Day 4 in Chile: Mushrooms and Tomatoes!
It is Wednesday, May 11th 2011 and today was the first day of visiting companies. We left the hotel around 8 o’clock in the morning and headed for Bosque del Mauco, which is a mushroom company. At this company, we learned about the environmental processes of making mushrooms, such as fermentation. To be honest, I loved this company because it made me realize I truly want to become an environmental engineer. In the beginning of this visit, we saw all of the manure compost giving off nitrogen gas and the smell did not bother me at all. I actually thought it was one of the most interesting steps of the whole mushroom growing process. Also, during this company visit, we saw the different stages of a mushroom’s growth and the final product. Workers that hand-pick the mushrooms get paid based on the weight of their pick. In addition, we were able to see the packaging process where some mushrooms are wrapped whole and others are canned. After this company visit, we drove to Conservas Centauro, which is a canning company my group researched previously. Since there was not a lot of information provided online about this canning company, we asked many questions regarding their farms, where they grow their own fruit and vegetables. They are especially known for their tomatoes considering they originally came from Italy. They also work with peaches and other fruits and now make some common recipes. Since they specialize in canned goods, it is very interesting to find them packaging in more bags that they make with three layers, one of the layers being aluminum foil. These bags are becoming more common since they are inexpensive and still keep food fresh. At Centauro, we received free bags of jam and a can of tomatoes. This company was also very interesting and enjoyable. After this visit, we stopped at a well-known place for empanadas where I had one with meat and one with cheese. They were even better than the place we went the other day. We drove back to the University where we learned more about Chilean culture, earthquakes, and music. After these lectures, we had our final salsa lesson, which was not very complicated until we came to the spinning part of the dance. Fortunately, my dance partner did not seem to mind that I continued to mess up and go the wrong direction. At this point, we took a bus back to the hotel and got McDonalds for dinner before we went to a party. At the party, I really enjoyed talking to the people here and learning about their customs and enjoyable activities. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s companies and hope they are as interesting as todays. 
It is Wednesday, May 11th 2011 and today was the first day of visiting companies. We left the hotel around 8 o’clock in the morning and headed for Bosque del Mauco, which is a mushroom company. At this company, we learned about the environmental processes of making mushrooms, such as fermentation. To be honest, I loved this company because it made me realize I truly want to become an environmental engineer. In the beginning of this visit, we saw all of the manure compost giving off nitrogen gas and the smell did not bother me at all. I actually thought it was one of the most interesting steps of the whole mushroom growing process. Also, during this company visit, we saw the different stages of a mushroom’s growth and the final product. Workers that hand-pick the mushrooms get paid based on the weight of their pick. In addition, we were able to see the packaging process where some mushrooms are wrapped whole and others are canned. After this company visit, we drove to Conservas Centauro, which is a canning company my group researched previously. Since there was not a lot of information provided online about this canning company, we asked many questions regarding their farms, where they grow their own fruit and vegetables. They are especially known for their tomatoes considering they originally came from Italy. They also work with peaches and other fruits and now make some common recipes. Since they specialize in canned goods, it is very interesting to find them packaging in more bags that they make with three layers, one of the layers being aluminum foil. These bags are becoming more common since they are inexpensive and still keep food fresh. At Centauro, we received free bags of jam and a can of tomatoes. This company was also very interesting and enjoyable. After this visit, we stopped at a well-known place for empanadas where I had one with meat and one with cheese. They were even better than the place we went the other day. We drove back to the University where we learned more about Chilean culture, earthquakes, and music. After these lectures, we had our final salsa lesson, which was not very complicated until we came to the spinning part of the dance. Fortunately, my dance partner did not seem to mind that I continued to mess up and go the wrong direction. At this point, we took a bus back to the hotel and got McDonalds for dinner before we went to a party. At the party, I really enjoyed talking to the people here and learning about their customs and enjoyable activities. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s companies and hope they are as interesting as todays. 
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