Making caramel from sugar cane

When Andres said it would be a long twisty hilly drive on bumpy roads there was a dash for the best seats on the small minibus, several people claiming travel sickness.

We had 2 stops for Becky who was feeling sick and in the end Guisseppi gave us his front seat by the driver.

When we got back in the van after one stop Mr C noticed there was a swelling the size of a plum on his elbow with a barb where he’d been stung. He hadn’t felt anything. Guisseppi gave him an anti-histamine. (ours were in our big case of course so not handy). It hasn’t gone down but it hadn’t got bigger either.

The journey took us, and many slow lorries, up and over the Andean foothills quite dramatically. As the road was treelined we only got glimpses of distant higher mountains and canyons. As the heat rose they disappeared hazily into the distance. Along the way we saw lots of sugar cane growing even though we were at 1500m. We stopped at a small factory where Andres took us to see the production of a kind of caramel. The juice was squeezed from the cane which was burned to create the heat for the next process. The juice went into a pipe which took it into hoppers where it was boiled and moved downwards from vat to vat. This room was very hot owing to the heat from the boiling vats. Eventually the sugary liquid thickened to a toffee colour then ended up in a room where it got spread into rectangular containers. It now had the consistency of tablet but was caramel. After the juice was extracted the cane was burned to create the heat for the processing. The men working got the equivalent of £50 for six 12 hour days. It was suffocating to be in the heat for 5 minutes.

We stopped in a pretty town, Socorro where the first rebellion against the Spanish occurred. Lunch in a local
cafe was cheap, about £5. I had delicious garlic trout, served with a potato, some rice, a big slice of avocado and a small salad of carrot, mango, tomato and grated cheese. It was around 30 degrees in the town.

By then it had gone 3pm (which is why we often don’t go out to eat at 7 with the group as we aren’t hungry so soon after a big lunch).

On the way to our destination, Barichara, we had to take a detour due to road works. There was no diversion so locals were asked. We had to go steeply up dirt roads turned right and left in a village till we emerged on the road. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was 4.30. We have a bizarre room. The entrance has a wood oven, a chair and a fridge. Then we progress through a tiny room with 2 beds into our room with a double bed and a dressing table. Then there’s a small
passage with a cupboard then the bathroom. All the rooms go off a central courtyard with seats outside the rooms.

The hotel had WiFi but we are too
far away from the router so I’ll try to post my blip. I am struggling to upload blips from my phone so I hope I have more luck.