The Santa Rosa Sugar Refinery, located 15km west of Aguadulce, is a must-see if you’re in the area from mid-January to mid-March. During grinding season, the refinery processes over 6500 tons of raw sugarcane per day.
Because the land here is hilly and rocky, the cane must be harvested by hand. Four thousand people are hired to help with harvesting and production, and they bring the cane in as fast as they can, 24 hours a day, six days a week (on Sunday everyone goes to church). Most of the cane is harvested on company land, but the mill still buys about 3% of its cane from campesinos (farmers), who bring it in on carts pulled by tractors and oxen. Around 135kg of cane enters the mill each second via a huge conveyer belt that’s continually fed from trucks coming in from the fields. By day’s end, the yield of refined sugar is around 675,000kg (1.5 million pounds). All this cane is sent through grinders that resemble a stack of studded rolling pins – except that each one weighs 20 tons and is about the size of a Buick. They spin quickly, and the cane that passes through them is crushed flat.
Occasionally the machine chokes. A 10-second choke results in a pileup of 1350kg of cane, and jackhammers are required to remove the clog. To give you an idea of the grinders’ power: when a choke starts to occur, railroad ties are pushed into the grinders. In the fraction of a second it takes for the ties to pass through, they are chewed up as if they were breadsticks, but even as they’re pulverized, they act as battering rams, punching bunched-up cane through the machines.
Also on the property is a replica of the original house of the mill’s first owner, built in 1911. This museum is nicely done, and contains many exhibits on the history of sugar production in the New World. All its furniture and articles on display are originals.
To book tours, ask for Gonzalo Peréz (he speaks English and Spanish). The refinery would like at least 24 hours’ notice to receive visitors.
If you’re driving from Aguadulce, the turnoff for the mill will be on the right-hand side of the Interamericana and marked by a sign (there’s an Esso station opposite). Take the road 500m, and you’ll come to a white guard station with a tiny chapel in front of it. Give your name to the guard and follow instructions.
You can also take a taxi from Aguadulce (which could cost US$16 if the driver waits for you and takes you back to town), or you can catch any bus headed in the direction of the refinery and tell the driver to drop you at the Ingenio de Azúcar Santa Rosa (US$1, 20 minutes, every 15 minutes). Be forewarned that the walk from the guard station to the mill is more than 1km, down a paved road lined with mature teak trees.
