Now the Rest of the Story

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The rum distillery.

About ten of us loaded onto a bus and headed down the road for the Santa Teresa rum distillery. It is located in the city of La Victoria, about an hour and a half from Valencia. Everyone was very sympathetic to my plight; they all volunteered to throw down whatever cash was necessary to cover us for the event.

We chatted and hung out until we arrived at the gates. It is a beautiful space with rolling green grass, palm trees, and old bits of train lying about. Each of us was given a plastic mug with the name of the place on it, but we weren’t allowed to fill it until our tour started. We brought in some food and had a picnic on the lawn while we waited for our appointed time.

Finally, they called us and we all rushed forth to claim our Cuba Libres. These were made with a plethora of rum and just the right amount of lime. We then boarded a little trolley car for our tour. The guide spoke only in Spanish. Fortunately we had two Venezuelans along to translate for us. This, however, became more difficult as their plastic mugs were emptied. By the end we had no idea what they were saying and we really didn’t care.

We drove through the sugar cane fields and learned about the organic way they get rid of pests. We drove around the distilling plant and the holding tanks and discovered that the byproducts of this rum are used as cleaning products and paint thinner. The bottling plant was closed so we only drove by. Eventually we came to the original building.

Here we were greeted by folks in period clothing. They ushered us in and showed us around. The museum that was the inside was set up to look like the place might have looked two hundred years ago when it was built. There was a Victrola and these great player piano devices. We weren’t supposed to touch them, but I couldn’t help myself. We looked at the original still and learned more about the process of making rum.

After a little more wandering we ended up back where we started. Here we tried to get our promised refill, but were told that would not happen. After some shrewd discussions with the man that had organized our tour we finally prevailed. With our second drink in hand, we boarded the bus for home. We were a little drowsy for the ride and by the time we arrived back at school we were all pining for the restroom.

It was a really fun day. We had time to spend without Zachary and we got to know our colleagues a little better. We can cross one more thing off of our list of things to do now.
MJR