Day 14: Departure Day

We are packing up and leaving Chile today! I'm am so sad, it's so hard to leave to such a great country. I have had such an amazing experience here and it feels like it's too soon to leave! I am so grateful for this experience and I have appreciated every moment. Through this experience, I have learned so much about Chile's culture, the economy in Chile, how they do their business, and more. I have also made lifelong friends with the Chilean students from the University of Santa Maria, and it's so hard to say goodbye to them. Today, I woke up around 10:00 am to finish packing and to do some last minute things. The students gave all of us a sweatshirt from their university, so all the American students on our trip wore them to the airport today.

A few of the students came to the hotel today to say their last goodbyes and to wish us a safe flight and a good summer. Alejandro, one of the greatest friends that I’ve met in Chile, surprised me at the hotel to say goodbye before we left. 

When the bus came, we all reluctantly boarded and a few of us cried, including myself, because we were so sad to go. When we got to the airport in Santiago, it took us a while to get our boarding passes and make it through customs. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 9:15, so we had time to get dinner. It was our last meal that we had to order in Spanish! There was a bar by our terminal called “The Last Pisco Sour”. This was funny because Pisco Sours are one of Chile's national and most drinks and they don't make them in the U.S.

Day 13: Horseback Riding!

Today was our last day here, but it was the best day of the trip and my life. After breakfast, we took a bus to a ranch in Vina. When we got there, we had to wait for the workers to bring the horses over because they let them roam the sand dunes overnight. While we waited, we fed and took pictures of the 5 day old cow that was on the ranch. He was so cute, but he started following us around because we fed him. 

They also had a bunch of dogs, pigs, and chickens. The ranch was family owned and they were all very friendly. When all the horses were there, we were placed on certain ones. The man called me out to ride one of the taller horses and I was so scared!

It was huge, but he ended up being very disciplined. We started our 3 hour ride by ocean. It was so beautiful, but I was still getting adjusted to riding so we weren’t galloping yet. The dogs from the ranch followed us and ran the whole 3 hours next to the horses, it was so cute. It was surprising and calming to see how disciplined the horses were. They listened to me when I pulled on the reigns to slow down or kicked to speed up and to the leaders when they rang bells or yelled. We rode through the water, past marshes, through the woods, and finally came to the coolest part. We rode through the sand dunes and it was absolutely amazing. There were huge mountains of sand and the horses were all galloping together. It was stunning, the sand dunes looked like a desert and you could see the ocean far away in the background.

This was the most fun I’ve had all trip. When we got to the middle of the sand dunes, we tied our horses up and our leader cut up pineapples for a snack. 

We let the horses rest for a while, then we were back to riding. When I got back on, I was much more confident and only wanted to gallop. It was fun because the horses act as a group and once one horse started galloping, they all joined in. We were all laughing together and holding on while the horses sprinted along the beach. I’m so glad that we had this opportunity. 

When we got back to the ranch, I didn’t want to get off my horse but we were all starving. The family had a huge barbeque for us. We all sat around the fire and ate the most delicious steak, chicken, pork, sausage, potato salad, and more. After the barbeque and some pisco sours, we took the bus back to the hotel. We met all the Chilean students and the professor at Diego’s Pizza by the shore and we had a nice last dinner with them. They gave all of us the nicest sweatshirt that has their university name and our university on it. It was so nice and I was so sad to say goodbye. After dinner, we went out for our last night. We started at a bar by the shore then we went to the club in the casino. It was by far the best night that we have had here, which made it so much harder to say goodbye. We stayed at the club until it closed and they had to make us to leave! That night I said goodbye to Sebastian, one of the greatest friends that I’ve made in Chile. It's going to be so hard to leave tomorrow :( 

Day 12: Spa Day and Barbeque!

Today we had a very relaxing day planned. We left the hotel around 10:15 to go to a spa about an hour away. When we got there, they had empanadas and drinks waiting for us. I didn’t bring my bathing suit, but I hung out by the pool all day. We sat and talked with the Chilean students for hours. I found out that peanut butter isn’t popular here, like it is in the United States. A few of us played soccer on the court they had, but it was concrete and not as nice as the one on Monday. They served us a late lunch of steak, fries, onions, and fried eggs all mixed together. We also had pisco sours, a drink made from Chile’s national alcohol. After lunch, we stayed at the spa for an hour and a half to relax. 

Then we walked to our Chilean professor’s house for a barbeque. This house had the most beautiful view of the mountains, and a huge pool. 

There was an overpass thing by the grill that was covered with vines and we were allowed to eat the grapes off of it. The professor set up games like foosball, ping-pong, and volleyball. We played a huge game of “keep it up” with the volleyball… until Bryce hit it over the fence to another yard haha!! When it got dark, they started grilling sausage, chicken, and other meats. All the Chilean students came and we had a little party. It was a little chilly out, but it was such a great night. After a while, we took the bus home and got ready to go out. The students took us to a friend’s apartment to meet up with people, then we all went to Club Om. They played a lot of music in English at this club, it was fun to know the words and dance with our new friends.

Day 11: Company Visits

Today was a very busy day because we had to fit in the last three company visits. We started off the morning at Hela. Hela is a small company that sells different tools like paint brushes, saws, brushes, and more. It was cool to see the assembly lines and different processes used to most efficiently construct the tools. They import many of the machines and materials used in these processes from Germany. They don’t export their products, but they are a leading tool company in Chile. 

Next we visited Centarous, a canned goods company. Their main product is tomato paste, but they also produce things like canned fruit, prepared meals, and sauces. I really liked this company because I love tomatoes and ketchup, and they let us taste some of their products. They import their machines used from Italy, but a lot of the work is done manually by the workers. One of the owners of the company talked to us after his meeting. It was interesting to see how much weather and farming effects this company. During his meeting, the owner said that they were discussing importing peaches from another country because of their shortage.

Next we drove to Con Con for lunch. Con Con is a small, beautiful town along the shore with many shops and restaurants. We ate at an empanada restaurant, of course. There were many people surfing because there are huge waves in Con Con. Finally, we went to our last company visit at Bosques. This is the largest mushroom farm in Chile. Our tour guide took us through the entire process, from fermenting, growing, picking, to packaging. It was very interesting, but they use manure to create the mushroom bacteria, so the farm smelled really bad. They hand pick their mushrooms, which I thought was very inefficient. The guide said that other farms in different countries use machines to pick.

We took the bus back to the hotel, grabbed dinner, and got ready to go out for the night. A few Chileans picked us up and we went to a club called me robo el corazon. It was really fun!

Day 10: Futbol!!!

Monday we started our day off early at the university. In our workshops before the trip, we were all assigned a group and a company to research. We made and presented our presentations to Jorge and our peers before we departed and everyone critiqued each other on what we could improve. This morning we presented to one of our lecturers in Chile and he questioned and informed us on some major aspects of each business. The lecturer is the same professor that taught us on Monday and he is very knowledgeable of these companies and of business in Chile, in general. I was able to learn a lot from him about my company, Hela. It was great to get a better background before going on the company visit. This picture is one of the beautiful views from the university. 

After this, we went back to the hotel to change into clothes to play soccer! Then we went to the mall to eat. I’m starting to get better at ordering food in Spanish! Then we met up with Javier and Ignasio and they took us to the soccer fields. In Chile, they have soccer fields everywhere like we have basketball courts. The fields we played at were so nice! They were turf fields that overlooked the city. We split up into 4 teams of 6 or 7 and scrimmaged. When a team scored a goal, the next team in line replaced the losing team. We played soccer for 3 hours and I scored a goal! The Chileans take their soccer very seriously and it is so popular among everyone. It was interesting to see that the students that never played soccer on a team before were still very good because they grew up with it. 

After this, we ate dinner with the Chileans who came to play soccer. We ate “complatas”, which is a popular hot dog in Chile that is topped with avocado, mayonnaise, and chopped tomatoes. It was very delicious, but it upset my stomach and I had to stay in for the night. I took some tums and went to sleep early. It was nice to get some rest.