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American Book Shop
Fair selection of Lonely Planet guidebooks, plus magazines in English.
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Artesanía Altamira
A veritable profusion of basket work is to be found here, along with other assorted knickknacks.
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Beco
If Corporación Verotex is shut, try the camping section here, which has gas cannisters for camping stoves, tents and other equipment on the 1st floor.
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Book Market
The cheapest place to browse is the street Book Market, a warren of bookstalls beneath an elevated highway featuring a haphazard range of new and secondhand books in Spanish, including some rare old editions.
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Casa Curuba
Near Altamira, this high-quality store stock carved wood furniture, boxes and bowls, especially from the state of Lara.
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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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Centro Comercial Chacaíto
One of Caracas' older, more established shopping complexes, alongside a bustling plaza with still more malls.
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Centro Comercial Ciudad Tamanaco
Commonly known as CCCT, this older mall with a unique inverted pyramid design contains an exclusive hotel as well as more than 500 stores.
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Centro Comercial El Recreo
To fully appreciate the national love affair with shopping, you need only visit one of Caracas' huge shopping malls. Even if you don't normally enjoy hanging around malls, it's instructive to see how they've become a sort of alternate reality to the often harsh landscape of the streets. Not only do caraqueños shop in malls, they also eat, get entertained, experience nightlife and even lodge there, effectively creating an idealized facsimile of city life in these temples of consumerism.
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Centro Comercial Paseo Las Mercedes
Includes an excellent hotel and cutting-edge arts center.
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Centro Comercial Sambil
Touted as South America's largest shopping mall, the vast five-level Centro Comercial Sambil comes complete with an aquarium, museum, rooftop amphitheater and a waterfall incorporated into the front wall of the building. It's the best choice for up-to-the-minute fashions, particularly footwear, and a great place to observe the national love affair with shopping and monster malls.
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Centro Comercial San Ignacio
Architecturally distinctive structure with a pair of futuristic office towers and an incredibly vast central hall; a major nightlife destination, boasting dozens of bars and clubs along the lower level.
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Centro Lido
In the heart of the modern business district, this has scads of exclusive shops on the four lower levels of an office tower.
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Comercial Carrillo
For legitimately produced CDs (rather than the pirated versions that abound on the streets), try the small but well-crammed Comercial Carrillo, with a voluminous collection of Venezuelan folk and other styles from around the Caribbean.
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Corporación Verotex
Stocks a reasonable choice of camping, trekking and mountaineering equipment and is one of the cheapest retailers around.
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Edificio La Francia
Venezuela is a major gold producer, so keen-eyed travelers can pick up some tempting bargains. The nucleus of Caracas' gold market is the legendary central Edificio La Francia, which boasts 10 stories of jewelry shops - about 100 shops in all. It's usually brimming with eager shoppers sporting a glint in their eye, and the streets outside ring with the cries of ' compro oro, compro oro' ('I buy gold, I buy gold').
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El Buscón
Browse-worthy store with strong selection of Venezuelan literature (in Spanish), plus some English novels.
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Hannsi
To pick up an obligatory hammock, papier-mâché devil mask or stuffed piranha, check out the biggest craft shop of them all in El Hatillo. The narrow, winding streets around Hannsi also house many high-quality craft stores, so take your time and dip into them all.
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Librería Alemana Oscar Todtmann
Extensive choice of German-language publications.
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Maquita
If you don't have time to get to El Hatillo to Hannsi, try the offerings at this central spot, which has good woodcarvings.
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Mercado de la Hoyada
Just a few blocks east of Plaza Bolívar, the sprawling Mercado de la Hoyada is the most central of Caracas' several markets. Miles of tightly packed stalls proffer all sorts of wares, mostly clothing.
