October 18, 2007

The village of San Bartolo Coyotepec, about a 20 minute drive south on Highway 175 from Oaxaca City, is the birthplace of Mexico´s famous black pottery.

But we were singularly underwhelmed by the selection in the first five or seven stores we went into, and had almost concluded that we would have to do our black pottery shopping in the pricier boutiques in Oaxaca City.

Until we stumbled on Dona Rosa´s store.

It turns out that Dona Rosa was the originator of the distinctive ceramic style.

And although she died in the 1980s, her sons continue to carry on the tradition in a wonderfully rustic, partially open-air store at 25 Benito Juarez street.

The quality and selection there was such that we spent the better part of the afternoon looking at, touching, comparing and considering the pieces we liked best. It wasn’t easy to settle on our favourites.

We left with three big boxes full of delicately wrapped pottery, thrilled with our purchases, but completely unsure how we were going to live in our even more cramped van!