The Town of Tequila

On a recent trip to Mexico's Pacific coast in mid-February 2019, I visited three towns that were quite interesting and scenic: La Peñita de Jaltemba, Jala and the famous pueblo of Tequila. Of the three, Tequila was the most interesting, so I will begin with this captivating town.  Below is a brief summary with some characteristic photos of this town.

The Pueblo of Tequila as seen from the main highway.

Tequila is both a town (pueblo), and a liquor made from the agave cactus. Which came first, I don’t know. The ‘magical’ pueblo Tequila is located in a semi-arid mountain-surrounded valley to the west of the city of Guadalajara, central Mexico.  The town is designated an official Pueblo Mágico because of its charm and identity as the hub of the tequila industry.  The surrounding region is an UNESCO World Heritage "Cultural Landscape', a landscape noted for vast, polygonal fields of agave cacti that cover the mountainsides and valley slopes like textured carpets "painted" in the plant’s blue-green color.  There are roughly 100 haciendas de tequila(tequila (distilleries) in the town and its encompassing region.  The town’s historic center, centro historico, is noted for its Baroque church, vibrant plazas, and colorful array of tequila and gift shops, bars-and the famous distillery, José Cuervo. Because tequila is consumed globally, this town has international tourism, with English spoken in most restaurants and hotels. A tourist office, Oficina de Turismo, is located on the main plaza. 

For visitors, there are about a dozen hotels located in the town. Many of the hacienda-agave farms also offer lodging. An unusual collection of tour buses, most shaped like tequila bottles and barrels, will spirit you around town or to the haciendas where you can taste or purchase tequila-and tacky memorabilia-or assorted indigenous crafts in wood and ceramic.  

  

This interesting and scenic pueblo deserves to be in one of my future "Painting Mexico" books. To write a book about Tequila, I would need to return to this town for several weeks.  This is my first Book Link:  http://www.blurb.com/b/8596527-painting-mexico-magical-pueblos-in-guanajuato

Arriving by regional bus (Pacifico and Quick bus lines) from the coast (La Peñita), we passed through the towns of Compostela,  Ixtlán del Rio, Magdalena before arriving in Tequila. I traveled with a colleague, Barbara Shaw, a journalist and seasoned travel writer (for another perspective on Tequila, see Barbara's blog: 2barbarashaw.blogspot.com).  Buses to Tequila from Guadalajara depart from the old bus station, El Central Viejo. The bus line is called “Quick”. 

One of José Cuervo's Distillery Rooms

While there, be sure to take a tour of José Cuervo's large distillery.  The tour includes access to their impressive museum.  

I'll conclude this posting with a video of indigenous pole acrobats (voladores) who perform in the main plaza in the afternoons.