Art & Craft shopping in South America
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Puerto de Frutos
Check out the Puerto de Frutos, where vendors sell mostly housewares, wicker baskets and dried flowers, along with a modest selection of fruits. Weekends are best, when a large crafts fair sets up.
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Autoría
This cool designers’ showcase, stocked with make-a-statement silver jewelry, edgy art books and whimsical leather desk sculptures, brings a welcome taste of the avant-garde to this suit-and-tie neighborhood.
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Craft Stores & Stalls
There are several good craft stores along Gran Colombia and on the blocks just north of Parque Calderón. The best place for a serious spree, however, is the Casa de la Mujer , which houses over 100 craft stalls and makes for hours of shopping fun.
The Thursday Plaza Rotary market (Mariscal Lamar & Hermano Miguel) is mainly for locals (which means pigs and polyester, fruit and furniture), but there are a few craft stalls. You're best off heading to the nearby craft market, which has an odd but interesting combination of basketry, ceramics, iron-work, kitchen utensils, bright plastic animals, gaudy religious paraphernalia and guinea pig roasters (great gift for mom, but to…
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Poblado Artesenal
On the outskirts of Arica, near the Panamericana Sur, is this more full-on shopping experience: a mock altiplano village filled with serious craft shops and studios, selling everything from ceramic originals to finely tuned musical instruments. The village even has its own church, a replica of the one in Parinacota, complete with copies of its fascinating murals. A peña folclórica (folk-music and cultural club) meets here irregularly, usually on Saturday nights. Taxi colectivos (shared taxis) numbers 8, 13 and 18, and U pass near the entrance, as do buses 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9.
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Handicraft Shops
Villa de Leyva has a number of handicraft shops noted for fine basketry and good-quality woven items such as sweaters and ruanas (ponchos). There are some artisan shops on Plaza Mayor and more in the side streets, particularly on Carrera 9. A number of weavers have settled in town; their work is of excellent quality and their prices are reasonable. Most craft shops open only on weekends for the tourist rush.
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Materia Urbana
This innovative design shop shows the work of over 100 local artists; one-of-a-kind finds include offbeat line drawings, abstract photography and jewelry made from silver, wood and coral. To accommodate the constant foot traffic, Materia Urbana recently expanded its store to include the corner space across the street on the Chile intersection.
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Parque El Ejido Art Fair
Quito’s gallery scene is pretty limited, with just a handful of places exhibiting and selling local work. The most popular place to purchase paintings is Parque El Ejido Art Fair during the weekend art fair. The work here consists mostly of imitations of established Ecuadorian artists, but it’s cheap and colorful.
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Artesanías Kurmi
For local handiwork look for the friendly Artesanías Kurmi, in a rustic two-story white house. Here Wilma Velasco sells wonderful homemade and hand-dyed clothing, hats, dolls, bags and wall-hangings for excellent prices; also ask to try the homemade orange wine! There's no sign, but if you ring the bell, she'll open up.
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Folklore Olga Fisch
The store of legendary designer Olga Fisch (who died in 1991), this is the place to go for the very best and most expensive crafts in town. Fisch was a Hungarian artist who immigrated to Ecuador in 1939 and worked with indigenous artists melding traditional crafts with fine art – her unique designs are stunning.
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Khori Wasi
This big high-ceilinged store stocks high quality indigenous arts and crafts - both traditional and contemporary - from across Latin America. Expect to find terracotta figurines, stone statues, and painted ceramics, along with fine hand-woven shawls, rustic ponchos, and colorful embroidered wall hangings.
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Inca Pallay
This weavers and artisans cooperative has an impressive array of high-quality handmade crafts, not all from the Sucre area. Prices are high, but this is the store that returns the highest percentage to the weavers themselves. You can sometimes see weavers at work in the patio.
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Pueblito Los Dominicos
Next to the twin white domes of Los Dominicos church in Las Condes, this small market sells a mix of quality crafts made onsite and brought in from throughout Chile. From Escuela Militar metro station take orange bus 401 or 407 (they leave from stop 4) along Av Apoquindo.
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Vicki Johnson
Anyone who tries the ginger chocolate here would be hard-pressed to argue against this being Chile’s best artisanal chocolate. There is also a wealth of high-end rauli-wood kitchen utensils, jewelry, chutneys, olive oils and other tasty take-home treats.
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Feria de Chillán
The Feria de Chillán has a reasonable selection of crafts. Especially good are ceramics from the nearby village of Quinchamalí, but you’ll also see rawhide and leatherwork, basketry, weavings and the typical straw hats called chupallas.
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Manos del Uruguay - San José
Manos del Uruguay is famous for its range of slightly pricey, high-quality goods. A non-profit cooperative, the shop sells locally made items including woolen sweaters, scarves, rugs, blankets and tapestries. Has a second branch at Reconquista 602.
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Posada de Artes Kingman
This small but well-stocked gallery is dedicated to the works of Ecuadorian painter Eduardo Kingman, the teacher and primary influence on the better-known artist Guayasamín. Prints, cards, T-shirts, etchings and jewelry line the walls and shelves.
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Gadecoop
If this is your only stop in South America and you are dying to buy handicrafts, try GADECOOP, a cooperative of Amerindian artists where proceeds go directly to the villagers; quality and prices are better here than elsewhere in French Guiana.
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Craft Market
The craft market has an odd but interesting combination of basketry, ceramics, iron-work, kitchen utensils, bright plastic animals, gaudy religious paraphernalia and guinea pig roasters (great gift for mom, but tough to get home).
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Manos del Uruguay - Reconquista
Famous for its range of slightly pricey, high-quality goods. A non-profit cooperative, the shop sells locally made items including woolen sweaters, scarves, rugs, blankets and tapestries. Has a second branch at San José 1111.
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Centro Artesenal Los Goajiros
A below-street-level corridor of stalls just west of Plaza Chacaíto offers a mixed-bag of Orinoco crafts (woven hammocks and bags, carved blowguns, musical instruments) and hippie gear (Rasta caps, Guatemalan wallets).
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Casa de la Mujer
On the west side of the Plaza de San Francisco Market is the Casa de la Mujer, which houses over 100 craft stalls selling handmade musical instruments, embroidered clothing, baskets, jewelry and more.
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Comart Tukuypaj
Offers export-quality, fair-trade llama, alpaca and artesanías from around the country. Upstairs the Inca Pallay women’s weaving cooperative has a gallery with justly famous Jal’qa and Candelaria weavings.
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Taller Artesanal San Marcos
Operated by the Gendarmería de Chile and selling a hotchpotch of prisoners’ crafts. Where else can you get a cotton bikini handmade by Chilean women prisoners? Knock on the door if the Gendarmería cabin is shut.
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Artesanato da Amazônia
Once a terrific store for folk art; the good stuff here is getting buried by a growing amount of predictable kitsch. But you can still find some quality items, especially indigenous masks and handmade weapons.
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