We are heading towards Tequila (why wouldn’t we!) which is 270 miles from the port and just before Guadalajara and on the way to Mexico City, but the toll roads are burning a hole in our cash and they don’t really take cards. So we come off the toll road and head towards Tepic to find an ATM to get more cash. There is no ATM in the next town, we do get more fuel, so we have to use the ‘libre’ or free roads. These are much twistier and slower but we eventually get to Tepic and find an ATM. Then it’s back to the highway and on to Tequila. The scenery has changed from the dry scrub of Baja to green forests and fields of corn and Blue Agave. We pass close to volcano ceberuco in more hilly country.
In Tequila we park at a local family owned and run Tequila distillery. Park in their back yard to be precise! Although it’s late, gone 8pm, we manage to get a guided tour of the whole process, starting in their fields in the moon light which are growing the blue Agave plants.
The name Tequila dates back to 1530 from a version of the word obsidian, the fields are littered with the black glassy volcanic rock from the nearby tequila volcano (now extinct) and you can just pick up large chunks of it. The agave is allowed to grow for 9 years and is then harvested for the engorged basal stem in early spring when it is less watery (better quality). Cheaper tequila comes from 7 year old stems. The stems are then steamed at pressure for 8 hours then crushed and the juice extracted. Fermenting with yeast for several days before finally distilling and putting into barrels.
During the tour we avoided the odd Black Widow spider hanging around the distillery as well as scorpions hiding under the agave in the fields - agriculture in Mexico can be dangerous! But the highlight was the tasting… we tasted, in age order, the blanco, reposado, aneiro and special aneiro. You could really taste the ‘fruit’ the older it got and you could tell it was so much better than the mass produced stuff!! Our favourite was the aneiro so a bottle had to be bought!
José, our host was great and really liked Alex. He explained that the name tequila is actually an administrative mistake! The obsidian, which is everywhere, was originally called teohuila. A Spanish administrator in copying a royal decree to protect the making of the drink from the area made a mistake and misspelled the area and so teohuila became known as tequila.
Our next journey leg is 380 miles from Tequila to Mexico City, specifically the Teotihuacan ruins on the outskirts. We are up early and have to wake our host to let us out! The journey starts through beautiful highlands with old volcanos dotted about interspersed with more and more tolls! Some will take cards but most prefer cash. We stop for lunch at a Subway sandwich place plus several gas stations and the occasional roadside wee stop!
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