Handicrafts
 San
Jose is brimming with arts and crafts, you'll find enough choices
to fill even the largest travel bags. Visitors especially enjoy
the Plaza de la culture, which every day of the week fills with
colorful stalls selling T-shirts, paintings, trinket jewelry,
and excellent-quality hammocks (great buys at $20 - $30).
Atmosfera
(calle 5, Avenida 3), is one of the specialty shops where a recently
added gallery on the second floor displays fantastic Indian masks,
carved fantasy beasts, and paintings. Some of the favorite items
you'll find are the brightly painted ceramic buses filled with
people (around $7). Wooden and gold-plated brooches and pins are
other bargains.
Anne
Marie's boutique in the Hotel Don Carlos has a complete
array of souvenirs, handicrafts, and artwork of every description,
including Panamanian Molas
and silkscreen scarves by Banana Republic. Suraska
Gallery sells top-quality woodcarvings and furniture. The
works of renowned North American artists/carpenters Bary Biesanz
and Jay Morrison are on sale here;not cheap, but they're creations
in exotic woods so unique and fantastic, with fine eye for detail.
Jay Morris on is also owner of Magia,
which also displays his work (calle 5, Avenida 1/3). The upscale
La Galaria has a fine selection
of quality handicrafts and also features Barry Biesanz woodworks
along with reproduction Pre-Columbian 14-karat gold jewelry.
Clothing
 If
you want to go home looking like the locals, check out he Mercado
Central (Central Market) on Calle 6 and Avenida1, where
you'll find embroidered shirts and blouses and cotton campesino
hats. La Choza Folklorica
(Avenida 3, Calle 1) specializes in replicas of national costumes.
Typical Costa Rican dresses can also be bought at Bazaar
Central Souvenir (Calle Central, Avenida 3). A good place
to find the handmade appliqued blouses and fabrics-molas-from
the Drakes's Bay region and the San Blas Islands of Panama is
Antic (Edificio las Arcadas,
Avenida 2 and Calle1) , next
door to the Gran hotel. La Galaria,
Suraska, and El
Caseron (Calle Central, Avendas Central/1) also sell molas.
Much
of the information on our site as it relates to Costa Rica is:
 Courtesy
of Christopher P. Baker and Avalon Travel Publishing.
© 2004 Christopher P. Baker. All Rights Reserved.
Spanish Abroad, Inc. highly
recommends Christopher P. Baker's book: Moon
Handbooks Costa Rica. Click on the image to visit
his website where you can purchase this book or find out more
about the author.
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