LAN Airlines and Bosques del Mauco in the Sunshine

Yesterday and today have been two more gorgeous days! We began our Wednesday by waking up as usual, eating breakfast, and once again heading to la Universidad Technica Federico Santa Maria for our morning lecture. We had a new instructor named Jose Luis who was really engaging! He taught us a lot about Chilean culture, covering everything from history to music to art to language. We ate lunch as usual in the cafeteria around 1 and then boarded the bus for LAN Airlines, S.A. It was right near the Santiago airport, so we had about a two hour ride. Once we arrived, we were greeted by an employee named Luis who gave us a brief tour of the offices and then gave us a detailed overview of his company. We learned that LAN recently just merged with TAM airlines in Brasil, allowing for both companies to basically eliminate competition within South America. LAN has also been doing a lot lately to reduce carbon emissions and runs their aircrafts completely on biofuels. It was really interesting and made for a great first company visit!

LAN Airlines, S.A.

Once returned to Valparaiso, we had another salsa class and then ran back to the hotel to quickly change and get ready to go out with the Chilean students. They took us to a club called 'Journal' that was a lot of fun! We're all staring to realize that South American nightlife is quite different than that in the States- 4 am is considered a normal time to arrive home, which is pretty difficult to manage considering our days start so early. Thankfully we're all doing fine running on basically no sleep! 

This morning we had our final cultural lecture with Jose Luis and learned a lot about how Chilean business is conducted. It was interesting to compare and contrast how meetings are run in the US vs Chile. Personal relationships are valued in much higher regard, and Chileans feel it is very important to get to know someone on a very personal level before doing business with them; long lunch meetings including discussion of family and friends are quite normal, whereas phone and Skype interviews are completely unheard of.  We also focused in on Chilean marketing and ad culture and found a lot of common themes within some recent commercials, such as religion and family. Chileans have such a deep sense of pride for their country that I find truly amazing, and this pride can be clearly seen in almost everything the country does and creates. I posted the link below for one of my favorite commercials that we looked at that displays Chilean fútbol culture. The poem being recited in the background is famous in Chile and represents the pride of its citizens in a very powerful way. Sorry there are no translations!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRW-yQLa3Gw

Once again, after lecture we had lunch and then headed to our second company visit with some of the Chilean students. We drove along the coast on our way and the view was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was by far my favorite part of the day!

View exiting Valparaiso along the Chilean coastline

This time we visited a mushroom company called Bosques de Mauco (Nature's Farm). It was definitely different from our previous visit but it was really interesting! We got a tour of the entire mushroom plant, from everything to the fermentation process to packaging and shipping. The company currently produces both fresh and canned mushrooms and exports them all throughout South America.

Outside of the Bosques de Mauco plant

Mushroom Production

After our company tour, we headed back to the University for our final dance class! Tonight the Chileans are taking us out to a discoteca inside of a local Casino. I'm excited! Tomorrow will be a more relaxed day because we don't have lecture, just a company visit to Viña Indomita (winery)! I'm looking forward to another fun filled day. Hasta mañana!