Nice pair of carved maracas
made of a round gourd. Bought
during visit to
the island of Aruba during my Southern Caribbean
Cruise in December 1999- in the capital city of Oranjestead.
Maracas -
Colombia
Purchased in Cartagena, Columbia, Nov. 2000
From
Graciela's Notes
Brightly decorated (handpainted)
wooden maracas bought in Cartagena, Columbia in
November 2000 during a visit on the Panama Canal
Cruise.
Maracas -
Costa Rican
Purchased in San Jose, Costa Rica, June
1996
From
Graciela's Notes
The maracas are hand carved with
the national flower and tree - a very lovely small
pair of gourds. These were purchased in San Jose,
Costa Rica in November 1996 during my second trip
to this beautiful country. I had been there forty
years earlier- June1956.
Maracas - Mexican
Mexican Maracas, see below
From
Graciela's Notes
This small pair (left) is decorated with the
typical maguey plants. Purchased in Mexico City around 1949
while I was spending the summer there with my relatives.
Leather covered maracas (middle) were
bought in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in October 2000.
This beautiful pair of maracas
(right) is decorated with hand carved flowers. This
work is typical of the Guadalajara area where they
do lacquered work and you can see the artisans use
special knives to cut the design into the wood. They
don’t use any traced pattern – it is all done as
they go. I bought them in Lago Chapala, not far from
Guadalajara, in the summer of 1940.
Purchased in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, 1999
This
is a nice large pair of
gourd maracas I bought in the old town of San Jose,
Puerto Rico when I revisited the island during a
Caribbean Cruise in December 1999.
Purchased in Puerto Rico, 1999
This single
maraca (its pair broke during travel) is decorated
with the native frog – called Coqui – and the design
is done in burned wood. It is supposed to match the
Guiro. Bought during the Southern Caribbean Cruise
in December 1999 when I revisited the island. This
is a complete gourd – one of many of its varied
shapes.
Purchased in Bonnaire, 1999
These black handcarved-flowered
maracas were purchased in the
island of Bonnaire during my Southern Caribbean
Cruise in December 1999 – in the capital city of Kralendijk.
Purchased in St. Lucia, 1999
These brightly
colored hand painted maracas have the pictures of
typical birds and fish of the island of St. Lucia. I
acquired this pair in Castries, St. Lucia during my
Southern Caribbean Cruise December 1999.
Purchased in Tahiti, 1964
This interesting
single maraca is made of something else other than a
gourd. It seems to be made of a native large seed or
perhaps a coconut shell. Anyway, it shows that
maracas are used in the Pacific Islands and other
parts in the world. This one was a gift from friends Marna Schlegal
and Judy Marks (we worked together in Mainz, Germany
between 1961-1964.) They brought it back for me from
Tahiti in July 1964
Purchased in Venezuela, 1956
