Tequila

Rolled out of Humberto Hotel and nabbed some birria tacos for breakfast from a spot just down the street. They had a tasty sweet sauce on them which balanced nicely with some salsa picante. Nummy.

After a few hundred more U-turns we were out of Tepic and climbing even higher into the mountains. The temp dropped to the most comfortable coolness of the trip so far and the vegetation totally changed again. Fir trees lined the highway and the soil had a red tinge to it reminiscent of PEI. The elevation leveled off and suddenly there was corn, corn, corn. Fields of tortilla factories as far as you could see. We passed by what looked like a colorful little gem nestled in a valley called Ixtlan del Rio, but we were on a mission for Guadalajara and submerged the urge to stop in.

But when we came across this road sign our mission priorities were quickly derailed and we cut a hard right into the town of Tequila.

Tequila is in the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, and yes it’s where the alcohol originates from. As we descended down into the town there were miles and miles of blue agave, the signature ingredient of the most Mexican of alcohols. Apparently the red soil here is where these plants enjoy living the most (maybe they should stand up some Tequila distilleries in PEI?).

James and I ‘follow people’ into the center of town and park el-BP so we can walk around. The history of Tequila can be seen in every mural, statue, and monument throughout the town. Buses in the shape of tequila barrels take you on tasting tours to the distilleries, of which every major Tequila brand is represented in the area. Blue agave grows like a weed here everywhere along the road. There was a cool city square with a church and a collection of neat looking bars around it.

On one of the side streets I beheld a sight I would have never expected. James’ “style” was here. They sold it on the street. Camouflage shirts. OMG! For the love of Saint Christopher could I please, please convince him to get one and rid ourselves of the now glued on, skanky Maroon Japanese hostel shirt he’d been wearing for.. what is it.. 6 days now?! “Look man, they have your style”. “Oh wow they do!”. Yes, yes come on man pleeeeeash! “I’m thinking the blue one”, my powers of suggestion are formidable. “Yeah, actually that is pretty sweet”. James asks the guy how much. 100 pesos. “Naaaah”. What?! jeeeeeeeebus. We started walking away from the shop and I ask him, “So you’re not going to buy a clean camo shirt for 8 bucks? Really?! It’s totally your style!”. “Oh yeah I suppose so, eh? Ya I am gonna grab it”. FUCK YES!!! He changed into it immediately on the street.

Nothing classier than camo on camo:

After that fashion victory we passed by the Museo del Tequila. We joked that it was probably just a loud room of drunk old guys sitting around telling drinking stories and piling on shots of tequila. We went in and checked it out. It was kind of cool. There were a handful of rooms to show the history of tequila, the regions it is made in, the tools they use, tequila inspired art, and a display of barrels and all of the major brands of tequila. Here’s a virtual tour:

We nabbed a couple things from the gift shop on the way out, including some postcards. Don’t forget, if you want postcards you can send us your details as per the info in This Post. So we learned a bit about tequila and now we were kind of thirsty.

Close to the museum was a Cholula building with a restaurant inside. I felt obligated having smothered many a burrito, taco, or pizza with that nummy tastiness, so we slipped in for a bite.

They sat us upstairs for some reason. We were the only ones up there, but no matter, the view was cool.

We ordered something called Taco Tahoneros (sp?) which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Having sampled a wide spread of tacos thus far (actually, I think that made 4 straight meals of tacos) our taco palette was refined and these were really weak. They did have three varieties of cholula though, which spruced things up a bit: Original, limon, and chipotle. Oh actually, the margaritas kind of sucked too. So ya, don’t go there.

We liked the town quite a bit. So we got lost looking for our car just to check it out a little further.