Ecuador - Hacienda de Santa Ana (Santa Ana estate)

The hacienda of Santa Ana has a working treadmill. However, people from the community do not work at the mill. Some women from Santa Ana and from La Concepción work in the kitchen to feed the workers of the treadmill. There are also people from both communities who work in the fields, most of all during the harvest. This estate is a private property, and therefore, access is not always allowed.

The structure of the treadmill has changed in time. There are testimonials about the materials that have been replaced. For example, the canals through which the molasses flowed would have been made of wood, and now they are plastic tubes. The boilers would have been made of copper. This treadmill continues to work with the same hydraulic system, although the wheel was also replaced. The cut stones in the walls and the bigger stones found around the treadmill could be evidences of its age.