Chietón Morén Museo y Mercadito de Artesanías — Local services in Catedral

After a disappointing experience at the so-called National Craft Market (Mercado Municipal de Artesanías), we found this small shop full of real handcraft.

The staff is formed by volunteers that are quite knowledgeable on the origin of the exposed pieces and were very gentle and helpful. They told us the shop is an initiative of the several Costa Rican indigenous tribes, which are the owners of the business. The pieces are all identified with the people (tribe?) from where comes the artisan, the artist's name, and the price he chose for this piece. Prices in general are fair, even though there is much variation among artists, which I consider fully understandable.

There are pottery, carvings, clothes and many other types of craft.

We bought four pieces, from different origins, and we are finally very happy for helping these cultures to...

This was an absolutely amazing experience! We’d seen many souvenir shops with the same things over and over again, so we were really looking for a local spot that was less touristy, and this shop was absolutely amazing! It had some information about the indigenous groups in Costa Rica that was very interesting but the main draw was the handmade crafts! They were absolutely beautiful and unique, fair trade, with profits going back to the artists, so we were happy to spend over an hour looking around and also bought quite a few things! The workers at the front desk were extremely kind and explained how the items were made as well. I absolutely recommend this...

After a disappointing experience at the mercado de artesanias, I was happy to find this amazing little place. The staff was really friendly and helped me learn more about indigenous culture and the artists represented. I bought two wonderful items that were reasonably priced, especially considering the amount of work that had gone into making the items. Avoid the "Made in China" stuff at the mercado de artesanias and go directly to Chietón to support indigenous artists and...