My classmates and I, after a 140 hour, four week course including 10 teaching practices, are all now TEFL certified and prepared to teach English anywhere in the world. *A celebration was definitely in order. The school hosted a fabulous meal with a real veggie option (the best I've had since I've been here) and after a few drinks we closed down the school and headed out to a cantina called La Maestranza for more festivities. As the night carried on we tried to make our way to the next locale, but, as seems to be par for the course recently a late night torrential downpour cut my night short. I hailed a taxi for the quick ride home at 3:30, which was probably for the best considering our goal to get up for the Tequila tour in the morning.
Surprisingly Joeline and Nathan and I woke up in time to catch the 9:30 a.m. tour bus to Tequila, a great continuation of our graduation celebration. The first stop on the tour was Tres Mujeres, an small organic distillery just outside the city that still cuts all its agave by hand. The coa that is used to cut the plant is something like 8 kilos, not an easy tool to work with. We first went into the field, which were complete with a couple cows taking an early morning siesta. the view was beautiful, we were surrounded by mountains and the agave makes for a slightly blue tinted field. We then moved inside to see the actual fermenting taking place and sampled fresh tequila from the barrel. Tequila and I aren't the best of friends. This was solidified after I took a sample of the best, most expensive bottle available and still made my scrunched face signifying my inability to discover the finer qualities of the most popular Mexican liquor.
We made a quick stop in the town’s main plaza for a snack before the Cuervo tour. The cathedral is amazing, as all cathedrals I’ve stumbled across have been, and while eating al fresco at this small café we saw the barrel tour bus pass by and all felt a ping of jealousy. Yes, the barrel tour is just like it sounds, a vehicle that looks like tequila barrels, how fun is that?
The Cuervo factory is nearly in the center of town, and quite the opposite of Tres Mujeres. It felt very much like visiting Lake Front Brewery and then seeing the mammoth that is Miller. The little guy always wins in my book. That’s not to say Cuervo wasn’t a good tour, because it was, and the samples were flowing, but it just had a different feel. No photos were allowed, hair nets had to be worn (I’m sure you’ll appreciate that, Pam) and the overall corporateness of it all was evident everywhere. We did get to see the crow, who is in a huge cage at the end of the tour, which was pretty cool. Cuervo was the last distillery, and on the way home we stopped at a traditional restaurant on the way home that overlooked the fields and had beautiful mountain vistas we enjoyed on the patio. There’s not much better than good friends, good food, amazing views, and a cool breeze in your hair.
The tequila bus got us back to Guadalajara just in time to make plans to meet up for the Mark Anthony concert that was happening to benefit the hurricane victims. We had no luck making it to the show. As we left our meeting place, La Purgatoria, it started to drizzle. Rather than head back we decided to carry on. That was a mistake. We didn’t get more than six blocks when the skies opened up and poured buckets straight down on us. We scrambled to find a taxi. Once we did we had to beg the driver to let us in because we were totally soaked and then got charged more than four times the price it cost us to get there. I swear there’s a button on the meter for gringos who got caught in the rain. It was worth the $25 bucks to get out of the rain and into my warm comfy bed. That’ll teach me to leave home without an umbrella, though I doubt it would have helped in that crazy storm.
*So, where to? I'm holding out for a job on the coast. Keep your fingers crossed for Puerto Vallarta in January. As for now, I finished my first day of Spanish and will be taking classes in Guadalajara for two more weeks. I've been really good at understanding people here, but I would really like to be able to converse without sounding like a 10 year old. Anyway, after Spanish I'll be heading to Mazatlan (on the West coast north of Puerto Vallarta) for a long weekend before venturing back to the states. I’ll visit Seattle for a bit before heading home and looking for a holiday gig to tide me over until January. Any suggestions?
No comments:
Post a Comment