Business Trip to Chile

Global Immersion Trip

Chile

A Report by Vinod Jayakumar

Traditional MBA 2013

Pre-trip

Excited about visiting a South American country for the first time, I started my journey to Santiago De Chile from Miami on March 2nd, 2012. To start with, I was skeptical about the quality of a Chile based airline. But, I was amazed by the excellent service provided by LAN airlines. My perception about a Chilean company changed then and there. Also, prior to my flight I doubted whether the officials in the flight will understand English (even though we were assured by the Professor that there wouldn't be language problems during the travel) and my doubts didn't fructify. In fact, the quality of the food given to us in the plane set up a high expectation for my one-week long stay at Santiago.

Day One

After watching the Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's end, a movie which I have been craving to watch for a long time, and a couple of hours of pleasant flight, we landed in Santiago on time. As soon as the automatic door swung open letting me in to the airport, I noticed a group of people standing before a counter that was used to collect a reciprocity fee. The notice board before the counter showed "US - $140". As I didn't fully understand what a reciprocity fee is and since I was coming in to the country from US, I stood at the back of a very short line counting my $140.

When my turn came, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it applies only to US Citizens and that it is a one-time charge only for the life of the passport. I wondered what the reciprocity fees was and later found out that this was the amount the US charges Chileans entering the country. For that reason, the fees are referred to as "reciprocity". After a little research, I found that out of the countries in South America, five of them charge a fee: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. The fees charged are in direct relation to what the home country of the passenger charges residents of the country you are visiting. The fees look like a good source of revenue for these countries.

I reached the Atton El Bosque hotel by hiring a taxi from the airport after a little struggle to explain the hotel name and location to the taxi driver. After resting for a while, and after a brief orientation meeting, we started a City Tour. The tour guide who accompanied us was very knowledgeable about the history and culture of Chile. It was a pleasure to see the La Moneda Presidential Palace and was interesting to learn about the history of the palace. Construction of the La Moneda started in 1784 and was constructed to be the country's official mint, hence the name which translates to The Mint. A wiki entry shows that coins were minted from 1814 to 1929. And, in 1845 the palace became the residence of the president.

I learnt an important history of Chile that day about the Chileans having a different 911 to remember about and that was about the military coup d'état on September 11, 1973. The then Commander-in-chief Augusto Pinochet led the coup against the President Salvador Allende. Despite the air raids and ground attacks on the palace, the President vowed to stay in the presidential palace and rejected the military's ultimatum to step down. Eventually the President killed himself (although this is questionable and still under scrutiny). The tour guide explained this really well to the group and pointed to a closed door, which was guarded by a uniformed officer, mentioning that the dead body of the president was taken out through this door.

After finishing the tour around the palace, we had a stop at Los Dominicos for some artisan shopping and then the first day of the trip officially ended. Later for dinner, we went to a place nearby the hotel and the service was not so good. So we decided to tip him lesser than the 10%. But to our surprise, the waiter stood there demanding for the remaining tip. We didn't know if it was a Chile culture to tip 10% mandatorily. Later I found out that the livelihood of most of the waiters depends on tips. They may get a minimum salary but it is barely enough to cover transportation. But according to me, the financial dependence on tips doesn't necessarily mean the waiters/waitresses deserve to get tips for a lousy service. Thus, day one ended with some important lessons learnt about the history and culture of Chile. Throughout the trip we were informed of the importance of the copper industry to the economy of Chile.

Day Two

We started early on day two for a two hour long trip to the port city of Valparaiso. En route to Valparaiso, the second largest city of Chile, we stopped at a place to refresh ourselves and we saw some Llamas at the back of the store. It was the first time I saw a Llama. Later on a casual talk to one of the hotel staff, I learnt that during the Spanish conquest the Llamas was primarily used to bring down ore from the mines that were atop mountains. But then the introduction of horses and donkeys diminished the importance of Llama as a beast of burden. And, that they are primarily used as a source of food and fiber now.

The first thing that came to our attention in Valparaiso was the National Congress of Chile. Our tour guide pointed out that Pinochet shifted the congress from downtown Santiago to Valparaiso. The Chile government, like the USA, has a bicameral legislature. The legislature is made up of the Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house, and the Senate. Also, we saw the Valparaiso market through the windows of the bus and the guide mentioned that you will get all sorts of stuff (even used goods) at cheap prices in that market.

Chile has two Nobel Prize winners and both awards were in the fields of Literature. Our tour itinerary indicated a visit to the house of one of the Nobel laureates, Pablo Neruda. I wondered whether there will be anything interesting to see at a house of a poet. Again, my perceptions turned out to be wrong after entering the house and after listening to the narrations (in English!) through an audio guide. I liked the way Pablo named everything in his house. And, the view of the port from his window was stunning.

Then we trekked down the streets of Valparaiso and walked by the beautiful houses. The guide showed us certain parts of the town overlooking the port that were occupied mainly by the English and a church which had service in German. Later we took a short ride on a funicular, which was used to take the residents up and down the steep hill sides of Valparaiso. The funiculars are now operated just for tourism purpose