You might know how much I like to see and meet with the simple and small businesses. We got to visit a distillery in the village of Janela. It was a small, simple, low-technology, minimal investment business that seemed to be very efficient. Our local guides said that it was a successful business. They called their product "grogue" (grog). I half expected to meet a pirate or two at the shop. Grogue is the national drink of Cape Verde.

In the first photo, I would like to point out the sugar cane growing on the hillside above their shop. That's their raw material.

They chop down the sugar cane and stack it for processing.

The job of grinding up the raw sugar cane to get the sugar cane juice seemed simple enough. You can see their crew of two below. The white frothy juice below is their start.

They have to let the sugar cane juice ferment for several days. Afterwards, they cook the juice to distill it. I would not like the job of tending the fires in the heat and humidity of this place, but I guess it's a job. They use the spent sugar cane husks for their fuel for the fire.

The next guy, on the distilled alcohol end of the operation looks like he has a pretty cushy job.

We visited a village school, but it was a Saturday, so there were no students. Still, we were expected, and the teachers gave us a snack of bananas, dumplings, biscuits, doughnuts, and fried breadfruit. Plus, they served us some local grogue. They had two kinds and we tried them both.

We were told that the clearer grogue was for the men. It was stronger. The darker grogue was for the ladies as it was sweeter and not as strong. I like the darker grogue. But I had to try each one about three times to complete my test and determine my preference. No more hiking today mateys.