El Último Día

I can’t believe it’s our last day in Chile. I didn’t know two weeks could go by so quickly. Although we were out pretty late last night, we were all up early today to take full advantage of the little time we have left here in Viña del Mar. Today is a day full of ‘lasts’: our last pastelería pastry, last trip to the beach, and last empanada. I’m looking forward to being home, particularly to hot showers, but I will sincerely miss this trip.

After running those final errands, we packed up our stuff and said our goodbyes to the Chilean students. I think what I will miss most about this trip will be the people I’ve gotten to know over these past two weeks: both my Pitt and USM friends. Without each of them, my time spent in Chile would not have been the same.

I hope to be back to Chile someday, perhaps on a more extended study abroad trip. I’ve come to very much appreciate the language and culture of this country, and would like to spend some more time exploring the rest of it. But maybe next time I’ll go when its Chile’s summer; I don’t think I can take much more of these 40-degree days in May.

To anyone in Chile reading this blog, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to make me feel welcome, and for sharing with me such an unforgettable two week experience. I don’t think that this is a ‘goodbye’, but rather a ‘see you soon’. 

Hasta pronto, Chile.

Caballos!

Today was definitely my favorite day of the trip. It started with a drive to a nearby ranch so that we could go horseback riding. While we were waiting for the owners to prepare our horses, we had a chance to see some of the other animals, including a newborn cow.

Then we all were assigned our horses based on skill level/experience (I chose a novice one). I’d been horseback riding before, but I could tell immediately that this was going to be a more difficult trek. We must have gone through every possible type of terrain; first we went through a dirt road, then the beach, then sand dunes. It was intense! It was so amazing to see 25 people mounted on horses all riding together through the sand. We even got to actually gallop, rather than just walk, along the beach. I’m so happy that I got some good pictures from this because the views were absolutely incredible.

When we got back the owners had prepared a huge barbecue for us including steak, pork sausages, chicken wings, salads, and wine. We asked if the food came from animals that had been raised on the farm, it hadn’t.

Not much happened between lunch and dinner, so I’ll just jump straight there. For dinner we went to a pizza place with the Chilean students and Verner. This was a really cool evening because it would be our last with the Chileans. We presented them with some gifts and Pitt t-shirts, and they gave us the COOLEST USM hoodies ever. I’m really going to miss everyone involved in this program. Tonight is our last night out which will be very bittersweet. I don’t think any of us are ready to leave!

Un Día Relajante

Today was spent entirely at a nearby location that seemed like a country club. It had both heated and non-heated pools, a tennis court, and restaurant. Although it was a bit breezy in the morning, the sun was very warm by the afternoon. Justine, Kelsey, Josh, Brendan and I tanned by the cold pool since it was less crowded. We also talked to Consuelo, Ignacio, and Valeria. They at one point told us that Chileans don’t really eat peanut butter, which is why we’ve never seen it in stores. This may affect my plans of moving here, I’ll have to see if I can have a few jars shipped ahead of time.

We then went to lunch, which was a plate of fries, egg, and beef, followed by a salad. Dessert was a lemon pie and some sort of mousse. After lunch some people played soccer, while the rest of us sat around the pool some more. After seeing all of the injuries that happened in soccer these past few days, I was happy I stuck to tanning.

At around 4, we walked about 4 blocks down the road to Verner’s (Santa Maria’s head of Industrial Engineering and our Chilean correspondent) house. I have to say Verner has one of the most fun backyards I’ve been to. He had an outdoor kitchen, foosball and ping pong tables, as well as apples trees and grape vines. He also had a pool, though it was definitely too cold to swim in. He had hired a chef to cook us pork sausages and chicken/beef kebobs, which were all delicious. A few people even helped him to build an extra table since the ones he had weren’t large enough for everyone to sit. It was so much fun to eat, chat, and play games together since the trip is starting to wind down. I think we all very much appreciated that Verner would go out of his way to make sure we all had a great time. I’m really going to miss everyone; these two weeks have gone way too fast.

Las Últimas Empresas

Very. Early. Morning. Today we were up extra early to visit the final companies: Hela, Centauros, y Bosques de Mauco.

We first drove to Hela, a company that manufactures brushes. The man giving us the tour only spoke Spanish, but Valeria was able to translate for us. I was surprised initially that so much of the brush manufacturing process was done by hand. I had expected it to be almost entirely done by machines. We were first shown the area where they produce the wire brushes. One type was simply single-strand wires, while the other was multi-wire clusters twisted together. We then moved on to the soft bristle brushes. We were told that there are two types: natural and synthetic fiber brushes. The natural ones are made from pig hair, which is more expensive. When I asked the owner if they were planning on becoming more machine-operated, he replied that they were definitely interested in becoming more technologically advanced in order to reduce their labor costs.

 

After Hela, we moved on to Centauro, a food processing and canning company. We entered the factory and could immediately smell tomatoes and onions, which was very taunting given that it was lunchtime. Tomatoes are Centauro’s primary product, but are moving quickly into the onion preparation business as well. We were told that onions would be especially profitable for the company since onions take a lot of time and energy to prepare, so pre-peeled and chopped onions would likely sell well. I also found it interesting how much of an effect the weather plays on the success of the company. The owner even mentioned to us that they were counting on rain this Saturday for the success of this season’s peach crop. I can’t imagine the weather deciding not just what I will wear the next day, but the fate of my business. I really enjoyed this visit because the people all seemed very passionate about the company. It was also interesting because I learned some of the mechanical processes used to make food. For example, I originally thought that pressure would be used to make tomato paste, but instead learned that the crushed tomatoes are boiled to remove the juice.

We then stopped at an empanadaria to get lunch. Later we made our final company visit to Bosques del Mauco, a mushroom producing company. We first saw the place where they create the compost to assist in the mushroom growth. They combine straw, horse manure, and chicken manure in specific proportions to make the soil. Then we moved on to the actual room where the mushrooms are grown. They are grown in the dark on trays that are stacked on top of one another. I thought it was interesting that the mushrooms are all picked by hand, since that must be more costly. However we were told that this process is necessary because only mushrooms of specific sizes are picked at a time. Also, this extra price paid for labor is not a big deal because mushroom growing is a very cheap business to run, and profits are high. Since they are grown indoors weather conditions do not apply, and packaging is very simple and cheap as well. This company visit really made me think about the money necessary to run a business. In the future, I will probably be more conscious about the potential effect of weather on my business success, as well as the likelihood of making a profit.

Altogether the company visits were very informative, and I am happy to have had the opportunity to see the production side of a company. Tomorrow is our “spa day” which I know we are all looking forward to. Adios!

Fútbol y Lectura

Final lecture! This morning we took the bus to the university for our final lecture with Jaime. This was also when we were going to give our presentations. Everyone’s presentations went really well. It was good, too because it forced us to think again about our companies and what we’d learned from the first visits.  It was pretty nerve-wracking, however, because Jaime was asking tough questions. I think he is somewhat intimidating as a professor, though very intelligent and knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects.

After the lecture we hung out for a while in the courtyard at the center of campus. Then we headed to the mall to pick up a quick lunch before going to play soccer. We met up with the two Javiers, Ignacio, Sebastian, and others to play a few rounds of soccer (or fútbol as the Chileans call it). We split into 4 teams of six and rotated to change the teams after one goal was scored.

If it wasn’t going to be clear from the start, the Chileans ended up dominating. These guys really know how to play soccer! Even the ones that claimed to not be very good of course were amazing. Jorge too showed us all up with his skills. I played to my usual ability, which is quite poor, but still had fun anyway. No one took it too seriously, but it was great to have some friendly competition. I also talked to Sebastian for a little on the sidelines about how different the Chilean dialect is in comparison to that of other South American countries. Listening to the conversation between him and Javier was hilarious because even though they were speaking Spanish, no one could understand a word. I wonder if I should have been learning Spanish or Chilean all these years...