Taboga sugar cane plant

Yesterday we went to the sugar cane plant Taboga. Its is absolutely wild! First we drove through the massive sugar cane fields, I was reminded of Brazil again. My mother lives off the major highway between rio de janeiro and sao Paulo, in the middle of sugar cane plantations. I could not help but feel nostalgic about the sweet sugary grass. As we got the plant we could see the sheer immensity of their operations. Trains of trucks bringing sugar cane from the fields and processing them through what looked to me like a scaled up sugar cane juicer. However this facility does not make only sugar, but they also make alcohol for consumption and energy production. Even the pulp of the ground up sugar cane returns to the fields in the form of fertilizer. Apparently the plant started in 1958 as a sugar producing facility and over the years it has grown into the resourceful facility it is today. When we entered the plant it was in full operation, slippery walkways and exposed vents of steam were too intense for many in our group, in the United States we would never have access to a facility like this purely due to liability. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity.