Hammock Hawkers

They are the bane of my existance those hammock hawkers and snake oil salesmen who hang downtown around the main square. So my advice is take a page from Nancy Reagan and JUST SAY NO! Well if you cannot just say no then, say "Yo Tango uno" which means I have one and keep walking. Walk or Drive over to Hamacas El Aguacate a family workshop with a large selection of very good hammocks of various qualities and colors. The prices are posted and they are fair and correct. There are alot of tricky dealers around in the historic center and recently they talked our guests, Mo and Katinka, into buying a $20 usd hammock for $160 usd with some story about hennequen and vestal virgins or some such. There are hammocks made of hennequen and some made of the plant "lengua de vaca" (sanseviera). If you want one of these go see Louisa Vogel on Sunday's in the Santa Lucia Park (she speaks english, spanish, french) or go to Casa de las Artesanias on calle 63 between 64 and 66. But if you want a cotton or nylon hammock go to Aguacate Calle 58 at 73. you don't need to spend more than 20 to 50 dollars for a hammock unless you know what you are doing. Hammocks come in 4 sizes sencilla (single), doble (double), matrimonial (queen size), matrimonial especial (king size). How to buy a hammock... First of all, never buy a packed hammock without checking it. They are handmade and the craftsmanship can vary in quality. Besides, you want to make sure you are getting what you are paying for. To judge the quality, hold the hammock out by its loops and run your hand over the weave, pushing down slightly. The weave should then close under your hand in a firm fashion. If it's flimsy and your fingers slip between the threads too easily, the work isn't up to standard. The end strings can also be counted to judge the quality; a good size hammock should have at least 200 pairs of end strings. The end hanging-loop should be thick and firm, not thin and be thick and firm, not thin and bendy.

Update: From Yucatan Living

Don’t Be Cheated! Be Aware of the Differences Between Sisal and Cotton. This is a notice we have been asked to bring to our readers on behalf of our friend Silvia Terán, of Maya Chuy – Maya Embroidery. We thank Silvia for this valuable information, and her husband, anthropologist Christian Rasmussen, for getting it to us. Silvia writes: Recently, at an international congress here in Merida, a lady from Chile approached our stand of embroidery and handicrafts, and insisted on buying a hammock of sisal/henequen for her grandchild. She had been told that they were the best. It was practically impossible to convince her that hammocks today are not made of sisal, since this fiber is very crude and scratches your body. True enough, some years ago, self-sufficient milpa-farmers would make their hammocks of that fiber, but no longer… and today, never for
commercial sale. All good, accommodating hammocks today are made from different threads of cotton. More
Weather-resistant hammocks are made from artificial threads, such as nylon, but they are not so
comfortable, especially when the weather is hot. In the village of Euan, there is a small production of hammocks made from the fibers of the plant lengua de vaca or sansiviera. This fiber looks like sisal, but is much softer, and you really
have to search for them to find one. I am not sure that I convinced the lady and, at the same time, I was wondering where she had gotten her ideas about sisal hammocks. It was then that I found a wandering salesman in
Merida, promoting the sale of his cotton hammocks as “Real Yucatecan: Made of Sisal”, attempting, in this way, to make money from the history of Yucatan’s green gold: henequen/sisal. To my even greater amazement, in Calle 59, I was approached by a sales-boy offering shirts of henequen. With wondering eyes, I asked, “Shirts made of sisal?!” “Yes!”, he answered and
insisted. “Please show me!”, I replied. He then took me to his shop and what he showed me were shirts made of crude cotton (!), certainly not sisal! However, in the lining of each shirt was a label that read: 100% agave. Made in Mexico.
The sales people said the shirts were made in Tixkokob. So, in the village of Tixkokob, famous for making hammocks – of cotton and nylon – there is a company that knowingly is making fools of buyers by selling cotton advertised as sisal! I wonder if this practice is legal. At the very least, it is certainly not correct or fair to the many tourists who come to Yucatan and want to go home with a real souvenir from Yucatan. So, be aware and let your friends know about buying shirts or hammocks made of sisal, because they do not exist!