La Recova — Attraction in La Serena

For English speaking tourists, La Recova is a friendly haven with a good selection of quality handicrafts. You’ll find a small handful of shops have proficiency in English. The prices may be a couple of dollars more than less convenient tourist destinations, but the selection is really good.

While on the surface many of the shops may appear to have the same products, look a bit deeper and closer to find some treasures.

We found some great bird whistles (you fill them with water, very cool), ocarinas, sweaters, and trompos for the kids. Go a bit deeper and there are some really cool Diaguita style mugs.

Papayas are also unique to the region, so if you can, I recommend picking up some artisan candied papayas to bring back home.

If you’re hoping to find Diaguita ceramic replicas, you’ll likely not find any here - something you’ll have to travel to one of the towns in...

Fantastic shopping experience, set up across two large courtyards, and overflowing down the street, dozens of vendors selling all the goods you are looking for. You will find some incredible deals on alpaca ponchos, jewelry, leather, signs, food, okay much anything you can think of, and it's mostly local handmade goods! Dig through the shops and you are bound to find some incredible gems of items! Highly recommend for all your souvenirs and shopping needs. Best part are the upstairs restaurants, delicious made to order food at real budget prices, especially compared to you run off the mill restaurants around town. Worth while stop, and I seem to...

Small shopping centre with local craft shops all round a central plaza. There's a church across the street and stalls selling flowers and jewellery. Good police presence both female and male, very polite and friendly towards foreigners. Small restaurants upstairs vying with eachother to get your custom. We spent a couple of hours in one to catch up on emails as we were on a cruise. We placed an order of local ceviche and empanadas and some Pisco Sours and they supplied us with the password for their internet. The local spices in the food were delicious. We sat outside on their terrace overlooking the street. Nice way to watch the...