9 Best Places to Shop in The Lake District, Chile

This nonprofit promotes the fair trade of Mapuche handicrafts; the quality of their handwoven, colorful wool rugs, blankets, pillows, scarves, gloves, and other textiles are spectacular. They also have a stunning selection of jewelry and ceramics.

Osorno's city government operates this complex of 46 artisan vendors' stands built with steeply sloped roofs. Woodwork, leather, and woolens abound. Prices are fixed but fair.

Affiliated with the restaurant of the same name next door, Entrelagos has been whipping up sinfully rich chocolates for decades and arranging them with great care in the storefront display windows. Most of what is sold here is actually made at Entrelagos's factory outside town, but a small army of chocolate makers is on-site to let you see, on a smaller scale, how it's done, and to carefully package your purchases for your plane ride home.

This shop sells ancestral Mapuche remedies for everything from simple head colds to cancers and improving sexual performance.

An excellent selection of handicrafts is sold at the best prices in the country at the Feria Artesanal Angelmó, on the coastal road near Caleta Angelmó. Chileans know there's a better selection of crafts from Chiloé for sale here than in Chiloé itself. Baskets, ponchos, figures woven from different kinds of grasses and straw, and warm sweaters of raw, hand-spun, and hand-dyed wool are all for sale. Much of the merchandise is geared toward tourists, so look carefully for more authentic offerings. Haggling is expected. It's open daily from  9 am to dusk.

This market features some of the area's best crafts from local artisans, especially Mapuche sweaters, ponchos, and wooden figurines.

At the Feria Libre, you can bargain hard with the Mapuche vendors, who sell their crafts and produce in the blocks surrounding the railroad station and bus terminal. Leave the camera behind, as the vendors aren't happy about being photographed.

The city's 1918 Mercado Municipal barely survived the 1960 earthquake intact, but it thrives again after extensive remodeling and reinforcement as a shopping-dining complex. A few restaurants, mostly hole-in-the-wall seafood joints (but some quite nice) share the three-story building with artisan and souvenir vendors.

Across the Río Cautín from Temuco is the suburb of Padre Las Casas, a Mapuche community whose center is populated by artisan vendors selling locally crafted woodwork, textiles, and pottery under the auspices of the town's rural development program. You can purchase crafts here weekdays 9 to 5.