadas and other goodies and castillos de cuyes (miniature castles inhabited by guinea pigs) are found in many nooks and crannies, particularly in Mariscál Castilla. Horno Típico de Santa Lucia unites both of these with an artesanía (crafts) shop. If, for some strange reason, you only have five minutes in Pisac, spend it here – you’ll get a pretty good feel for the place.
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La Mar
A cevichería done Gastón Acurio-style: La Mar is a polished cement patio bursting with VIPs (note the security guards outside) that serves 10 types of ceviche and almost as many varieties of tiraditos. Can’t make up your mind? Try the degustación, with five different kinds. There are grills, rice dishes and soups, but it’s the ceviche that is tops. Cocktails here include Lima’s best coca-leaf sour.
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Guadalupe
The most convenient of Ica's small family-owned artisanal bodegas are found in the suburb of Guadalupe, less than 3km from Ica on the road to Lima. There are many stalls selling huge bottles of various kinds of pisco, wine, fruit, jams etc. Micros bound for Guadalupe (US$0.30, 15 minutes) pass by Iglesia de San Francisco near Ica's Plaza de Armas, or else you can catch a cab.
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Aymi Wasi
If you’re the type who likes to get your souvenir shopping done fast, Aymi Wasi is for you. It’s got everything – clothes, ornaments, toys, candles, jewelry, art, ceramics, handbags… Your friends and family will never suspect you bought all their gifts in one place! And it’s all handmade and fair trade.
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Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional
The Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional, at Las Palmeras Air Force base in Surco, sells aerial photographs. Don’t wear shorts when you go there, take a passport and expect a two-week waiting period for prints. Some aerial photos are also available from the IGN. The best way to find the base is to take a taxi.
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Siluet Sauna & Spa
For some pampering or a post-trekking splurge, a blossoming number of spas offer massage services, one of them being the highly professional Siluet Sauna & Spa. Beware of cheap massages touted in the street; there are reports of massages getting much more, er, intimate than expected.
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Galería de Artesanía
The Galería de Artesanía is actually a tiny mall of about a dozen different craft shops featuring regional specialties from baskets to weavings to Chulucanas pottery. With fair and negotiable prices, it’s a great stop if you don’t have time to go to the outlying craft towns.
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Michell
More than just a source for fine alpaca wool goods and raw thread, this complex functions as a tourist center for an international wool export company. It includes a well-presented commercial boutique, a museum detailing the process of wool production, and a small zoo and a cafe.
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Werner & Ana
This sleek Dutch-Peruvian designer showroom sells innovative high-end alpaca-wool clothing for both sexes, including uniquely gorgeous sweaters, scarves and hats. You may pay more here than at any of Cuzco's markets, but the quality is exceptional.
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Caseta el Viajero Kiosk
If you’re in downtown, the top spot for maps is the Caseta el Viajero Kiosk, a cluttered stand facing Plaza San Martín that is run by the congenial Federico Quispe. He also has smaller maps devoted to individual neighborhoods.
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El Rincón del Pisco
If you’re interested in picking up a few bottles before flying home, you can find an extensive selection of duty-free brands at El Rincón del Pisco, a well-organized pisco boutique inside Lima’s international airport.
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Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cuzco
This nonprofit organization, founded in 1996, promotes the survival of traditional weaving. You may be able to catch a shop-floor demonstration illustrating different weaving techniques in all their finger-twisting complexity. Products for sale are high end.
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Centro Turístico Cultural San Cristóbal
This is a remodeled colonial building transformed into a hip little mall. Here you’ll find bars, restaurants and coffee shops, along with art galleries, craft stores and flower stands. A nice place to hang during the day.
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Raices Peru
This humble storefront sells all types of folk art - including textiles, woodcraft, ceramics, jewelry, alpaca goods and toys - made in various indigenous communities from the Amazon to the Andes to the coastal desert.
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Mad Mick’s Trading Post
You can buy, rent or trade almost anything needed for a jungle expedition at Mad Mick’s Trading Post. Don’t need it afterwards? Mick will buy anything back (if it’s in good nick) for half-price.
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Jatum Maqui
A stone's throw from Gringo Alley, this youthful artists' workshop sells ceramics with quirky contemporary designs. They'll even box 'em up in international-post-ready packaging for a small additional charge.
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Last Minute Gift Store
High-quality, attractive T-shirts with appropriately mountainous designs are made by Andean Expressions and sold at the Last Minute Gift Store – watch out for lower-quality imitators.
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Agua y Tierra
This beautiful high-ceilinged gallery specializes in authentic art and crafts, including pottery, textiles, paintings and more, all handmade by indigenous tribespeople living in the Amazon jungle.
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