Monday, May 12

We had the first company visit of the week today with a visit to the smelting division of Codelco. Originally, we were supposed to go to the copper company in the Andes but last week, the workers there were on strike. The strike is over now, but because it has just ended, the company is still is disarray and couldn't prepare anything for us in time. The back-up plan was the smelting plant and so there we went.

The presentation at Codelco was in Spanish with translations by Jo and some of the Chilean students. It was kind of difficult to follow but after the presentation, we got to drive through the plant and see where the company melts the metal down, where the smelting happens, and we also got to see the copper sheets ready for use. My favorite part of the tour was when we got to see the fires that were burning the metals down. After the tour, we went to yet another empanada place for lunch - an empanada place that was proclaimed to be the very best by some of the Chilean students. I thought it was good but I am starting to get really sick of empanadas and I can't really think of any empanada as being "the best."

When we got back to the hotel, we had some more free time so Jess, Ben, Sydney, and I went to downtown Vina to try to find a CD of Reggaeton or authentic Chilean music. We found a CD store but never did find a CD that we liked. They were also fairly expensive and none of us felt like paying that much. We did however find another artisan tent and walked around there forsome time. After getting back to the hotel, a group of us walked down to the beach to get ice cream and watch the sunset and then later on, we went to dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant where we got tacos and margaritas.