Day 6: LAN visit

Today we left an hour later than we normally do, so we got a little more sleep. We all got on the bus to the university for Cueca lessons! The Cueca is the national dance of Chile and the people that taught us were wearing the traditional dance clothes. The man wears a sombrero, poncho, cowboy boots with spurs, and other traditional items. The woman wears a flowered dress and black-heeled shoes. Both hold a handkerchief and dance around with it. Throughout the dance, the man tries to get the girl and once he does, he runs away. The partners never touch, but they hold eye contact the entire time while dancing. We worked with partners and learned most of the traditional dance. It was interesting to know that people in the countryside of Chile still dress and dance like that.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the university. Again, the food was not very good. Then we got on a coach bus and drove about 2 hours to LAN for our first company visit. LAN is the airline that started in Chile. It was originally used to transport goods around Chile, but it has grown to be a major airline. It is part of OneWorld and sends planes all around the world. The base is located in Santiago. We got to see the new Dreamline plane that they have engineered using their “lean” program. Lean is their attempt to make the plane lighter, which makes it more fuel-efficient and more cost efficient. The 787 plane was so nice. It was made out of graphite, which makes it lighter than the aluminum planes and eliminates problems like corrosion.

After this visit, we stopped at a gas station because we were really hungry and made the trip home. The students are coming to pick us up in a little to take us out!