A Village of Potters

About 45 minutes southwest of Santiago lays the little town of Pomaire.  For years, nearly every Pomaire resident made pottery from the local red clay found just beneath their feet. The Pomaire style of pots are prevalent all throughout Chile and are incredibly popular in Chilean cooking for their ability to withstand high heats in the oven.  After years and years of throwing, the clay supply has almost entirely diminished and today the raw material must be imported from other parts of the country.  

These artisans have created shape after shape of different vessels which we would simply call just pots but the Chileans have special names for each; pailas, fuentes, tinajas, maceteros and many more.  The incredible part – everything is so inexpensive! The challenge though is the limited size of our suitcases to bring these treasures home for our kitchen.

Tucked in between the pottery shops are the occasional mini green houses. I was in succulent heaven!

Pomaire is actually also known for their empanadas that are one whole kilo! But when we stopped for lunch we weren’t quite that hungry…. so I went for the normal sized empanadas while Henry got meat with a side of fries. (very Chilean) All washed down with beers of course.

Those that you see hanging with $3,500 pesos written on them cost about $7.50 in U.S. dollars.

Though it was a grey day we enjoyed exploring the streets of the tiny town.