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!