Day Ten: Hela, Centauros, and Cueca

Our schedule kept us busy all day today, but now we're finished with company visits and classes so we can spend our last days at a less fast-paced tempo. We started our day at nine o'clock, getting on a bus to visit Hela. At Hela we got to wear our steel-toed boots again, along with earplugs and goggles to keep us safe. Hela manufactures various paintbrushes and wire wheels that are mainly used for professional and industrial use. We got to see each step of the manufacturing process which involved complex machines for the wire products and less machines and more human involvement for the paintbrushes. There was a lot of attention to detail in each step and that must be why they produce successful products.

Once we finished touring Hela, we got back on our bus and, after driving in a few circles, arrived at Centauros, the fruit and vegetable packing company that I researched prior to coming to Chile. The owner of the company, which is family run, met us and began our visit with a description of Centauros products and a taste test of some of their tomato products. We then set out to tour the processing facilities where the tomatoes are steamed and either canned or turned into a paste and canned. Tomato canning occurs during the summer months, but we were touring while Centauros was making their first batch of canned pumpkin paste, so we were able to see the machinery in action. I really enjoyed this visit because the process was interesting to learn about and the owner was able to explain everything to us very clearly. After we learned all about Centauros, and tried some fresh pumpkin puree (yum!), we headed back to Vina to grab a quick snack of empanadas before we went to our cueca class.

Our cueca class was taught by two USM students and it was very different from the dance classes we had last week. Cueca is the traditional Chilean dance and it is supposed to imitate a rooster courting a hen. We split up so that the girls could learn the girls' steps and the boys could learn their steps and after practicing separately, we paired up to perform the cueca to music! This turned out to be more complicated than I expected because there are subtle changes in the music that tell you when to switch to a different step and my partner and I had a hard time hearing when those changes happened. We had a successful dance by the end of class and then our instructors performed a cueca for us. We left USM for the last time and saw the sun set as we walked down the steps to the bus stop. Overall, another great day in Chile.