Trapiche trip!

Ok, so this is something I am so glad I went to.  Rather near the farm here, there is a Trapiche.  It is the name for the places that make a local kind/form of sugar called "tapa dulce".  It is similar to brown sugar in taste and color, but they make it into hard, conical, flat topped... things (you'll see in the pictures below) and it gets grated or shaved off with a knife blade for use (or sometimes dropped whole into a pitcher for tea or lemonade).  I got to watch the whole process, from pressing the cane, to heating the water (also got to try the fresh cane juice.  Looked gross, tasted AMAZING!)
Mostly I'll let the pictures speak for me, but I will say OSHA does not exist here; there were no gloves, or hair nets, or safety glasses.  It is a family industry and the brothers sure know their work.  Fun to watched people so practiced at an activity.  And the fires!  Wow!  Anyway, pictures now...

One of the brothers in front of a full table of the finished product, Tapa Dulce.  I loved his hat so much, I went out and bought one. :-)

Boiling vat of sugar!  This one was almost ready to be cooled and poured into the molds.  Looks much less... molten when they first put it in the vat.

Rays of light.  Just cool looking.

Fires!  The cane fed fires burned incredibly hot.

The cane juice.  Told you it looked gross.

I may like fire.

A lot.

I didn't realize how silly my hair looked until later...

Finishing filling the molds.

Pressing the cane.

Stirring the pot.