Antigua Shopping
Antigua offers a great variety of handcrafts, jewelry and others curiosities. The city is a fun place to do shopping; besides Antigua is famous by its jade, which is one of the finest jades in the world. There are two kind of jade: Nephrite and Jadeite; in this zone it can find Jadeite which was the sacred precious stone of the Mayas. This type of Jade is harder and denser than the Nephrite and is very popular by its black color.
The modern jade industry started in Antigua since 1974 and today is one of the main economic activities in the city; therefore there are several workshops that produce jade jewelry.
One of these workshops and perhaps the most famous is “La Casa del Jade” (Jade´s house) which has produced jade jewelry from 30 years ago. Amongst its products highlight the recreations of Mayan jewelry which is made with exotic and diverse tonalities of jade like orange jade, lavender, Imperial jade, Princess jade, blue jade, etc. Besides, this store offers a certificate of authenticity which is granted by GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and a three years warranty certificate for each one of its pieces. This store is located at Nº10 “4a Calle Oriente” inside the “El Jaulon” building.
Another nice place if you can buy jewelry is “Joyeriá del Angel”, there you can find jewelry of almost 300 designers from the entire world. This place is situated at 5-A “4a Calle Oriente”.
But, Guatemala is also known by its excellent tissues. In Antigua you can find sweaters, ponchos, beautiful and original tops, skirts, pants for very reasonable prices. Usually the owners are very inclined to give "discounts" as well so a certain degree of bargaining is fine here. “El Telar” is a nice store that has wonderful products. There, you will find designs, with bobbles, bangles and natural colors that demand a place at your table, on your couch or in your bedroom. This place is at Nº7 “5a Avenida Sur”.
Other product representative of Antigua is the tobacco which has been known here since Mayan times, there are several stores in the city that offer a great variety of local and foreign cigarettes. One of the most complete stores is “Antigua Tabaco Compañia” (Tobacco Company of Antigua) which is located Nº 32B “Calle del Arco”.
If you want to buy handcrafts the “Mercado de Artesanías” (Handcraft market) is a nice place to visit. Inside this modern building you will find a great variety of textiles, masks, wooden crafts, leather and metal works. This place is at “4a Calle Poniente”.
But, the “Mercado de Chichicastenango” is without doubt the main market of handcrafts of the city and one of the most important in Central America. This place is located in a small town 2 two-and-a-half hours drive from Antigua. There you can find the most complete selection of handcrafts in Central America; there are traditionally-clothed natives selling ornate masks, weaved hammocks, clothing and cloths, jewelry and much more. “Chichicastenango” opens two days per week, Sundays and Thursdays.
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