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Mexico shopping
Mexico shopping tends to revolve around folk art and indigenous handicrafts. Step into a good gallery, shop, or market, and you'll be hard pressed to leave empty-handed. Artisans around the country create collector-quality pottery, textiles, glassware, jewelry, masks, and more. For a good overview, visit Cancún's Museo del Arte Popular Mexicano, Cozumel's Discover Mexico, and Mexico City's Museo de Arte Populare. All exhibit works from Mexico's finest folk artists—and all have fabulous gift shops. Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende have the best overall shopping in Mexico, with galleries showcasing Latin America's most talented artists and artisans, along with silver and gold jewelry in pre-Hispanic and modern designs and clothing from emerging designers.
Oaxaca's rural villages are known for their shiny black or green pottery, woven rugs, and fanciful alebrijes (carved dragons), and it's also worth touring the crafts villages on the shoreline around Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacán. Vibrant weavings and textiles with pre-Hispanic designs are sold at markets and galleries in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Taxco is the headquarters for all things silver, from delicate earrings to silver tea services. And then there's also the hand-painted Talavera pottery and tiles from Puebla or the handcrafted furnishings from Tlaquepaque and Tonalá outside Guadalajara. Thankfully, most good shops can ship your purchases home.
You can shop till you drop and still want more in San Miguel. Right in town at the Plaza San Francisco, the Mercado Ignacio Ramirez is like a local's 7-11 with...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideLocated near the Jardín Principal, El Nuevo Mundo is the place to go for small souvenirs and gifts with a local flavor and reasonable prices: baskets,...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideArtists' studios and galleries fill the multiple wings and outbuildings at this former cotton mill (once one of San Miguel's largest industries). Allow a couple...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideArtist Alcides Fortes creates the gorgeous jewelry in this small gallery, incorporating ammonites from North Africa and Russia with stones and jewels in...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideLightweight brightly colored gauze women's clothing is the draw in this large shop, where assistants helpfully assemble ensembles, complete with accessories....more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideNew Mexico expat and gemologist Bill Harris has taken his love of Native American jewelry south to "old Mexico" and adapted his techniques to incorporate...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideAlong with organizing culinary classes and market tours, Sazón serves as one of the city's top tableware boutiques. Several rooms in the school's colonial...more
see the San Miguel de Allende guideShopping is far from the leading sport in Los Cabos, but there are some exceptional art, folk art, and interior design galleries that will tempt you to pull out...more
see the Baja California guideSan Miguel's home state of Guanajuato is known for its colorful ceramics, tastefully displayed at Rick and Debra Hall's gallery near the Mercado de Artesanias....more
see the San Miguel de Allende guide
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