¡Tequila!

To make sure I completely understand everything that comes from Mexico I thought it would be important to find out where tequila comes from and how it is made. My friends, Kady, Mel, Jenika, Jenna, and I went to Guadalajara to find out first hand how it goes down.

We got to Guadalajara after a little detour that added 4 hours on to our 4 hour drive. We arrived at our hostel at about 1:30am and after meeting a few new people we went to bed because we had a full day of tequila in the morning! We took the Tequila Express which is a two hour train ride to the tequila farm. It was open bar too... all day long!

Here we are before getting on the train. Kady, me, Guadalajara lady, Jenika, Mel and Jenna in front.

The Tequila Farm

Check out all that blue Agave

The whole process starts by digging out the blue agave and finding the heart from the mama than that is is re-planted. When it's all grown up they dig it up again and chop off the sides. They just want the inside... but not the very inside like the heart, they take that part out. Think of a pineapple... it's kind of like that.

Here is a video explaining how they get that little middle part out that they cannot use. 

After they get the part they need all ready it goes into the oven. It has to cook for 24 hours and then it cools for another 24 hours.

Just in case I am forgetting any part here it a diagram explaining how it all goes down. 

They are recycling friendly at this farm and they recycle the parts that they cannot use by grinding them up into small fibers.

Just so you get the whole experience they make sure you can take a cool picture with a donkey. Notice the 3 drinks I'm am talently holding.

Here is where they are distilling the tequila. They cannot make tequila less than 35% alcohol and they cannot export tequila from Mexico more than 40% alcohol.

Back in the day once they cooked all the agave they would bring it to this old part of the farm to squeeze out the juices. They would put all the agave in this pit and then roll that giant roller thing over it to squish out all the juice. They then would carry it in buckets to these whole chambers (see below) to let it ferment.

To make sure it get good and tequila-ly they would welcome any bacteria in there. To get it in there they would have the men that were out working all day (aka they were nice a sweaty) and they would jump in there to make it cook faster. ¡¡Huacala!!

 Then when it is all done cooking it's ready to be barreled. I learned some interesting facts:
* White tequila is crap tequila
* If it is labeled GOLD tequila it is crap tequila... it is white tequila with food coloring
* The reason tequila is gold is because it ages in the barrels and gets its color from the barrel
* The barrel is only good for 10 years

Interesting, right?!

Here are all the products that come from the El Jimador tequila farm 

So after a long day on the train and at the farm, we went back to the hostel. Turns out we had to do some acting... that's right after a full day of drinking they needed our help to shoot a commercial for the hostel. I did what I could and after a couple of takes we had a wrap. Don't worry when it's out of editing I will share it with you!! :) 


After that we decided to walk down the the Chapultepec Ave which was only a couple blocks away and there was a street market. It was really cool. I got a picture that is of a great big tree made out of sand and shells. I'll try to take a picture of it and put it on here next time too.

Me and Kady at the fountain.... I LOVE fountains!

The next morning we got up early to try and go bike riding. They shut down the main street in town so that people can go biking and running. They starting doing this so the town would go back to the community feel they once had. It was cool because not many shops were open and everyone seemed to be out and about. 

We were going to rent a bike and join in with the rest of the town but they were all rented out, so we walked around. We ended up finding a bus tour of the city and got on so we could get a good lay of the land. We saw a lot of cool bridges and fountains :)

 AND the Corona plant!

This church was really cool. On the tall pillar part on the left of the picture about mid way up there are two little doors. At noon every day the disciples come out and take a little lap... we missed it by a couple minutes. 


So that was my fast weekend trip to Guadalajara. I can't wait to go back! There is a lot more of the city to see! 


I don't have too much to report on these days because I'm trying to save money for my spring break trip to... PERU!! We are in the works of planning but we hope to fly into Boliva and go to Lake Titicaca then to Cuzco where we'll do the Inca Trail (a 4 day 3 night hike) up to Machu Picchu. After that I want to fly to Puerto Maldonado to go into the Amazon jungle for a couple days. So while my life might be boring now, it won't be in April!