If you love clean, quiet, charming cities, shopping and or jewelry, then you will love Chordeleg. Most people visit Chordeleg from Cuenca because it is less than an hour away. The city, nestled in the hills of the Azuay province just like Cuenca, filled with jewelry shops awaits visitors.
Our half-day trip from Cuenca to Chordeleg to do some silver jewelry shopping with our two out-of-town female friends was well worth it. Everyone left with something beautiful and some great buys.
If you haven’t heard of Chordeleg, it’s a city that’s a little over forty-five minutes outside of Cuenca ($2 bus ride) with a population of about 11,000. We had a private driver take us to the small town of Chordeleg. He takes people to Chordeleg often so he knows some great lunch spots.
Chordeleg means “gold waterfall.” It is the original Silversmith city of Ecuador. In Ecuador, you’ll still find the adherence of the Spanish Guild system that started centuries ago. Guilds were groups of artisans or merchants that practice their trade in a particular town. Other Guild cities in Ecuador include San Bartolomé for guitars, Gualaceo for textiles/weaving, Otavalo for leather and San Antonio de Ibarra for its wood carving.
You will not find crowds in Chordeleg. The shop keepers will give you their full attention. In at least one shop you can often watch the shop keeper make filagree. You will see a few people checking out the shops, maybe some kids in the park and a few gentlemen discussing life. It is a city that feels like it has no cares.
As soon as you enter the city, you can’t help but notice the large filigree earrings hanging from the town light poles. The art of filagree uses fine wires to form delicate pieces of jewlery. The earrings inform visitors that they entered an artisian city. There are also a couple of pottery shops and a small museum. Chordeleg with it’s beautiful square in the center surrounded by a church and of course silver shops is a gem.
So how is filigree made? A Chordeleg craftsman feeds silver into a rolling mill, now the sliver fashioned into the shape of a wire ready for use. Thus, by hand, they work the wire until it becomes a thin strand. Then, they twist the silver strand and dust it with silver powder. Eventually, they meld it together with a soldering torch. Utimately priced according to the difficulty of the design and the weight of the silver, Take home a one-of-kind piece of Chordeleg’s handmade filagree and be the envy of your friends.A nice pair of chandelier earring will cost between $20 and $30 USD (USD is the currency of Ecuador).
Chordeleg means “gold waterfall.” It is the original Silversmith city of Ecuador. In Ecuador, you’ll still find the adherence of the Spanish Guild system that started centuries ago. Guilds were groups of artisans or merchants that practice their trade in a particular town.
Chordeleg is the best city in Ecuador to buy Silver and Gold. The competition in Chordeleg is great so prices are kept low and you can bargain.
Humans love to explore places, adventure, art & cuisine. Traveling helps fulfill the sense of…
When you think of California wine, you don't usually think of San Diego wine, but…
Are you excited to dip your toes in the sea and watch the gorgeous sunset…
California, making almost ninety percent of American Wine, is the leading wine-producing state in the…
You may not know this, but Buellton is known for great eateries and wine, especially…
Santa Maria Valley is an American Viticultural Area located in Northern Santa Barbara County and…
View Comments
Keith:
my husband and I are wandering expats who have enjoyed our visits to Chordeleg and have several jewelry
pieces I like.
However I can not find my notes on the jeweler I like. I can visualize the store position right off the city center square. Wondered if you have websites for quality jeweler with a website who can that I can trust to sell and ship me the silver bracelet ( not filigree) I desire. I know Cuenca has two chordeleg shops but no websites I can find. Can you help me?
Cherry, I'm going to email you privately. I have an idea.
Do you have list of shops that deal with silver filigree in Chordeleg.
I would like to contact them for custom jobs...
I guess today everybody is connected with the phone.
Please advise
Bob
Hi Bob. I'm sorry but I have no contact info. Most people in Ecuador use a phone app called WhatsApp. It's nice to communicate via it especially if you don't know spanish. You can use Google translate and then cut and paste into it. But again, I have no numbers. The only thing I can offer is an email to a guide/friend that we use to drive us to Chordeleg every time we've visited. I'm sure he knows someone there's contact info that he can put you in touch with. His name is Orlando. He speaks English. His email is orlando_siguenza@yahoo.com. Just let him know Keith and Tina referred you. Hopefully he can hook you up with a silversmith there. Thanks
Thanks in support of sharing such a good thinking, paragraph is fastidious, thats why i have
read it completely
You're welcome Albert.
Its not my first time to go to see this site, i am visiting this web site daily and I take nice facts from here every
day.
Thank you Agen. I'm glad you like it.
Great post.
Thank you Antonietta!
It's hard to find educated people on this topic, however, you sound like you
know what you're talking about! Thanks
Thank you Latosha. We live in Ecuador so we've been to Chordeleg many times.
Woah! I'm really enjoying the template/theme of this site. It's simple, yet effective. A lot of times it's difficult to get that "perfect balance" between superb usability and appearance. I must say you've done a fantastic job with this. Also, the blog loads super quick for me on Safari. Excellent Blog!
Thank you Veselka. We put a lot of time into making the site run fast for our readers. Glad you enjoy it.
I'm extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days..
Thank you Guqinz. The theme is the pro version of Astra.
ethics
Hi Keith,
I just found your website and was interested in finding out if Chordeleg sells silver coins (Ecuadorian). I will be visiting there in the near future to buy jewelry and some coins.
Hi,
Unfortunately, I do not know of any jewelers with websites. You might look on FaceBook. I know it is more popular here than a website. Shipping in and out of Ecuador is difficult. There is a great jeweler in Chordeleg on the corner in the center of town but I dod not know his name or the store name. If I am in Chordeleg in 2018, I will look them up and report back to you. I wish I could help. Good luck! Tina
Happy to help