Other shopping in South America
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A
Feria Municipal
There are an abundance of craft markets in the Feria Municipal. It also contains a municipal tourist office.
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Plaza de Mercado
For a true locals’ experience, head to Plaza de Mercado, a bustling covered market where you can grab plenty of comida corriente, tamales and fresh-squeezed juices.
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Parque Artesanía
On Loma de la Cruz, this is one of Colombia’s best artesanía markets. You’ll find authentic, handmade goods from the Amazon, Pacific coast, southern Andes, and even Los Llanos.
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CC La Pasarela
CC La Pasarela is a two-story shopping center that’s elbow-to-elbow computers and parts. You’ll find great prices on laptops and repairs.
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B
Mercado Central
The Mercado Central is a good hunting ground for cheap pizza, empanadas (small, stuffed pastries) and sandwiches.
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C
Mercado de Pulgas del Bajo
A small flea market by the tourist office, where dealers sell everything from silverwork to leather goods.
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Mercado Negro & Upper Market Areas
The area from Plaza Pérez Velasco to the cemetery has a largely indigenous population and is always bustling. Traffic honks through the narrow cobbled streets, cholitas (Quechua or Aymará women) rush about making purchases and pedestrians jostle with sidewalk vendors.
The Mercado Negro (Black Market), roughly within the area around Max Parades, Tumusla, Tamayo and Santa Cruz, is the place where undocumented merchandise, much of it bootlegged, is sold along with just about everything else.
In the case of CDs and DVDs, vendors make no effort to conceal the origins: the covers are merely photocopied. It also stocks imitation designer clothing and inexpensive camera film. Th…
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Main Market
The city’s main market is split into two sections on either side of Maipón between Isabel Riquelme and 5 de Abril. On the north side is a covered section known as the Mercado Central, which contains cheap eateries and butchers stands festooned with strings of the longaniza (a spicy salami-type sausage) that Chillán is famous for throughout Chile. The open-air stalls on Plaza de la Merced form La Feria de Chillán and are taken up with a mix of fresh produce and local arts and crafts. Simple ceramics, leather huaso (cowboy) gear and wickerware are good-value buys.
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Fundación Chol-Chol
Unfortunately, the best and most responsible spot to buy Mapuche gear is 16km out of town. This nonprofit, Fair Trade organization works with 600 rural Mapuche women to offer top-quality weavings and textiles made entirely by hand. Throw rugs, wall hangings, bags, shawls – nothing is cheap, everything is simply gorgeous. To get here, take any bus towards the towns of Nueva Imperial, Carahue or Puerto Saavedra from the rural bus terminal and ask to be let off at the Fundación. If you can’t make it, a few of their wares are available at the gift shop in the museum.
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D
Mercado Municipal
This covered market is a belle époque confection of stained glass and a series of vast domes. Inside is a delightful market specializing in fresh produce and dried goods. It’s also a great place to sample a couple of classic Sampa delights: mortadella sandwiches and pasteis, pockets of dough stuffed with meat, cheese or fish and then fried. Many Sundays there is live music, but note that approximately one Sunday per month, the market closes for maintenance. Unfortunately, there is no regular schedule for these closings.
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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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E
Mercado Municipal Adolfo Lisboa
This imposing cast-iron city market building opened in 1882, a copy in miniature of Paris’s famed Les Halles market. Although the art-nouveau ironwork was imported from Europe, the place has acquired a distinctly Amazonian character. In and around the market, you can purchase just about anything, from leather hats and índio crafts to bizarre fruits and traditional medicines.
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Plaza de San Francisco Market
The Plaza de San Francisco Market has an interesting combination of basketry, ceramics, ironwork, wooden utensils, plastic trinkets, gaudy religious paraphernalia and guinea pig roasters (great gift for mom, but tough to get home). It also has a large contingent of otavaleños (people from Otavalo) selling sweaters and weavings on its north side.
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Cerâmica Mbara-yo
This is the modest shop of ceramicist Carlos Amaral, who combines traditional Aruã and Marajoara ceramic traditions with award-winning results. You can have a short tour of the workshop to see how the pieces are made. Numerous small, affordable pieces are for sale, and each has a particular tale or significance behind it. It’s between Ruas 3 and 4.
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F
Galeria do Rock
Even if you’re not in the market for a skateboard or a new tattoo, this seven-floor shopping center is an anthropologically fascinating gathering point for São Paulo’s underground communities, from punks to goths to metal heads. Hundreds of shops hawk everything from CDs and concert T-shirts to black capes and extreme piercing.
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Centro Artesanal Moxos
Local Beni crafts, including weavings, woodwork and ceramics, are sold at the Centro Artesanal Moxos, southwest of town. Look out for the pifano, an indigenous flute made from the wing bone of the Jabiru stork using a technique over 1000 years old – it’s the staple instrument of the unique Moxos music.
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Eduardo Vega
Just below the Mirador de Turi is the home, workshop and studio of Eduardo Vega, Ecuador’s most important ceramic artist. His colorful terracotta and enamel murals grace walls all over Cuenca and the rest of Ecuador. Sculpture, vases and plates are for sale, and the affable artist is often hanging around and ready to chat.
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Librería Lerner
A great bookstore in the center that stocks many Spanish-language guidebooks on Colombia, as well as a full gamut of maps, including the AutoGuía Turística de Colombia (a color, spiral-bound map/guide; COP$19,900), and the 12-map series of national routes Mapas de Ruta (sold individually for COP$1200, or as a packet for COP$13,000).
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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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Mercado Ver-o-Peso
This and the surrounding area is probably the most interesting place to shop, whether for pants or piranha or anything in between. There are no set hours, but there is something interesting to see from 5:30am to 8:30pm every day. However, you should be especially wary of pickpockets and assailants in the early and late hours.
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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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Galería Aymara
Galería Aymara is a high-end artists’ boutique selling uniquely designed handicrafts, jewelry and ceramics. Avoid buying objects made from black coral, turtle and tortoise shell – these threatened species are protected and it is illegal to use these animal products for the manufacture of novelties.
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Market
The daily market is stuffed with everything from exotic highland fruits and baggies of ground spices to mops, weaving tools and bootleg CDs. On Saturdays, this market also explodes with even more raw foods. There’s also an indoor ‘food court,’ a chance to belly up alongside locals and slurp soups.
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Artesa
Artesa is a big Ecuadorian ceramics company that incorporates old Andean ceramic styles into high-quality, hand-painted pieces. If you just can’t live without a dinner service, they will happily ship it home for you. Tours of the factory may be available, especially if you are with a group.
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I
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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