Costa Rica

Woodcraft. Sarchi is Costa Rica's woodcrafts capital. Artists carve native woods into salad bowls, rocking chairs, boxes, toys, and jewelry, and Costa Rica's trademark craft, white, red, or orange carretas (ox carts), painted with mandala designs. Buy woodcrafts in Sarchi's markets, or head an hour southeast to downtown San Jose's excellent Galeria Namu (Avda. 7.; tel. +506 256 3412) for some of the best Costa Rican folkloric and indigenous art.

Pottery and ceramics. The indigenous Chorotega people of Guatil, Costa Rica throw traditional, pre-Columbian Chorotega pottery using local tan, red ochre, and black sand to color the clay, and special paints to decorate the pottery with intricate geometric designs. In Santa Ana, in the Costa Rican Highlands, potters produce gleaming green-glazed bowls, urns, vases, and small tipico adobe houses. Buy both at Galeria Namu (Avda. 7; tel. +506 256 3412), or Kaltak Artesanias (tel. +506 297 2736).