Day 4

Today started off with our hotel breakfast and followed with our first company visit of the trip.  We visited Bosque del Mauco, the mushroom company.  We had to wear our boots today and I was glad we did.  The first cite of the company we saw was the raw materials used to create the soil for the mushroom.  Simply put, this looked and smelled like fresh poop!  We walked up-close to this ‘soil’ and felt the steamy piles blowing into our faces.  A funny experience I will not forget.  Next, we visited the different rooms where the mushrooms are actually grown.  We saw the different stages of mushroom growth and learned that the entire process was not that long and seemed to be rather efficient.  Following this, we were able to see the place where there was a machine for canning the different mushrooms and we could smell the freshly cooked mushrooms in the air.  Finally we could see where they packaged different mushrooms by having a line of people sorting out bad products and good ones.  They fed the good mushrooms to a packaging machine that wrapped and labeled them.  This company visit allowed me to see how engineering processes truly work in the real world. 

Next, we visited the Centauro company.  This was a food production company that specializes in tomatoes.  This family owned company was also very impressive.  The owner, a descendent of the company founder, could answer any of our business questions which helped me get a feel for how a large and successful company like Centauro operates.  There was also a Chemical Engineer who oversaw the plant.  This allowed me to understand the role the engineers can have in a given company.

The company visits were followed by lunch and another lecture on Chilean culture.   This time we learned about the deadly natural disasters that Chileans are constantly faced with.  We even saw some of the stories behind the 2010 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile.  To brighten the mood we than learned about Chilean music and the role it has on the nation as a whole.  After a short break we had to discuss our business idea that our groups came up with that had to exemplify what we learned about Chilean culture.  My idea of having a type of dog pound and adoption center won first place because it demonstrated that passion and respect for nature the people of Chile had.  Of course following the informative lecture and presentations, we had another engaging salsa class.  This was still another great way to end the day before going to another bar for the night.