Camino Real Imports & Gift Shop

A big thumbs up to this place if you’re on a long Southwest road trip (as we’ve been several times) and want to find delightful Mexican and New Mexican items to bring back home to family and friends. This roadside store on the northern outskirts of Taos is a rambling combination of rooms and courtyards where one can find a varied and sometimes quirky assortment of lawn furniture and ornaments, Southwestern condiments, and a huge selection of handpainted Mexican pottery and lead-​free tableware. So enjoy a well-​spent hour roaming around hunting for bargains, then load up the trunk and haul back some fun stuff you just can’t find in your own neck of the woods. Oh … did I say they’ll ship? They’ll ship!

Great selection and great prices on talavera dishes, tiles, planters, sculpture… also carved wooden Oaxacan fantasy animals, rugs, blankets, embroidered clothing, turquoise and other jewelry, etc.
The real treasure here are the paintings by the (owner? proprietor?) Mr. Diaz. There were dozens of canvases hanging up, and a further box of about 50 pieces on heavy paper. They were just wonderful. He paints in a naïve folk style, lacking perspective but full of exuberance; the paintings are inhabited by chubby-​faced Virgins de Guadalupe, purple horses romping in the forest, religious iconography, rainbows, and wild animals. What a find, and what a pleasure to meet the artist himself at the shop.