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Shopping
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For many visitors,
shopping
is the main reason to come to PanamA?, and today people from all over Latin America and the Caribbean come here to buy
consumer goods
- electronics, designer fashion, jewellery - which are available here at a lower cost and in greater variety than elsewhere in the region. You can buy almost anything you might want in the bazaars and superstores of PanamA? City, often at a lower price than in Europe or the US, and the country is also home to the second largest duty-free zone in the world: the
ColA?n Free Zone
. Goods from all over the world are traded here in vast quantities, and though most business is in bulk, you can find good bargains (though you may have to pay duty when you return home).
PanamA? also produces some beautiful handicrafts . The most famous and exceptional are the molas - brightly coloured cotton cloths intricately decorated with abstract designs created by a system of reverse-appliquA© - made by the Kuna people. The mola has become something of a national symbol and are sold all over the country. The EmberA?-Wounaan in DariA©n produce exquisite carvings in wood or tagua (a palm seed known as "vegetable ivory"), mostly of birds and rainforest animals, while the artisans of western PanamA?, and in particular those of the Azuero Peninsula, produce a wide range of handicrafts including pottery, lurid fiesta masks, leatherwork, and straw sombreros. The brightly coloured dresses and fibre shoulder bags ( chacaras ) of the Ngobe-BuglA© people also make beautiful and practical souvenirs. Sadly, authentic Panama hats come from Ecuador.
Almost all these handicrafts are available in PanamA? City, in shops and in cooperative artesanAa
markets
(listed in the guide), but of course if you have the time it's much more rewarding (and cheaper) to buy them from the artisans themselves. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Panama |