Cane Syrup

This past week we went to see one of our neighbors operate his trapiche, a machine for getting the juice out of sugar cane.  This horse-drawn device squeezes the sugar cane between two rollers just like the old washing machines used to do.  It's a lot of work both for the horse and the man feeding the sugar cane into the rollers.  Kino usually works for four or five hours straight to process the sugar cane.

Kino feeds the sugar cane into the rollers as his grandson Kevin looks on.

Each stalk of sugar cane goes through the rollers three times.  The third time Kino twists three stalks together to get the last bit of liquid out.

Here you can see the whole setup.  Kino's granddaughter Macurys rides the horse around in a circle for hours, switching off with Kevin, who assists his grandfather by handing the stalks back to him for another trip through the rollers.  You can see the cane juice flowing out and into the bucket.

Macurys rides the horse.  You can see the pile of old sugar cane stalks behind her.

The cane juice is boiled for a while in the big drum, and then transferred to the smaller pot to be boiled down into cane syrup.  The finished product looks like maple syrup and sells for $1.25 a liter.

Swimming Lessons

We go to the swimming hole about three times a week.  Heather often reads books to children in the center of town in the morning, followed by a trip to the river.  It's a great incentive for the kids to come to her class.  The younger kids in the group take advantage of Heather's prowess as a swimming instructor.  Many have made significant progress this summer.  We all have to take breaks to warm up, as the water is quite chilly. 

Yarisel swims to Heather while Alex waits his turn.

We end this week's blog with a picture of our neighbors Mayka, age 6, and Meicol, age 10.  They were sent by their parents on an errand to deliver two sacks of rice to the piladora, where the outer coating is ground off to leave white rice.  Fortunately the horse is pretty docile!

That's it for this week!

Steve and Heather