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Arts and Crafts
Patzcuaro is a magical spot for people seeking arts & crafts. A walk around the square, market and surrounding streets brings the visitor past quantities of stores selling practically everything imaginable: carved wooden statues and furniture, brightly painted accents depicting flowers and animals, brilliant piles of woven textiles, draperies, table cloths, bed spreads and napkins, wooden figures studded with milagros, small icons of the Virgin Mary and other religious art, clay plaques and pots, finely polished wooden boxes and guitars, picture frames, woolen blankets, copper vases and platters, basketry and items made of woven straw and reed, and sculpted and scented candles.
If you're serious about looking at everything Patzcuaro has to offer in the way of a delightful shopping spree, you'll have to park your car, if you have one, put on some sturdy walking shoes and take yourself out onto the streets on foot. Otherwise you'll surely miss the best of what shopping for arts and crafts in Patzcuaro is all about.
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Under the arches around the Plaza de Don Vasco de Quiroga, Patzcuaro's main square, are series of shops, often only a few feet wide but extending back into the bowels of the colonial buildings that face the square, piled with treasures. Duck into the entrances and scout out their depths.
The labyrinth of the Casa de los Once Patios holds crafts workshops galore - metal, textiles, wood and much more - as does the Palacio de Huitzimengari. Some local stores handle milagro studded crosses and other figures, and outside the Basilica itself are numerous stands of crafts, where one can purchase the small milagros loosely and often in bulk.
On the road to the Embarcadero - the pier from whence the boats leave to the island of Janitzio on Lake Patzcuaro - is another stretch of workshops and outlets offering larger piece of carved and painted wooden furniture and elaborate columns and larger pieces for integration into home construction. Many of these also specialize in religious woden statuary and here you can find unusual renderings of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Christ figure and crucifixes Although most of the shops around the square have fairly fixed prices on their articles, many of the outlets in places like the Embarcadero area and outlying towns such as Tzintzuntzan, expect the purchaser to strike a deal with the vendor and haggle a bit, especially if purchasing several items at a time.
Right at the embarcadero are yet more small shops with mementos of Janitzio and the lake, but of a more commercial nature - one wonders why these spots resort to selling tacky, plastic souveniers when there's such a wealth of traditional handicrafts to choose from...
A walk or drive along the Avenida de las Americas will take you past several stores selling woolen goods, sweaters, blankets and shawls. The market right off Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (the smaller of the two principal squares in town) carries woolen goods as well as smaller wooden kitchen implements and some pottery, copper and straw items in addition to the fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish.
Visit the copper center of Santa Clara del Cobre
Exploring the lakeside villages near Patzcuaro
