When I had the Naturemorte store in Soho I used to drive the old Jeep Cherokee down to Mexico and load it up with crafts from Michoacan, Oaxaca and Jalisco. Merida has never been the place to find more than a straw hat, an embroidered blouse or a hammock. Now there are various artist and artisans working in hennequen, the local agave fiber, that made the Yucatan one of the richest places on earth in the 19th century. I love the work of Marcela Diaz and Angela Damman. At the AANY show late in the fall you can find about 80 local artisans making wonderful wooden bowls and utensils, hennequen boxes and placemats, toys, shoes, hats etc etc etc. If you are just here for a couple of days the best places to start your craft shopping are the state sponsored Casa de las Artesanias beside the Monjas convent or on Sundays in the park Santa Lucia and the Gran Plaza. At the little decorative arts museum in the Casa de Montejo there is a well edited little gift shop with items made by Haciendas del Mundo Maya which are higher quality and more expensive than the crafts you´ll find in the tourist shops around centro. Basically if there is someone outside encouraging you to enter a store or restaurant it´s a place you don´t want to go, Amigo. If you start your shopping at the Coqui Coqui boutique you might as well end it there too.
The Best of Yucatan Guide 