Guaitil

Today we went to an artisan community that is part of the Chorotega indigenous tribes. This is one of the few indigenous communities in Costa Rica. There are many shops all the way around the town square.

(Town Square in Guaitil)

Our guide took us to meet Willy, who runs one of the shops. The picture above is some of his work. Willy showed us the process from start to finish. They start with a special clay from the base of one of the volcanic mountains. They mix that with a special sand they call Iguana sand, because the iguanas lay their eggs in that sand. Then they mix the sand and the clay with water and mix it by stomping on it like people do with grapes to make wine. They use three colors, all from locally available materials of mangnanese, iron and something else that just slipped my mind. They actually only put it in the kiln for one hour. Anyone who has read Robinson Crusoe will probably remember this process.

(Willie's Workshop)

The designs were very cool, and had symbols from their religion. When I asked Willy about the dragon design, he said it was very similar to Quetzocoatl in Mexico, and that they believed it was part of the same Mayan beliefs.

(Willie's Workshop)

As we watched the process, we were served fresh Tamarindo, a fruity drink that tastes like tangy sweet ice tea. Willy was set up to take credit cards, and ship things worldwide, even though his hut was kind of simple looking. He knew enough english to be really helpful to the tourists. While I was there, two other tourist buses came and stopped at his hut first.

I followed my friends from school to some of the other huts to see the other shops, but at that point I had already bought three things and was done. As we got to one of the last shops, they complained that Willy is getting all the business, and its not fair. I felt bad for them, but only to a point. They didn´t have the same marketing savvy that Willy had. There was no demonstrations in their shop. No free refreshments, no website nor worldwide shipping. Marketing and business is not always fair, no matter how noble your product may be.

Below is the link to Willy´s website if you want to learn more, or buy some of his great pottery.
Artesania Willy

Juanito

Next Costa Rican Entry: La Fiesta