Cali - The Sugar Cane Museum and Ginebra

The weather forecast was still calling for rain, but we decided to chance it and taking two pairs of shoes each, the intrepid five (Mama Leny, Patricia, Lucero, Manuel Jose and I) headed off in Lucero’s SUV to the Museo de la Cana de Azucar (Sugar Cane Museum) about 60 km east of the city on the road to Buga. 

Much of the valley of the Cauca river between the first and second Andes Cordilleras was cleared in the eighteenth century to grow sugar cane.   (The Andes splits into three spurs, called Cordilleras, south of Colombia.  The River Cauca runs north between the west and central Cordilleras and the river Magdalena runs north between the central and east Cordilleras.  Each of the Cordilleras has mountains in excess of 12,000 feet, and the valleys between the Cordilleras are ~3,000 feet above sea level)

 We found the museum, but were a little disconcerted to see we were the only car in the large parking lot and later discovered that the museum is normally closed to tours on Monday.  However, one of the Museum employees offered to give us a tour and we gratefully accepted.

There was much to see and learn about growing and processing sugar cane in the nineteenth and early twentieth century in Colombia. These are some of the highlights.

The house was built in the 18^th century by the Borrero family and has never been rebuilt or restored or remodeled.  It is exactly as it used to be.  The Borrero family is still a powerful family in the Cali area.  The first owner of the plantation lived in the house and fathered 16 children here, even though the man and his wife slept in separate – but connected - bedrooms.

Here we are on the balcony of the main house.

The juice from the cane used to be extracted by squeezing the cane and letting the juice run out.  This was one of the earliest juice extraction tools.

The property has an amazing selection of tropical plants and flowers.  This is just one example called the Emperor Cane, since it reminds people of the Emperors walking cane.  There were many other examples of exotic plants including a tree whose fruit provided glue, a bush whose berries provided a soapy substance that could be used for washing clothes, a fruit whose tiny inner capsules provides a red food coloring and red stain that the Indians used to paint their faces, and leaves of bushes that made a tea to cure different ailments.

 

This particular plantation was forward looking and as soon as the iron rollers were available, the owner built an aqueduct to channel water to a water wheel that then drive rollers to crush the sugar cane and extract the juice.  The wheel is activated by pulling this handle to dam the water so it drives the water wheel rather than flowing over the end of the aqueduct.

The trail we followed around the property was 1 km long.  There were many constructions along the path representing sugar cane production and extraction in different parts of Colombia.  This was the start of the trail and gives some small idea of the beauty of the grounds in the museum.

After the Sugar Cane Museum we drove 15 km north to the town of Ginebra where we stopped for late lunch at the restaurant El Jordan.  More details of the lunch and the beer of the day (Poker) can be found at http://www.365beers365days.blogspot.com/.