Day 5: Bosques del Mauco

May 10, 2012

Hola amigos! Welcome back to Viña del Mar, Chile. Today we got up pretty early again to go to another culture lecture with Jose Luiz, our instructor at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. This lecture also focused on culture, but this time we talked about differences in doing business in Chile, Chilean ads and how they represent the culture, and Chilean music. Seeing the ads were really cool, and Chilean music and dancing is really interesting as well. After the lecture and a lunch of fish and rice in the university's cafeteria, we headed off to our second company visit at Bosques del Marco, a mushroom farming company that we reached after a picteresque 30 minute drive along the beach out of Viña del Mar. Bosques del Marco was some experience. Walking through the the different areas of the factory, we were flooded with one of the worst smells I have ever encountered, as the fertilizer for the shrooms was a mixture of chicken droppings and ammonia that had a scent which flooded my nostrils and nearly made me vomit. The smell followed us throughout the factory, but it was actually really cool inside, the way they grow the mushrooms in crates in giant stacks of 12, and then pick them by hand and package them fresh. Despite the smell, I am glad we got to see it. After grabbing a quick bite for dinner, we had our last dance class, this one being reggaeton for the second time. We reviewed the steps we learned from the first class and picked up some new ones; reggaeton is a lot of fun and a great cardio workout! It was sad to say goodbye to our instructor, David, as he was a lot of fun as an instructor. After the class, Constanza, one of the Chilean students, interviewed me in Spanish about organic restaurants for a project she was doing, it was a neat experience. And that brings us to now, blogging in the hotel, looking forward to going out to the discotheque later tonight when the Chilean students come pick us up!

 The worst smelling fertilizer in history

SHROOMS!

Fun fact of the day: Today is Chilean Mother's Day!

Hasta mañana,
Christian