On Monday we drove to Magdalena, with the truck only, so Carroll could, as she phased it, “ check out “ the Opal shops. I knew that meant buying Opals but she insisted it was just to admire them. First we check to see if there was a better route thru the town for our return trip. There was not. Then we hunted for a parking spot. We found one. Then we headed for the Opal shops, we found them.
While being bored looking at “polished rocks” I ventured around the city to find a better parking spot as I was in a 1 hour spot and I knew Carroll would be longer than an hour. I was standing in the town square when i seen a huge gravel Crushing rig coming thru town on the same street that i would have to travel on my trip out. He would have to make a sharp 90 degree left turn at the square followed by a sharp right and he would need both lanes. Well he accomplished the manoeuvre without even stopping so that made me breathe easier as he was much larger than our rig. With that problem solved, I then found a parking spot and went to get the truck. When i got back to my parking spot it seemed to shrink in size and i had to back a short distance down a one way street to get into it. A friendly Mexican notice my struggle so he directed me into the spot. The problem in small towns is that they put the power pole on the street side of the curb and I have to touch the curb with my tire or there is not enough room for vehicles to pass. Finally, I found Carroll in an Opal shop and she had ordered a couple of items but they had to make them and they would not be ready for 3 hours, which really meant tomorrow.
Since it was now lunch time we decided to grab a Loungie (sp) from the street vender, of which there are many and eat it in the Town Square and watch people. Loungies are the MX version of a cheap “Subway " sandwich with a choice of chopped chicken, beef and sometimes pork. You add your own condiments, which includes a sauce, if you want it, but you better ask which sauce is for Gringos because the MX sauce is Hotter than boiled water once it reaches your tongue. Of course we used our best Spanish to order and we order 2 Loungies, we thought, however we apparently order “ two orders” which means we each got 2 Lounges. I can not eat two loungies but we took them anyways. We also ordered a bottle of water and the cost for our lunch was 30 P or approxi $2.75 cdn. I really don’t know how these people can make a living at that price .
After lunch we decided to drive 22 KM to Tequila just to “scout it out” and to make arrangements for a tour of a Tequila distillery for the next day. I must tell you the road to Tequila is probably the best 2 lane hwy I have ever driven on in MX. The road was as wide as ours in N.A. and it had passing lane which is a rarity in MX and you could drive safely at 100 Km per hour.
When we arr in Tequila we were surprised at the size but we did not do any research on the city before so our vision of it was just another small city of 10 or 20 thousand. Once we seen that the main street was 6 lanes with a boulevard , this quickly changed our impression. Anyhow , we continued with our drive-thru and happen to notice a small trolley outside a Distillery so we stop to inquire about a tour. As it happened, an English speaking tour , which consisted of 6 young Auzzies , had just started so we joined the tour. Our young tour guide spoke fairly good English and was very knowledgeable on the processing of Tequila. I will not bore you will the entire process but I give you a few of the highlights.
The Tequila plant will only grow in certain areas of MX and require lots of Sun but does not require much water hence no need for irrigation as a little rain will do. The plant takes 7 to 10 years to mature and the fruit, which is called a Pineapple weighs between 120 to 200 pounds and is the size of a 5 gallon pail. The leaf is left in the field for fertilizer and the pineapple is loaded by front end loader onto a truck. Once in the distillery the pineapple is split in half and loaded by a loader into a large horizontal boiler type cylinder and then steam is induced to produce the juice. The pulp, when dried, is used for making paper, insulation, animal feed and many other items. The juice is further processed and distilled into differed qualities of Tequila much our whiskeys.
Loading the boiler with the Tequila pineapple
This tequila Pineapple weighs 150 lbs or more
This the plup after the boiling process
This a mature Tequila field
This the tasting room in a small ( less than a 1000 L per week ) Tequila distillery. This room was probably 10 times the size of the distillery hence they sell all the Tequila they can brew.
Our tour guide gave us a 1 hour trolley trip around the city to show us some of the other distilleries and advising us that the population of Tequila was 60,000 and that 85 % of the working population had a job related directly and indirectly to the Tequila industry. Incidental, there are 35 distilleries in Tequila, however most are small which by definition , small means they produce 1000 L per week and as a result they do not pay any “ booze” taxes. Large distilleries do pay the taxes. Another thing I found interesting is that you can buy real good Tequila by the gallon in a plastic container for about 15.00 Cdn but a 1 L glass container would cost over 20.00 Cdn. All glass bottles are Hand Blown and as a result drives the cost of Tequila higher.
We left our camp site after 3 days and headed down that dreaded road to Magdalena on our way to Villa Corona. As mentioned the road had a zillion pothole, some large enough to be called a crater. The 20 KM trip took 35 minutes mainly because I did not want to break a spring nor an axle. After passing thru Magdalena on the way to Etzatlan I was a little apprehensive about my return trip, as these small MX town are not all constructed with a Gringo and his 32 ft 5th wheel. However, as has happen many times, we made it thru another small town without incident. We decided to take the Libre “ free road” from Magdalena to Guadalajara because I hate paying the tolls even if it is faster. The trip was uneventful until we got close to Guadalajara. We again made the decision to avoid Guadalajara by taking hwy 70 and going to Ameca on our way to Villa Corona. Apparently there are no “hwy 70 signs” in MX, oh yes there is a hwy 70 , just no signs. Also we expected to see a sign for Ameca since it was on hwy 70. Apparently there are no signs for Ameca in MX either, so as usually happens, we ended up in Guadalajara along with the other 4 million people to share the road with. However all went well and we made it to Villa Corona and enjoyed the hot pools for 2 more days. Our next blog is our trip to Patzcuaro. Carroll say it was stressful trip and she wasn’t even driving. Stay tuned.
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