Tequila

What trip to Mexico would be complete without a little tequila? We spent a couple on days in the small pueblo of Tequila, tasting a few house varieties and touring the Jose Cuervo plant. We found out that tequila is made in quite a similar way to wine, the blue agave plant is harvested, the heart is steamed and shredded, after the fiber is discarded the nectar is fermented then distilled. At this time the alcohol is too strong to drink and it is watered down a little, although it is said that it was at this stage that the Mexician Indians would drink the liquid (but only the men's men). Today they water the tequila to the correct percentage of alcohol they want, this is called tequila blanco. Reposado, or a finer quality of tequila is aged in wooded barrels for anywhere from 3 months to 1 year, and the finest tequila, anejo tequila (a darker, smoother, and sometimes sweeter variety) can be found in cellars being aged for many years. We found this tour interesting and now we will look at our favourate drink in a different way.

After Tequila it was off to Guadalajara to visit a new friend Humberto and his wife, Billy, their hospitality was fantastic and they showed us around the city and the surrounding countryside. Beautiful as it was we decided that the big city is not where we want to be and opted out of Mexico City and an invite from another friend.

We decided to check on the weather before strikeing out and we found that it was not in our best interest to stay inland because ALOT of rain was being forcast, so it is off to the coast and the humidity we go! Did you know that you can break a sweat just thinking about going for a walk? And as you are riding you just want to go faster to accumulate more wind. Staying with our plan to avoid bigger cities, we bypassed Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, and skirted Acapulco, and we are looking forward to Puerto Escondido for a little R&R.

The ride down from Zihuatanejo consists of miles and miles of beaches lined with coconut and banana palms. Rivers flow from the mountains and because of the amount of rains this time of year they are swollen and sometimes at the break of the road. Some of the small towns we passed were mostly up to their doorsteps in water, and it is not beautiful clean water either. Still life goes on here for the Mexicians, selling what goods they can and going about daily business, and all that with a smile on their face. You have got to like it!

A quick note about pictures, there are none. Well I'm trying, I am having a little trouble getting them to post, but back check post as I plan on posting them when I am able.

TTFN