Chelsea wanted a palm, jute, or wicker basket dedicated to clothes with special washing/drying needs. She also wanted some rectangular ones for the closet shelves to better organize odd-shaped smaller items. We checked the various department stores around the area and didn’t find anything that wasn’t plastic. Even then, the prices were high ($50 or more for three stackable plastic ones) and the sizes didn’t really fit the space. I told her we might be able to find something like that in the outdoor market.
I’ve mentioned the outdoor market before. It has a large number of booths, selling all kinds of t-shirts, souvenirs, and handcrafted items. The vendors can come across as fairly aggressive, which I generally find off-putting. On this day, I welcomed the interactions. As each person asked what I was looking for, I told them. In almost every case, they repeated it back as if in a daze and shook their heads. A few would tell me to check with someone else a few stalls down. That person would, in turn, repeat the item name and shake their heads.
Out of forty or so booths, one vendor had a couple of round ones that might work for dirty clothes. They were colorful and made of palm but didn’t seem sturdy. They reminded me of the Easter baskets we had as children. I asked how much he wanted for them and it was way more than I was willing to spend for something that was too small and might break in less than a week.
I left the market and headed home. Near our condo, I saw one of the walking beach vendors taking a break under the shade of a palm tree. He was selling woven name bracelets. He had a large folding tri-board display with common names ready for purchase, but you could request other names and he would personalize it while you waited. It was obvious he didn’t have baskets but I thought maybe he knew of someone who did, so I asked.
He told me his name was Alejandro and he knew of a place on the other side of the highway where people wove palm baskets. I asked if it was a store or a house. He told me it was a house, but that he would bring some by for me to look. We agreed to meet under the palm between 6:30 and 7:00 the next evening. Chelsea decided to wait with me for him to come. He never arrived.
The following morning Hobbes and I went back to the outdoor market to buy one of the straw baskets I was unhappy with earlier. As we were almost there, resting under a palm tree was Alejandro. I told him I waited until 7:00 and asked what happened. He said he got there around 7:15 and had waited for me. Not helpful. He assured me he would be on time this evening.
I waited outside by myself this time, mainly because it was oppressively hot. It told Chelsea I would call her if he showed and she could come down. Right on time, Alejandro appeared. He was carrying several round baskets of various sizes. The workmanship was fantastic and it was obvious that someone very skilled had made them. As planned, Chelsea arrived quickly. She fell in love with the one in the photo at the top of the post. We both agreed that we were willing to pay more than we had planned due to the quality. I started negotiating. He agreed to sell us the round one for what amounted to $40 and to have three rectangular ones created to the sizes we specified for an additional $100 ($33 each).
Verdict: Not as inexpensive as you might be able to find at World Market or somewhere similar, but those types of stores don’t appear to exist here. For high-quality handmade baskets, we feel like we paid a fair price but definitely didn’t get a deal.