Both classes met yesterday, Tuesday the 17th. Students have assignments to be completed in both courses. Breakfast was eggs, ham, bread, avocado and melon slices and yogurt. They have “prune” yogurt here – very tasty, if you like prunes.
Lunch was “on our own”. I went with several student to the Subway a few blocks away. Everything is the same as a Subway in the United States – the smell of the fresh bread and all. Sometimes you just need to taste “home cooking”.
In the afternoon, the group was off for a guided tour of the Macoucherie Rum distillery on the west side of the island just north of Mero. While you might expect a modern, high tech operation, the distillery was quite the opposite. Basically, it was the same operation that and was built by the French in the late 1800′s on the grounds of a then sugar cane plantation. The distillery was later owned by the English and has been owned by the Shillingford family for several decades now. Our tour guide was the grandson of the original owner. 
Mr. Shillingford walked us through the entire operation, from the “pressing” of the sugar cane by water driven press to the final mixing. All the cane for the rum is grown on the premises. There is much more chemistry and physics involved in making rum than I realized – much the same as making “moonshine” (aka Mountain Dew, aka Ma Bio in Dominica). They currently sell their rum on the island and export it to other Caribbean islands and Germany; they hope to export to the U. S. soon.
Haley describes the experience this way:
After lunch, we all piled into ONE van (it was quite a squeeze) and headed north to the Macoucherie distillery. After a “20 minute ride”, which was actually closer to an hour, we finally arrived at the distillery. The building was as old as the process they used to make the rum. The sugar cane juice was squeezed out through a water powered mill and then was transported into tanks via pvc pipes. Although we were expecting a much more modern system that depended on technology it was interesting to see how personalized the process was. After seeing how the rum was made, we proceeded into the office area to taste the rums. I must say, those rums were NOT meant for the occasional rum drinker. They were STRONG.
The "Press"
The cane stalks (post pressing) are composted into fertilizer.
The "wood fired" boiler generates steam for the process.
The distillation tanks.
The final products.
Haley continues:
After the tasting, we all walked over to the distillery’s private beach. We all walked down the beach and found a cool area where a river flowed into the Caribbean Sea. The view was amazing. We swam in the rocky water and enjoyed fresh cocoanuts for a local man. After the long ride back to Roseau we got ready and headed out to dinner.
We returned to Roseau to catch yet one more spectacular sun set in the west.
No caption needed!
Steve Hastings
The sunset photo is gorgeous!