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On the 3rd floor of the mall, there is a special gallery that features crafts of the local artisans seeking to sell their work to a wider clientele. You will see pilones sold at a number of shops in San Juan, but some of the most interesting ones can be found at San Juan’s highly popular shopping mall, Plaza Las Americas. Today, you can find pilones of different sizes, small - to grind up spices, as well as bigger ones. It is said that the Taino Indians used large hollowed out tree trunks to make their waist high pilones. Some pilones are made from the wood of Guayacan trees and can be decorative as much as useful. At one time, it was even used to grind coffee. Pilon is a Puerto Rican wooden mortar and pestle which can also be used to crush spices. However, in order to make this traditional dish, you need a pilon that is used to smash the fried unripe green plantains. Almost every creole restaurant on the island features some kind of mashed plantains or “mofongo” stuffed with different sorts of meat and seasonings. Mashed plantains is one of the most popular dishes in Puerto Rico. Prices: range from $50 for a simple infant outfit to $500 for a highly styled blanket. In fact, many of Puerto Rico’s artisans have found a home at Plaza Las Americas either in a freestanding kiosk or at the shopping center’s 3rd floor artisan gallery. But if you happen to have missed all the festivals, you can still buy Mundillo at San Juan’s famed Plaza Las Americas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean. The lace makers bring their carefully crafted infant jumpsuits, dresses, headbands, booties, blankets and bonnets to sell in San Juan, usually at artisan festivals. This traditional Puerto Rican lace is also used to make table cloths, bedspreads and handkerchiefs. Most of the clothing comes in pastel colors, like light yellow, lavender, turquoise, pink, as well as beige and white. There is even a Museum of Mundillo in Moca and the town regularly hosts a Mundillo festival. The beautifully crafted Mundillo lace is made predominantly in the town of Moca, in the western part of the island, where most of the lace makers live and continue to teach the art. Mundillo is a special kind of knitting with multiple threads that produce intricate and artistic knits.

Almost every Puerto Rican baby, at some point, is dressed in a Mundillo lace ensemble. Today, this specialized lace continues to be used to decorate infant and toddler clothing. The art of bobbin lace making developed in Puerto Rico about two centuries ago, originally to adorn highly styled garments, such as the ones worn by the clergy. But if you want to try a few different ones, sample packs are available, ranging in price from about $40 to $70, depending on how many cigars are in the pack. A Lonsdale bundle will run you about $140.00, while a bundle of Puros Indios costs $225.00. Don Collins cigars use 13 different kinds of Puerto Rican-grown tobacco produced by independent farmers on the island. But you don’t have to go to the factory to take in the aroma of the famed tobacco just walk into any one of the tobacco shops in San Juan or head straight to the Don Collins shop. The factory itself dates back to 1506 and is available for tours.

Don Collins cigars are handmade in the oldest surviving cigar factory in the Caribbean. There is a variety of Puerto Rican-made cigars, but one of the oldest and best-known brands from the island is Don Collins.

Until the late 1950s, Puerto Rico was among the world’s largest tobacco exporters, but the industry has since declined. The Spanish brought them back to Spain from Puerto Rico and called them “cigarillos.” Cigar making is still considered an art form in Puerto Rico.