Tequila Tequila Tequila!

Timon van den Berg
Oct 5, 2018
9 min read

Ugh, not yet fully recovered, but good enough to continue our travels to Durango. For the convenience we booked a hotel and travelled via the toll road from Mazatlán. The road was unbelievable. It took us from sea level to 2800 meters, bridges, tunnels and a spectacular thunderstorm. Arriving in Durango we were faced with some sketchy business. A part of the toll road had not yet been finished. But, local farms build a tollbooth to collect money from the cars and trucks traveling the last stretch of the road. Durango itself is nice, but it’s a trade town between Mexico City and the North, so you aren’t missing a lot if you don’t make a stop there.

From Durango we traveled further south to Zacatecas. About 3 hours out we received a message from our AirBnB host. She asked us to come to a different address then the address officially provided in the AirBnB account. Hmm…. Sketchy? Yes, it’s a little sketchy, because this means that you can offer your apartment in Jersey City as if it’s located on Manhattan, since the difference between the two locations was about 13km. Can you imagine the price difference you can ask for your room? Anyway, we called AirBnB mainly because we didn’t trust it, but AirBnB provided crap service, so we were basically forced to go, since no refund would be provided. In the end that was a perfect decision since our hosts turned out to be very friendly. They drove us to the center of Zacatecas and showed us around. Zacatecas is a must see if you are in Mexico, it’s like an old Spanish town with a great view on surrounding mountains and buildings. We watched a ceremony for the start of the new school year and had dinner in an Argentinan restaurant. Around 10pm our host came to the city to pick us up! Great (not amazing since Hester still doesn’t like it when I write that word down) service! Back home we were stuffed with coffee Mexican style; woth cinnamon and a ton of sugar. Also, she bought cookies which were great. The coffee is kept it in a big (clay or ceramic) pot, which is on the stove for multiple days. When they want a cup of coffee they reheat the complete pot. After the coffee… tequila with sangrita, which is a tomato drink that’s typically served with tequila and mezcal to make it easier for you to drink.

The first major Mexican city Guadalajara was showing up on the horizon. Big surprise, to reach it we had to drive all the way down a cliff and back up and back down. It took us 1,5 hours to actually reach the city after we first saw it on the horizon. Since we travel with the setting “avoid toll road”, Google navigates us straight through the city. After another 1,5 hours we arrive at the AirBnB. It’s located in a compound with an amazing swimming pool. Since the weather is still very good, we gratefully make use of the pool. We decided to stay there for 5 nights, there is a lot to do in this area. That night though the weather conditions changed into a big storm. Water is falling both outside as well as inside the house, but we keep our stuff dry.

The next morning, we travel to the city by car. Most parking areas are a little old fashioned; you have to park your car in the designated spot appointed to you by the service agent and then the service agent gives you a handwritten ticket with your arrival time. If you don’t like the appointed spot, just pick your own and look dumb. I’m very good in doing that 😊! Guadalajara basically has one central street with all the tourist attractions on it. We walk the route advised by the lady from the tourist agency and took our pictures. Eventually we decided to enter the local Mercado. This size of it, is enormous. It is hard to describe the experience in words. The problem for me in those Mercado’s is that it seems everyone is selling the same things, but I guess it works for them. Walking through the Mercado for about an hour, I decided to purchase a Mexican National Team soccer shirt. The conversation with the lady selling it is somewhat interesting. Not completely happy with the size I’m at the point of leaving. The lady who sells it realizes this and screams “Stay here, I want you!”. Both me and Hester slightly surprised by her words, we realize that she means our business 😊. She runs through the market and comes back with different sizes. Since it sounded like she really wanted me, we decide to make the purchase.

That night we walk from downtown Guadalajara to Tlaquepaque. A city connected due to the growth of both centers. Tlaquepaque has a nice downtown with many art shops and lovely restaurants. We decide to eat in a location called “Grandma’s dishes” (translated). Until now our restaurant communication had been pretty successful, but here everything goes wrong. Instead of an enchilada I receive a beer with tomato juice and chili. Hester orders Pozole, a local soup which was recommend to us and to eat here. But instead she receives some kind of stew. Also nice, but not what we ordered.

Not to far from Guadalajara you find the city of Tequila, after which they named the tequila drink. It’s a major tourist trap now and a very, very wealthy town. There are a couple of ways to reach Tequila, but we decided to take the easy way, which is by car. Hester signed us up for a Tour in the Jose Cuervo Tequila factory, one of the first ones in the area. We learned about the process. Did you know a German actually helped optimizing the tequila into the product we currently know, and the Blue Weber Agave (only one allowed to use for tequila) is named after this same German guy? We were able to try a lot of different flavors. We tried a tequila of 6 months old, of 12 months old and of 18 months old. As said by the host, everyone has his own favorite, which for us was the 12 months old tequila. Currently the level of tequila consumption is so high that there is hardly enough Agave to produce it. Another problem is that they can only call it tequila if it’s made in this area or a couple areas close by. One thing that surprised me is the amount of human labor in the growing process, they hardly use any machines to work on the field. After the tour we had to rest a little and went for lunch. The waiter served complementary tequila mixed drink with our lunch. More tequila, not really what we wanted, but Hester was polite and tried it. That night, Mexico was playing a friendly match. Together with our AirBnB host we went to a local bar to watch the game. Not really a great success for Mexico since Uruguay was way better, but we had a good time.

The next morning Hester wasn’t feeling great, so we took things slow. In the early afternoon we headed to the Chapala Lake. Arriving there it felt like we were back in the US again. Menu’s in English, signs in English and every where we looked retired Americans! The area was nice, but I wouldn’t jump in the lake for a nice cool dive. It seems that there are a lot of chemicals used by local farmers in the lake. Another big issue is that the lake is drying up. Since every year they are using more and more water in the Guadalajara area. But we had a good lunch with US influences and by the time it started to rain we made our way back to the AirBnB.

Traveling isn’t easy; you don’t speak the language (fluently), it’s not your house you’re staying at, the food is different, the climate is different, time zones, etc. Writing it down like this almost makes it sound like it’s no fun. Well that’s not the case! But you know, sometimes you just have a day at home where you lounge on the couch and watch Netflix the whole day! Well that’s what we did our last day in Guadalajara. Although Hester is better in doing nothing I typically have to do something (Hester can keep herself busy with reading for a whole day, for myself I’m already happy if I make it to the end of NU.nl (local Dutch news feed). So, in the late afternoon we made a small 3 hour walk in the forest behind the compound, from there we had an amazing view over the City.

We drove from Guadalajara to San Miguel de Allende. Although the distance isn’t very long, driving secondary roads takes us hours, but I highly recommend it. People are waving at us and as soon as we make a stop typically Hester has a small conversation about our Travel adventure with some locals. The boys and girls at the gas station almost fight to fill our car up, but we don’t tip more than a local since we asked for those etiquettes pretty fast after arriving in the country. One downside of driving the back roads are the potholes, some of them meters wide and some of them +50cm deep. Our road trip can seriously end if we do hit one of those. The trick is to follow a local! They don’t drive very fast and usually they are pro’s in avoiding the potholes. Keep one thing in mind though, don’t get to close, because typically none of their lights are working and hitting the brakes typically means they turn on their warning lights. Just to be sure they have some kind of signal that they are using their brakes, or something is going to happen. Right, I’m telling you about San Miguel, but I would like to share one more road story. The speed bumps, I guess they were invented in Mexico. The only thing they forgot when they invented them was the signing to announce there is a speedbump coming. Some of the bumps are as high as the ski jump in Oberstdorf. Again, the trick here is to follow a local, but keep in mind the issue with the car lights. San Miguel, an amazing city and definitely worth a visit. We had an apartment in the city and again we are surrounded by American’s who enjoy their pension in Mexico. We visit the town and have dinner. Not sure why but we end up at a Starbucks, I guess it has something to do with the fact that we recon some of the US in it! Anyway, never again. First of all the price for coffee is a rip-off compared to the local stores and second the quality is the same crap as you get in the US. The second day we ended up in up in a local coffee shop to filter through our pictures. Coffee is better, and we get some fresh made Churros!

Before arriving in Mexico City, we make one more stop in Queretaro. When the American’s were the boss in Mexico, this was the capital. It was easier for them to reach and better to control since it wasn’t as big as Mexico City. We are staying in a Yoga Studio and a Yoga lesson is included in the price. Well, as far as I know you only live once, and this trip is an adventure, so I’m giving it a try. After an hour and a half, the conclusion is simple, it’s not as easy as it looks and it’s not for me. I’m not flexible and making these funny breathing sounds just makes me laugh, which is a bit embarrassing :-P. Queretaro is fairly big, and we were there just a couple days before the national holiday, which meant some of the festive activities already started off. We saw 100+ cowboys on horses, local dancing and a big street food fair. Hester and I settled down in one of the street food stands on the market. The lady who was selling her food was very enthusiastic and willing to let us try everything we want. In the afternoon she cooked meat, vegetables, salsa, tortillas, etc. We decided to try sopes, which is a baked substance like a tortilla with a layer of salsa and cheese. Then you can choose your own ingredient to put on top. It’s almost like a pizza, although the etiquette is that you choose one ingredient for each sope. But since I want to try multiple things I’m asking for mixed sopes. The lady selling it looks slightly weird at me, but I can read in her eyes that she thinks, well why not! We have a conversation with our fellow eaters and we seem to attract a lot of attention, because more and more people are joining us for sopes.

The next morning, we drove to Mexico City. Something we have been looking forward to, a major City where we meet some of our friends that we made during our study time in Finland. We started off by taking secondary roads going towards the city, but some of the cities prior to arriving inside the city borders were not really great and the road was unbelievably bad, so we soon switched to the paid road. 60km out of the center it already started to feel like we were in the City, but more about this in the next story!

For now, we can see we are enjoying ourselves a lot and despite all the stories of Mexico being dangerous, we have been lucky in meeting only very nice people. We are of course avoiding driving at night and we avoid area’s outside of the city centers at night.