To read previous part Waimea Canyon, surfers and sunset... Hawaii, part 10
Most of the people expect the beaches and sun when they have a vacation in Hawaii. But you also can find some interesting places to visit there too. So the next day we decided to look at the place of history and business. Growing sugarcane was a main business for Kauai for a centuries. But now no one does it anymore. So the plantations that bloomed there either died and repurposed or found a new life with changing of the product. Small town of Koloa was a home for a few big sugarcane plantations and one of them is still blooming. They don't produce sugar anymore, but use all the experience of growing sugarcane. Koloa Rum Company is quite young but already has a good reputation and produces a really good rum. They become famous also for producing flavored rum (their Chocolate Rum, infused with Kauai grown cocoa nibs is a mindblower) and ready to drink cocktails.
But this is not the only interesting thing about this estate. They also are good entertainers and even still have a steam engine, that brings the visitors around the estate and meets them with a bit more, than just sugarcane growing. So, let's buy a train ticket and look around...
First you need to board a hundred and a half years old cars and the tour begins... Most of the plants you see during this tour are used for making a flavored rum and creating the cocktails (both bottled and sold fresh in the premises). Firstly the train passes a banana plantation.
It is not really a "plantation". There are small patches where the different fruits are grown. And the next you see are the papaya trees. Aren't they beautiful? And... I have to say, the locally grown papaya is delicious... not... Delicious from capital D ;)
And here is how it looks like from the train - bananas on the front and papayas on the back.
The rows of sugarcane... The main product of the plantation for so long.
Pineapples. Did you know the pineapples are more like grass? Bushy grass with the fruit in the middle. I was surprised, actually :)
Some blooming trees (this is Hawaii!) and the train is moving just along them.
They also have an animal farm here and the train stops here and everybody can get off the train and feed the goats and hogs.
Right... they are fighting... they can help it even when they are so young...
Coconut trees and fruit orchards.
Avocados and nectarines...
Once you are back you can make yourself familiar with the stuff that was abandoned for decades.
Distilling is what they are doing here now and here is the small version of the distiller used for manufacturing their famous rum.
And now you can visit the planters house where you can taste some samples or just spend a lot of the time enjoying different varieties of the Koloa Rum...
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