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  • Day 305

    Te Quiero Tequila

    May 30, 2018 in Mexico

    When most people think of Mexico, they think of big Mexican hats and tequila shots, so a visit to the small town of Tequila and a tour of one of the factories was in order. Most people haven't even heard of the town, even if they are chronic tequila drinkers. It is only an hour by bus from the main terminal in Guadalajara. As we walked the main street of Tequila, tour sellers lined the street all with the same tour but with different branding. Miraculously the prices of the tour were slashed with little need to bargain. But we didn't want to take the first offer so we continued to the end of the street. We excepted the next deal without reservation and then walked away realising that we didn't ask if the tour was in English. We were prepared for the worse, because, let's face it, most organised tours are crap anyway and really don't live up to the promises and the promotional photos.

    We had a hour to kill before the tour started so we walked around the historical centre then boarded our tour bus that was the shape of a tequila barrel. And no, the tour wasn't in English and Peppa the Pig hadn't taught us anything about the tequila making process. So we were up shit creek without a paddle. We understood very little of the tour and with each shot of tequila things didn't get any better. We were the only anglophones on the tour but fortunately the hispanohabantes spoke slowly and threw in a bit of Spanglish for us. We did learn that the word fábrica had nothing to do with fabric, that tequila can only be made in this region (with a couple of exceptions) and that tequila must be made from blue agave. We were shown some ovens where the agave is slowly baked before going into a series of vats. The tour lasted about 15 minutes before we landed in the tequila shop with all kinds of merchandise to buy, before we were loaded back onto our barrel-shaped bus and dropped off at the tour company tequila shop for more shots of tequila. By this stage a number of the men on the tour were only just able to stand-up. In the end, the tour turned out a bit better than we had expected but that's probably due to the tequila.

    Next stop: Puerto Vallarta.
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