Artisan Tour

Berman, our Mariposa guide took us through the streets of San Juan to visit local artisans. We visited several families who made their livelihood creating specialized crafts. We visited a family who used a traditional process to create customized maracas. The process, he described, was to hollow out the "useless" pulpy interior, and boil for 10 minutes. The shell was dried, painted and carved by hand using a single sharp blade. Amazing workmanship. Many of us ordered custom maracas.
Another family of large-basket weavers showed us their process of weaving a form of sustainable-bamboo-like material and plastic shipping binding strips (that would be thrown away in the US). Another family made wooden truck shelves which they sold to clients in Costa Rica and Canada.-Emily