A Beautiful Saturday

So it has been six days since we landed in Santiago and I must say my trip has been spectacular. We have done everything from wine tasting to touring to everything in between. We have had four of out of our five business trips and they have been very interesting. Monday and Tuesday consisted mostly of touring the Universidad de Santa Maria and lectures on the culture from Jose Cortez aka "Memo."

On Wednesday was had our first business trip to Coldelco. It was very interesting learning the many steps in processing copper here in Chile. However, it was kind of difficult because the tour was in complete spanish, but we made do with our translators. Centaura was our second business visit on Wednesday. Mario was the name of the person that toured us around. Centaura was a family business that has been passed down to him and you could clearly see his passion and love for his business. He answered any question that we threw at him and in the end gave us fresh diced tomatoes and soup! The soup was delicious. I really enjoyed observing the packaging system the company had. It is amazing to me how the bag can be created, packed, sealed all without stopping.

On Thursday we went to Vina Indomita and took a tour of the winery and then even got tips for wine tasting. One of the most interesting facts is that because they are a smaller winery compared to the industry powerhouses they are able to produce a higher quality of wine and penetrate different foreign markets. One market that they are very interested is in Korea. Our second trip was to LAN Airlines. We took a tour going through two of their hangars and saw two planes being serviced. We also got to go on a plane and sit in first class, which was a tease because we are not flying first class back. After our LAN visit we had two more lectures about Chilean people, gender issues, social issues, and society issues. These were by far my favorite lectures because it really gave me a better sense of the characteristics of the Chileans that I researched before the trip. Thursday night we had a bbq at Werner's house. It was a typical bbq from an American standpoint but there was definitely a lot more meat that was served. The sischa bobs were three different types of meet: chicken, pork, and beef. It was a completely different sischa bob that I've been used to in the United States.

Friday we spent the entire afternoon at the resort. It was a very relaxing day compared to the busy schedules we've been following. The resort was all inclusive and that meant all you can eat buffet. Unfortunately, it was raining so we couldn't go swimming.

Today we woke up around 10 A.M. and are trying to figure out what we are doing. I think the plan right now is to try and get a bite to eat. Then go to this little cluster of shops, hopefully I can get some good shopping completed. Then off to a lunch with Mimo. The day is young!