The Super Tourists

Yep, that’s what we were this weekend! Super tourists. The historical tour on Saturday, which I’ve already told you about. Then we had the ballet last night, which was a great time. It started out with all 6 of us cramming into one cab (I will never make another Mexican car joke again…) to go downtown to the historical Teatro de Degollado. It was beautiful and huge and our seats were great on the second balcony. The ballet was definitely entertaining. The cast as a whole wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be, but they had quite a few extremely talented dancers in the leads that really made the show. Very worth our $17 tickets! And look! I figured out how to upload pics! Here’s some from the ballet (and I’ve added a few to past entries):

The only crazy thing was that it rained while we were in the theater pretty hard, so when we got home, we had no electricity. Apparently a really common occurrence here in Mexico. It wouldn’t have been so bad except that we were here by ourselves, and we really needed the power to be back on by the morning so we could get ready and go to….

Tequila!! And it was! So today, we went to the Jose Cuervo factory in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico. It was awesome! First we stopped in one of the fields and they demonstrated how they grew and harvested the Agave cactus (which takes like 7 YEARS to grow before they harvest it). They guy that was doing the demonstration had been planting and harvesting Agave for over 30 years, and is apparently super famous for it. They said that any media having to do with Tequila production, like on Discover Channel, he’s in it. Like the Marlboro Man of Tequila, haha. And we got to take picture with him! It was really cool to see the different stages of chopping the cactus down the the “pineapple” core, which is what they cook and get tequila from! I’ll just say that the process called for a machete… you know it’s gotta be cool. Here is me with tequila dude…

And some Tequila Country…

Then, on to the factory, where they took us around, told us the history of the Cuervo family, and showed us step by step how they make their tequila. And yes we got to taste every step. And let me just be kind and give you all some advice: If you are ever given the choice between undistilled tequila or rubbing alcohol with a hint of gasoline, take the alcohol and gas. It’ll go down easier. Haha, no we had a great time! And got to taste better, finished tequila, the best margaritas EVER, and haphazardly find Paris Hilton’s signature on one of the Reserve Barrels in the cellar (where they age the super special edition tequila that only produces 18,000 liters for the whole world). Family friends and special guest (i.e. Paris) get custom tastings and what not down there, and they all autograph the barrels. Oh! And you know Cholula hot sauce? We ate at the restaurant! Muy rico. It finished out an amazing first weekend here in Mexico!

Proof I was there:

Margaritas with Rosa!

They made us wear hairnet in the factory… Aren’t we cute?

In tomorrow’s episode… The first Salsa class!!! Nighty night…