Samay Latin Art

Samay Latin Art traces back to 2001, when owners Paola and Martin opened Galería Aymara on Puerto Ayora's Avenida Charles Darwin, selling jewelry and Latin American art. After running under that name for close to two decades, they closed it in 2020 and relaunched as Samay — Quechua for spirit or soul — describing the new identity as a fusion of ancestral and contemporary Latin American art rather than a straight continuation of the old shop.

The gallery now works with roughly a dozen regional and emerging artists across a spread of mediums: tagua-nut carvings by the Wounaan Tribe, woven tapestries by Peruvian textile artist Maximo Laura, handwoven Baronesa hats, ceramic pieces, sculpture in various styles, and copper-plate engravings and mechanical sculptures. That range moves the shop well past a jewelry-and-souvenir stand — it functions as a small survey of Ecuadorian and wider Latin American craft, anchored by named makers rather than anonymous stock. For visitors passing through Puerto Ayora, it's a chance to buy work traceable to a specific artist or community, from a gallery that has operated on the same street under two names across more than two decades.