Mundo Maya — Local services in Mérida

While we’re taking a break at a park nearby a guy who claimed himself working at Casa Maya (he gave us his business card) approached us. He was really friendly and recommended a lot of places to visit in Mérida. He mentioned there would be a festival at a nearby park at 8pm tonight, and a free walking tour at the park the following day. Given how friendly he was and the general history and recommendations he shared about Mérida with us, we thought he was just a kind local. At the end of our conversation, he recommended a store if we were interested in local Mayan arts.

We went to the store right after speaking with him because he said they only come to town three days a week, as they live much farther away in a Mayan community, and that the store closes earlier than others, around 4pm.

When we arrived at the store, a man introduced himself as the grandson of the artist of the store. He mentioned he is part of a Mayan community and that 300 families contributed their art to the store. While we were browsing, he followed us around, pressuring us to buy something. We eventually purchased a cushion cover for 1,500 pesos (he dropped the price from 2,000 pesos to 1,500 pesos almost immediately). As we walked around afterwards, another man approached us, recommending a different Mayan store, and that’s when we realised the whole thing was planned.

I left two stars because, while it was clearly a scam with the “friendly local” steering us to the store, the items were of noticeably higher quality than what you’d find at regular street markets.

If you’re looking for high-quality Mayan art, I suggest going elsewhere, as the staff were pushy and unfriendly. At this stage, I’m also not sure if they’re truly from the Mayan community,...

I purchased a couple of items here today. Here are my thoughts:

I can confirm random people in the street suggested this place (we'd already been in), and that someone at a similar store in the main plaza told us it was another location of theirs. Combined with them constantly following you around the store, there are dodgy business practices.

I can comment however on the quality of some of the items. Firstly, the wooden Alebrijes. We've been to Oaxaca where most of these are made, seen the artisan's workshops and looked at this style in dozens of stores across Mexico. The pieces in this store are some of the best I've ever seen. The prices are high, yes, but I've seen similar prices in fancy stores in Mexico City. From this perspective it's not a scam.

Second, the huichol art. I haven't been to the areas where this is made but I have looked for huichol art in dozens of stores across Mexico. Again, they had some of the best pieces I've ever seen. Same story - prices very high but not unprecedented.

I can't say with confidence whether their claim that many of the items are made by Mayan artists in a cooperative is true. I somewhat doubt it. Yes their pieces are really really expensive. What I can say though is that they have the most incredible collection of artesanias I've yet come across over my year in Mexico. If someone can point me to a better store (online or otherwise) that has similar quality at better prices, please leave a comment below. For now, because of the above reasons, I'm giving...

My mom and I were scammed by people abusing our grief. There was a guy in the restaurant (Casa Maya) who said he worked there and was the chef. He started talking to us and appeared very friendly. He found out my dad died recently and used that as a way to scam us into seeking healing. He took us to Mundo Maya right by the restaurant and told us to get jade and amber necklaces. Being First Nations from Canada ourselves we believed everything he was saying about healing practices of Mayans and the stones. The guy he introduced us to in the store sold us the same lies and when we appeared a bit hesitant he talked us into doing a healing ceremony upstairs. At that point we were fully engrossed in the lie and when we came back downstairs bought the stones without realizing how much they were, $2000 CAD later.

We wanted to believe that they were genuine good people and following authentic Mayan practices, but they took advantage of our kindness and our grief.

Mundo Maya and Casa Maya are tourist traps and scammers. After reading these reviews, I realized that we were also scammed into giving a tip by our waiter (who was very forward about it) that was already included...