what an interesting lunch 5/12/11

Time is honestly flying in Chile. I can’t believe that Thursday is almost over already. Today we visited two companies, Vina Indomita and LAN airlines. The Vina visit was extremely interesting to me, because before the presentation I honestly knew nothing about wine making. It was the cleanest and seemingly most safe company we’ve visited thus far. All the employees seemed genuinely interested in wine and were very knowledgeable. Wine tasting was also cool, I feel like it’ll be really impressive for me to smell a wine and tell a person what kind it is in the future. I was interested to hear that they produced white and red wine only. I feel that they could really extend their product lines by branching out into the pink and sparkling wine. The second visit was also interesting for LAN airlines. They’re an extremely successful company and the way it seems is that the success they are having will continue. Climbing into the airplane was really cool, seeing the cockpit up close and personal. Also being in the hangar and seeing how the mechanics work was interesting. He mentioned however that some passenger planes are only checked out and having maintenance performed every 6 years. This is only certain planes, however it’s stil kind of eery to get on a plane with the possibility that no one has checked it out in detail for five years. I would be curious to know the way it’s done in the United States, whether it’s just a difference in safety laws or if that’s truly the status quo. Today we ate lunch on the road, and I decided to try authentic Chilean food. A mistake I won’t make again anytime soon. I ordered “Pastel de Choclo.” I’ll try not to be too gory in my description. It was a very sweet cream of corn, with an entire chicken leg/ wing thrown in and the bottom had beef in it. Also I believe there was a little extra soup, so they threw it in as well. Certainly not my favorite meal, luckily Chris had some snacks for later on. This is the first night we’ve gotten back before like 9 oclock and it seems like everyone is really liking being able to just sit for a few minutes. Tomorrow we go to Pablo Neruda’s house!