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A Gringo's Culture Guide to Chile

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Home » Confort: Chilean Toliet Paper

Confort: Chilean Toliet Paper

confort
One thing that you will need during any amount of time in Chile is toilet paper.

Despite what you may have learned in Spanish class, toliet paper in Chile isn’t called papel higiénico. (Although if you call it that, people will generally understand you.) In Chile, toliet paper is called confort or papel confort.

This is because the first toilet paper to be commercialized in Chile was by the brand “Confort.”

The word confort comes from the Spanish verb confortar, meaning “to comfort”.

You can often buy confort by the roll at street markets called ferias or at the corner store. You’ll enjoy a large collection of confort options at local supermarkets.

To help get you ready for your toilet paper adventures in Chile, check out Margaret’s insights about when to bring your own TP in Chile.

Comments

  1. mike says

    October 28, 2010 at 10:28 am

    Other than the cultural guide, didn’t
    you have a Chilean language (indigenous
    sayings) book available ? M-

    • Pepe says

      October 28, 2010 at 2:45 pm

      @Mike – The “Chilenismos” book isn’t mine but I highly recommend it. It has very thorough coverage of Chilean slang and Spanish. You can find it on amazon.com

  2. Miriam says

    October 28, 2010 at 11:08 am

    Hi I have a question.. They often use the word “piola” and it seems to have heaps of different meanings wich confuses me..
    Help?? 😀
    Miriam

    • Pepe says

      October 28, 2010 at 2:54 pm

      @Miriam – If you know some spanish, there are some good definitions here:
      http://www.mainframe.cl/diccionario/diccionario.php?palabra=piola&accion=Buscar
      It can mean: silent, keep a secret, relaxed, etc.

  3. Anne Chernett says

    November 1, 2010 at 3:44 am

    Your confort/toilet paper article made me smile.
    When we did the driving down the Pan American highway thing, stopping off at every tourist attraction, I was surprised (at first shocked!) that when you went to the loo you had to ask for the toilet paper. It was not in the banjos.
    I’m quite old and have lived through newspaper then really hard scrathy toilet paper in England and France, but it’s always been there are arm’s length 🙂
    So my advice is think ahead when visiting cascadas between Vina and Pucon.

    • Pepe says

      November 1, 2010 at 8:30 am

      @Anne – good point. definitely ask before you go in!

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