Caribbean and Emerald Jewelry Museum — Local services in Cartagena

We took the jewelry making class that was included as an optional side event on our Columbia tour. The class was interesting just to get an idea of how jewelry is made. We also toured the museum and learned about emerald mining and as well as some information about emeralds themselves. Finally, we visited the gift shop where my wife purchased a piece of emerald jewelry. It is quite easy to negotiate a 20% discount off the posted prices. If you are a tourist, and you purchase a jewelry item here, you are entitled to a refund of the Columbia value added tax (VAT) which amounts to 20% of the actual purchase price. To receive this refund, the vendor needs to provide the buyer with an electronic receipt that includes a QR code. We asked for this when we purchased the item. The store sales person provided us a receipt that did not include the required information and insisted that it was all we needed, even after we asked a couple of times to have an electronic receipt. When we tried to apply for our VAT refund upon departure at the airport, the agent said that the receipt that was provided was not sufficient, and explained what was needed. We are now in the the situation of having to work through our travel company to have the Emerald Museum provide us with the necessary documentation so that we can receive our VAT refund. This situation could have been avoided if the sales agent had provided the necessary documentation at the time...

Obviously their main business is to sell jewelry but they also have some in-house production and they do present enough info to qualify as a basic museum.

On the negative side ... They use natural emeralds. So if you compare them against lab created or treated emeralds you'll typically find in big stores - obviously the natural ones for the same price will be smaller, less clear, and overall look less impressive. But if you want the real natural ones - it's a good place.

On the positive side ... Because they have their own shop on-site, you can customize your jewelry. Don't expect something out of this world, but if you know what you want and can explain it and have some time - you can get a one of a kind piece for some very reasonable price.

Overall, it's a good...

Had an amazing experience at Caribe Joyeria! We took a polishing class and learned how to polish our own stones from raw ones! We got to take home 1 each and purchased another for 20 bucks! Then we toured the museum and saw the biggest emerald we've ever seen! After the tour you can look through their jewelry store and see some of their own crazy moving designs! Definitely worth the trip! Amazing experience, next time I'm coming to try their jewelry...