March 5 Day Perspective

A ship's air-horn goes off. It's 7 am. My body vibrates in bed and my eyes snap open. Maybe they have an alarm clock that wakes up the whole town?

Mark and I can't sleep after the shock, so we decide a jog is in order. It's only a kilometer back to the Estate, and the morning temperature is appropriate. Everyone is still asleep when we arrive, so we wait until Doug joins us to get the schedule for the day. The girls wake and join us for our run back to our house. They're doing a longer loop, but Mark and I are happy with our short run. A cold shower, big breakfast, and we're outside again, this time to tour the estate.

Andrea, our guide, speaks great English, and shares the guide explanations with Juan, who adds historical flavour.

800 acres of sugar cane are harvested in a 3 month period. The leaves and pulp are burned to fire the boiler, providing 70% of the boiler fuel, which is a great reuse of a waste product.

The sugar water/syrup is squeezed out, and is boiled. It then ferments and becomes 8% alcohol. They distill it to 72%. The bi-products are used as fuel and fertilizer, a very efficient operation. If they're making Seco Herrerano, there is no aging, so they cut it with water to make a 35% beverage.

If they're making rum, they put it in American oak barrels, and age it. The oak pulls out the impurities, increasing the alcohol %, and adds some very nice (warm) flavours.

There are 15 large, very beautiful storage warehouses. They have plans for a gift shop, restaurant, and tasting area between some of the buildings. The Estate is starting to become a tourist destination, and they want to offer the best educational & hospitality experience. The Ron Abuelo is available in 5, 7 and 12 year ages. They also offer a Centuria, which is a blend of the aged rum they didn't use, ranging from 35 to 50 years.

The bottling and packaging is done at the plant in town where Mark and I are staying.

We have tried the 5, 7, and 12 year at certain points on our trip, and are hoping to taste the Centuria as well. At $125+ per bottle, it isn't easily available here.

Carnival is tonight...

CGD