🛍️ Peru: souvenirs
Peru's crafts descend from empires - alpaca, silver, carved gourds and the pantry of the Andes. Here is what travellers bring home from Peru, where the good versions live, and the export questions worth a look - alongside our 410 written places.
🛒 The classic buys
Alpaca, graded honestly
Baby-alpaca scarves and sweaters from certified shops (Cusco, Arequipa) - 'maybe alpaca' street knits are acrylic blends; the price and the cool-touch test tell.
Silver filigree and jewellery
Peru is a top silver producer - hallmarked 950 work from Lima and Catacaos workshops.
Textiles from weaving communities
Chinchero and Sacred Valley cooperatives demonstrate the natural dyes - buy where the weaver demonstrates and profits.
Carved gourds (mates burilados)
The story-engraved gourds of Cochas - whole village histories in scratch-carving.
Retablos and Pucara bulls
The portable altar boxes of Ayacucho and the rooftop luck-bulls of the altiplano.
Pisco and the pantry
Named-grape piscos, plus quinoa, aji pastes and chocolate from origin.
⚠️ Check before you buy
- Pre-Columbian textiles and huacos are protected patrimony - export requires permits that tourist purchases will not get; replicas are sold as such.
- 'Baby alpaca' claims need a certified shop behind them - the fiber trade has an honesty gradient.
- Coca products (tea bags included) are contraband at most borders - drink it in the Andes, leave it there.
✗ Better left behind
- 'Ancient' pottery and textile fragments from informal sellers - patrimony law with teeth.
- Condor-feather and vicuña items without certification - both strictly protected (legal vicuña exists but is certified and priced like it).
Markets shift, workshops close and open, and the best souvenir is still the one with a story you were there for. Buy from makers where you can, keep receipts for anything substantial, and when a deal feels too good, it usually is.