A weekend in Tequila should be full of tequila, and it certainly was.
The consumption actually started before we even arrived in Tequila. My travel buddies had booked accommodation in Guadalajara for the night before our visit to the famed village, and the hostel happened to be called Tequila Sunrise. Naturally, upon arrival, we were all welcomed with a free shot of…tequila.
What’s more, upon sharing the news that I had just become an uncle for the first time – 10 minutes after checking in, I was given a celebratory shot of…tequila.
This left me feeling a little shaky and made it very difficult to balance on the wonky chair at the local taqueria where we ate dinner.
Alas, I managed to wake up early the next day and, after watching the Socceroos (Australian football team) lose a World Cup game, we set off to find the bus to Tequila.
We’d decided to take the local bus, instead of the famous Tequila Express from Guadalajara, because the bus was much cheaper, and not much slower, and because we knew about the liberal doses of Tequila that are served to tourists on the train and we wanted to make sure we actually remembered out trip to the small town – or maybe that’s not the point.
The bus carried us to Tequila in a timely manner and we set off to find lunch before exploring the town and one of the distilleries. We enjoyed some traditional fair, and a drop of tequila, while surveying the town from the balcony of the restaurant. We didn’t know exactly which of the many distilleries we would visit, but it wasn’t hard to find someone willing to take us on a tour – they found us. Yes, Tequila is touristy.
Our tour took us to distillery “La Cofradia”. Cofradia, incidentally, is also the name given to a Spanish religious devotee who wears a long, pointy hat during religious ceremonies and is often confused with the KKK. Anyway, we didn’t come across any crazy rednecks in Tequila; we did see plenty of American tourists but they were friendly – as are most people in Tequila, for some reason.
The friendly guide explained the process of producing Tequila, from its origin as an agave plant, through to the bottled elixir which has become synonymous with Mexico, and particularly the state of Jalisco, in which Tequila is situated.
I can’t give you a full description of the distilling process, mainly because I was one of only two young males in our group, which meant that I was one of the two visitors invited to finish the sample of pure, unprocessed tequila. Wow, that stuff can knock your socks off and put hairs on your chest. Yes, I have hair on my chest and yes, as I write this, I’m not wearing socks.
Following the tour of the distillery we apparently ambled among the beautiful grounds of La Cofradia, and apparently passed through the gift shop displaying a multitude of Tequila bottles, before we apparently strolled through the town along streets named after famous brands of tequila, such as Calle Jose Cuervo.
We may or may not have enjoyed another drop of tequila with afternoon tea, to steel ourselves for the bus ride back to Guadalajara, where we may or may not have chatted with the friendly locals about our merry jaunt to Tequila.
kieranblakewriter 
One response to “A weekend of Tequila.”
Reading your texts is a way to know the world. This is a great travel tip. I’ll add to my list …
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