February 20, 2015
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| Agave Fields Near Tequila |
After a quick walk up the highway to the closest Oxxo for
coffee, we packed ourselves into April’s van and headed off for Tequila. The landscape of agave fields against a
volcano backdrop was striking and we just had to stop alongside the road to
take pictures. It must have been THE
spot to photograph agave fields because we later saw the same view in a video
at the Jose Cuervo tequila factory.
The town of Tequila was very picaresque. It was a small town, but all the major tequila brands had factories there. In order to be called “tequila,” the liquor must be shipped from Jalisco. Even if it is actually made
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| Volcano in the Distance |
elsewhere in
Mexico, it must pass through Jalisco before being sent to its ultimate
destination. In the center of town there
was a pretty church on a small plaza. We
ate breakfast in a small café overlooking the square that somehow managed to
make standard breakfast fare absolutely delicious. The chilaquiles were amazing and the coffee
and licuados (a drink made from fruit, ice, and milk or water) were excellent. Patricia and I sat on a balcony overlooking
the square and I was practically chanting a mantra of, “I love Mexico. I love Mexico.” It was a perfect morning shared with great
company.
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| Breakfast on the Balcony |
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| Church Square in Tequila |
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| Agave "Pineapples" |
After breakfast, we walked a few blocks past tequila factories
and outlets and through vendors hawking handicrafts to the Jose Cuervo tequila
factory. The Cuervo family had been
making tequila in that location since 1758 and they are the only major tequila
brand that has not been purchased by a multinational liquor company. While the majority of their tequila is now
produced in other, more modern factories throughout the region, they do still
produce some tequila at “La Rojena,” the original hacienda. Today, most of the original hacienda
buildings are devoted to gift shops, a bar, and tour facilities. It was, however, a lovely example of hacienda
architecture and was very clean and well maintained.
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| Horneros Unloading Agave From the Oven |
The tour showed us how the raw “pineapples” (an agave plant
with the leaves hacked off) are stacked in brick ovens and roasted for 38
hours. When they had cooled enough to
touch, horneros (men who work in the ovens) tossed them onto conveyor belts
that took them to the crusher where the juice was separated from the
fiber. While, in the past, the fiber was
used to make products like rope and baskets, today it is composted and returned
to the fields as fertilizer. We got a
chance to taste pieces of roasted agave, which had a light, sweet flavor and
were a bit like eating an artichoke leaf.
The juice was fermented to make what they called agave “wine”
and then the wine was distilled twice to produce silver tequila. Tequila that is not destined to be sold as
silver tequila was then poured into barrels and aged. The barrels used are the exact same kind that
are used to age wine and, as in winemaking, are used to impart flavor to the
liquor. We got a chance to taste the
tequila in its silver form and also after it had been aged six, twelve and
eighteen months.
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| Tequila Aging in Barrels |
Cuervo has two lines of tequila. The better line is made with 100% blue agave. The line that you usually see in stores and bars is only 51% blue agave, the balance being distilled from other sugars. Each line is then divided into silver (not aged), reposado (aged less than a year), and anejo (aged more than a year.) Darker tequilas are aged in barrels with more char on the inside. I had always wondered exactly what those distinctions meant, so was glad to hear them explained. I liked the aged tequila better than the younger versions, but would never be a drinker of straight shots.
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| Our Guide Explaining the Different Classes of Tequila |
After our factory tour, we spent a short time strolling
around the town of Tequila. The carload
of New Zealanders split off from the group, thinking they might stay a night in
Tequila or visit Guadalajara. The rest
of us returned to the van and then April drove Patricia and me to the main bus
stop in Tequila where we quickly boarded a bus for Guadalajara. The ride should have taken us an hour and a
half, but ended up taking over three hours because there was a series of
accidents blocking the highway. The bus
had been too crowded for us to find seat together when Pat and I boarded, so
she ended up sitting next to a Mexican woman named Mary who worked for the
Jalisco state police. She was very
friendly and the three of us had a long conversation in a combination of
Spanish and English. She had six
children and worked a schedule of fifteen days on and six days off while her
mother took care of the children. She
patrolled all over the state of Jalisco.
When we finally got to the bus station in Guadalajara, Mary showed us
where to get the cheapest cab and made sure we were on our way before hailing a
cab for herself. It was all I could do
to keep her from carry my bag. She was
extremely helpful.
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| The Group in Front of April's Van |
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| Teatro Degollado |
The cab took us to the Hotel de Mendoza, which April had
recommended to us. The hotel was a
former convent right off the cathedral square and was very comfortable and
elegant for about $70 per night. Our
room even had pillow top mattresses. I
was in heaven. The historic center of
Guadalajara featured a series of plazas in the shape of a cross with the
cathedral at the center. Our hotel was
at the bottom of the cross, next to the Teatro Degollado. We had hoped to be able to attend a
performance of the ballet folklorico at the theater, but only the symphony was
playing while we were there. We didn’t
attend a concert, but we did hear an orchestra playing in the Plaza de las
Armas. We checked into our hotel,
relaxed for a little while and then walked several blocks to a very popular
restaurant called La Chata. There was a
line out the door, but it moved quickly.
La Chata was a large restaurant with closely packed tables, but the
service was very good and so was the food.
I ordered arrachera and Pat had chicken mole. We were very pleased with our choice of
restaurants.
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| Guadalajara Cathedral |
It was dark by the time we returned and all of the historic
buildings were dramatically lit. The
lighting of the cathedral was exceptionally dramatic and the changing colors of
the fountain in the Plaza de los Laureles with the backdrop of the cathedral
made a memorable scene. We lingered in
the plaza, taking pictures and enjoying the warm evening. It had been a long day and we finally
returned to our hotel to relax and plan the following day’s exploration.
February 21, 2015
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| Open Confessional |
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| Interior of the Cathedral |
We ate breakfast in a café in Plaza de los Laureles with a
nice view of the cathedral. After
breakfast, we ducked into the church to see the interior. The exterior of the cathedral is very
attractive and unique with a semicircular pediment topped with stone spikes
above the door and two tall, tiled spires.
The interior was pretty, with lots of cream and gold, but not
particularly memorable. While the
cathedral was begun in the 16th century, it was not consecrated
until 1716. It lacked the fabulous art
and stained glass that marks the cathedrals of Europe and didn’t have the aura
of sheer age that make other cathedrals in Mexico impressive. One thing that we found unusual was that the confessionals were open and offered no privacy.
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| Hospicio de las Cabanas |
Our next mission of the day was to find the tourist office
and get a good map of Guadalajara. We
had been told it was behind the cathedral, but we couldn’t find it. Someone else told us it was next to the
Sanborn’s store on the other side of the cathedral. We walked up there and cast about before we
found the store, but never did locate the tourist office. I stopped at an Oxxo and bought a street
map. The doorman at Sanborn’s told us
there was a tourist kiosk in Plaza de los Laureles and we did eventually find
it, but they were out of maps. They sent
us back to the kiosk on the other side of the cathedral and this time we managed to
locate it, right across from our hotel, but lost amidst a clutter of tents
associated with the Guadalajara Half Marathon.
They provided us with a lot of good information, but it had taken us
until 12:30 to locate them.
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| Orozco Mural at Hospicio de las Cabanas |
After a quick stop in the hotel, we headed off in the
opposite direction to see the Orozco murals at the former Hospicio de las
Cabanas (an orphanage) that had been converted into a cultural center. The murals were reputed to be the number one
attraction in Guadalajara, but we were unimpressed. Pat much preferred the work of Diego
Rivera. While I appreciated that Orozco
was working in fresco and had a different style, I preferred other works of his
that I had seen. I found the murals at
Las Cabanas very dark and somewhat confusing in their symbolism. We walked around the galleries in the
cultural center where there was an exhibition of modern paintings and another
installation of photographs of the artists with their works which we
enjoyed. It was interesting to see the
faces of the people associated with the often puzzling contemporary art.
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| Finches in the Guadalajara Market |
Our next stop was the marketplace, which had three levels
and covered an entire city block. It was
very crowded and the vendors were very pushy.
Pat wanted to look at embroidered blouses, but it was impossible to shop
with people shoving merchandise under our noses if we so much as paused to look
at anything. The array of fruit on the
bottom level was attractive, although the swarms of flies discouraged me from
buying anything. There were also a
couple of vendors selling all types of caged birds, some of which looked like
very unhappy wild songbirds that must have been trapped. We wandered around the market for an hour or
so, but didn’t buy anything. The
experience was somewhat overwhelming, so we decided to go to the Plaza of the
Mariachis to get a margarita and relax a bit.
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| Fruit in the Guadalajara Market |
It was easy to find the Plaza of the Mariachis because you
could hear it from two blocks away. The
entire plaza was filled with café tables, but the mariachi music was recorded
and much too loud. The singers were live
and very talented, but the overall impression was tacky and disappointing. We stayed long enough to finish our drinks
and share a torta ahogada (a pork sandwich on a crusty roll drowned in tomato
sauce), but beat a hasty retreat from the noise as soon as possible.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to visit the
jewelry market that my friend, Sonja from La Cruz, had told me was the best
place to buy silver. The market was a
modern, air conditioned building with three floors that
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| Plaza of the Mariachis with Lone Singer |
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| Guadalajara Jewelry Market |
resembled a large
department store except that every counter sold jewelry or supplies for making
jewelry. It was truly mind
boggling. Pat shopped for a gold
bracelet, but didn’t end up buying anything.
I finally managed to buy some simple silver star shaped earrings to
replace the silver earrings I had had ever since I pierced my ears in 1992 that
had broken in La Cruz. Finally,
we were overwhelmed by the selection and had to leave. We had been standing and walking all day and
were tired by the time we made it back to the hotel, so we rested for an hour
or so before heading back out to eat dinner at El Mexicano, a restaurant off
the Plaza Tapatia.
It was noisy downstairs at the restaurant with loud music
blasting, so we decided to go upstairs.
No sooner had we placed our order than a transsexual comedian/singer
arrived and began to perform an extremely loud and very raunchy show. Even she was a bit appalled when she realized
I spoke Spanish. Shortly thereafter, the
manager arrived and asked us if we wanted to move downstairs. I wasn’t offended, but did appreciate moving
to a quieter spot. The food was actually
very good and quite reasonable. I had a
plate of carnitas tacos with beans and guacamole for only 70 pesos. After dinner, we stopped for ice cream and
watched people relaxing in the plazas.
It was a warm evening and everybody was out. The plazas were crowded and street performers
were working the crowd while horse drawn carriages circled the historic
district. It was the perfect picture of
happy city life.
February 22, 2015
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| Tapatio Tour Bus |
We decided to forego eating breakfast out, so just had
coffee at the hotel before setting out to buy tickets for one of those hop-on,
hop-off bus tours of Guadalajara. It was
Sunday, which was market day in the Tonala district, so we headed out there
first. There wasn’t a whole lot to see
on the way. Tonala was originally a
separate village, but had been swallowed by Guadalajara. It was famous for its Thursday and Sunday
markets and handicrafts. The market
lined all of the streets of the area of artisans’ shops, making the whole
district seem like one big pop-up market.
It was extremely busy and we could barely edge along from vendor to
vendor. There was really nothing we were
interested in buying, but some of the art in the permanent shops was
attractive. There was a factory making
heavy Mexican glassware and one could watch the glassblowers. I was especially attracted to a shop offering
mosaic lamps, mirrors and fountains. We
shopped for an hour or so and then walked back up the road to catch a bus to
Tlaquepaque.
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| Mosaic Art in Tonala |
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| Sunday Market in Tonala |
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| Church in Tlaquepaque |
The ride to Tlaquepaque took us along the freeway and was
uneventful and not particularly scenic.
Tlaquepaque itself, however, was very charming. There was a pretty church and main square and
lots of colorful restaurants and boutique shops covering several square
blocks. We browsed and visited the
Museum of Ceramics, which was more a store than a museum, but did display some
lovely pieces. I was fascinated by the
trees painted with colorful designs that grew in the courtyard. We ate lunch at a taco stand on the second
floor of the indoor market that overlooked the street. We had delicious arrachera and chorizo tacos
for eight pesos apiece (about 55 cents.)
We browsed some more after lunch, but didn’t find anything. We had just stepped into the long line at an
extremely popular ice cream store when our bus arrived and we decided to forego
the ice cream rather than wait another hour for the next bus.
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| Pedestrian Street in Tlaquepaque |
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| Ceramics in the Regional Cermaics Museum |
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| Cafe Degollado |
It was 4:30 by the time the bus dropped us back at the
cathedral. We were hot and tired and
ready for a margarita, so decided to take a break before embarking on the third
route of our tour. After asking around
for a good place to get margaritas nearby and coming up empty, we finally
decided to try the café attached to the Teatro Degollado. We ordered drinks and then decided just to
eat an early dinner and continue our tour in the evening. We were served by two entertaining young men
who took our photographs and made us laugh.
We ordered chicken Caesar salads and enjoyed watching the scene in the
plaza while we ate. When we had finished
eating, we returned to the bus stop near the cathedral and hopped on the
Central Guadalajara loop of the tour.
Our final loop was much more interesting than the other two
and took us through the modern part of Guadalajara. We passed massive modern shopping malls and huge traffic circles centered around monumental sculptures.
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| Centro Magno |
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| Plaza Minerva |
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| Intercontinental Hotel |
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| Templo Expiatorio |
We visited the Millennium Arches, huge golden
arches built in 2000 to commemorate the millennium. They were impressive, but I couldn’t help
being reminded of McDonald’s and expected to see a sign telling me how many
billions had been served. From there, we
drove through a shady residential neighborhood of expensive homes, past the
American consulate, and finally caught a glimpse of the Templo Expiatorio, a
lacy gothic masterpiece, before returning to the Rotunda of Illustrious
Jaliscans where the tour began.
We weren’t really ready to go back to the hotel, so walked
around the neighborhood, soaking up the scenery one last time, before returning
to our hotel to go to bed.
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| Millenium Arches |
February 23, 2015
Guadalajara had at least three main bus terminals (besides
the one where we arrived) and it was somewhat confusing determining where we
needed to go to get a bus to Puerto Vallarta.
Eventually, we divined that we needed to go to the Zapopan station on
the western edge of town. The hotel
called us a cab and for 150 pesos the driver took us twelve miles through
traffic to the bus station. We had no
trouble getting seats on the next bus headed for Las Penitas, which would stop
in Mezcales (closer to La Cruz than PV.)
Our bus didn’t leave until 9:45 (and, of course, it was late), so we had
plenty of time to get coffee and breakfast at the bus station.
Our bus finally left the station about 10:00 and we had a
very comfortable ride on the Primera Plus line, watching movies all the way to
Mezcales, where we arrived about 14:30.
From Mezcales, we flagged down a collectivo right outside the bus
station to take us home to La Cruz.
We dropped off our luggage and rested a bit before heading
down the hill to enjoy gargantuan coconut shrimp with mango salsa at the
Glorieta de Enrique, which Pat had been craving ever since she arrived and
found the restaurant closed the previous Tuesday. The shrimp there were truly spectacular. They were large and coated with coconut
without being heavily breaded. The mango
salsa was fruity and delicious and the margaritas generous. It was not a cheap meal, but a good value for
the money. By the time we finished, we
were ready to go home and relax.
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Once we finished lunch, we took a last walk around the town
and then picked up a taxi from the stand at the head of Langosta to take us up
the hill, collect our luggage, and drive us to the airport. The fare was the standard 300 pesos. The airport was very busy, but they whisked
both of us through the check-in procedure.
Pat and I were leaving from the same gate, although my flight was two
hours later. I saw her off and then
relaxed until my flight was called. By
leaving one day earlier, I had managed to secure a first class seat for fewer
miles than it would have taken to procure a coach seat the following day. This turned out to be a real advantage, as I
was able to check both of my duffle bags without having to pay a cent and no one
questioned my carrying a guitar on board with me. I had no trouble whatsoever with luggage
until I arrived in San Francisco and had to rent a cart to carry my mountain of
belongings to the curb where Scott came to collect me. I was home.