Day ten!!

Hola! We started with breakfast again at the hotel and got on a private bus to go to our fourth company visit.  This company was a hardware manufacturing factory called Hela. The workers did not speak English so the two Chilean students (Javier two and Daniella) who came with us had to translate.  We had a tour on how to make all of tools that Hela makes.  This was interesting to see the background of the creation of brushes, scrapers, and cleaners.  However, at this visit we had to wear our steel-toed boots, ear plugs and glasses with a strap around our neck, so we were looking fashionable!  Then, we took the bus to a fruit/vegetable canning company visit called Centauros.  This was a great company!  We started with samples of some of their products.  First we had peaches ("duraznos"), steamed whole pear-shaped tomatoes, tomato paste and squash paste.  These all tasted really good especially the squash paste!  The owner saw that I liked this "pumpkin" paste so he gave me a jar of it! Great souvenir!  Then this company showed us around to all the canning machines and told us how they worked.  I really enjoy learning about the background of a company.  We finally finished and came out to the beautiful view of palm trees, mountains and blue sky.  We traveled back to the Vina del Mar and ate at a different empanada place.  I have had eaten so many of these so far, but they taste really good.  This time I had a chicken ("pollo"), cheese and corn ("choclo") empanada.  Next, we had to learn a final dance which is called "Cueca".  This is the national dance of Chile.  This was interesting because there are official outfits, handkerchiefs in our hands and a background story.   We are done making fools of ourselves when trying to dance!  That is all for today.  Adios hasta manana!