Today, we met more friendly Chilean students. They began by leading an extensive tour of their university, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria. It is a beautiful campus with stunning ocean views at almost every turn. I do not think I would ever get used to seeing the ocean if I attended school there. At the conclusion of the tour, we were meet by Jaime, a Pitt alum originally from Chile, to learn more about the economy of the country as well as a little bit about the economy of some of the rest of Latin America. Prior to the lecture, I did not know much about economics in general, let alone Chilean economics. However, the lecture was very informative and Jaime explained everything very well. One of the most interesting things I learned about Chile specifically was that monopolies and oligopolies are common in Chile and are not always well regulated. This was an interesting comparison to the United States where monopolies and oligopolies typically are not allowed to continue to operate.
Lunch at the university cafeteria was an interesting experience. All students who eat lunch on campus eat between one and two, and our large group, consequently, was eating at the same time as everyone else. Finding tables to seat everyone was surprisingly easy, though, because our guides asked several students if we could use their table and they willingly sat somewhere else.
In the afternoon, two other students, Tomás and Rudolfo, led us on a tour of Valparaiso. The bus trip started in the city, and our group walked around the main plaza for a little while. Then we went to a path that led to the open sky museum. The museum consisted of murals and many beautiful views of the beach and the city. While we were walking along the path through the museum, we were followed by several stray dogs all the way up and back down. Seeing all of the houses on the hillside made me realize how important structural design is in this city. The hills around Valparaiso are so steep that sometimes the houses go from one story on one side to five stories on the other. When earthquakes strike, I would hope that the houses are relatively stable, and that appears to be a sizable challenge.
After our tour, we were introduced to Chilean empanadas. They were delicious, and have many options of flavors, so it was difficult to pick one to order. I am definitely planning on trying others later in the trip and am sure they will be just as good.
To finish off the organized activities for the night, we learned the basic steps for salsa dancing. I do not think anyone in our group has ever salsa danced before, but we all had a blast and learned the steps quickly. The instructor loved to have fun and joke with us while we were learning, which kept everyone alert and laughing. I cannot wait to have our other two lessons with him to learn Reggaeton and more salsa steps.
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