Peruvian artists have produced some of the finest textiles in the world for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They mainly work with alpaca and sheep’s wool, although the cheaper items in the markets are usually synthetic acrylic yarn.

If somebody offers you a sweater for s/30 and says that it’s alpaca, you can laugh . Nothing made from alpaca wool, especially baby alpaca, is worth as little as s/30. Real alpaca sweaters cost s/200-s/600, depending on yarn quality, knitting techniques and if the dye is synthetic or natural plant dyes.

Haggling

Many shops in Peru do not mark prices and even the ones who do can often be talked into a discount of some sort. Don’t expect to be able to bargain away 50% but often 10-20% is a reasonable expectation. If you don’t like bargaining, just consider the extra 10% or so as a donation to artists who might need that money more than you do.