About 18 months ago, during a visit to Guadalajara and Bucerias, Francisco and I visited the town of Tequila. I very much enjoyed the visit and Francisco mentioned there was a Tequila Train that ran from Guadalajara to a hacienda...at the time i thought, wow, what a great trip that would be! Fast forward to 2010 when Dan, who shares as strong a passion for Tequila as mine, and i discussed the idea and decided to make it happen.
Francisco was a true friend, hosting two big Gringos in his house and making the arrangements. We started out the trip with a really nice hike in El Bosque La Primavera just outside of Guadalajara. That night we had some good food and a little tequila to get our engines warmed up. The next morning we were at the train station...a dedicated train station for the Tequila Express, at 9:20 AM, and began the wait for boarding time along with a lot of other tourists from Mexico and the rest of the world.
Once the mariachi band finished their opening round of songs, we all made our way through security and boarded the train according to the color on our label. The three of us became known as Los Azules Locos (the crazy blues) since we were in the "blue" wagon. Once on the train, we were given an orientation to the agenda for the day - a train ride to Amatitman ( i think that was the name of the town), a bus ride to Hacienda Herradura, a tour of the tequila plant and its museum, a buffet and performance and the return trip. Our host explained the types of tequila we would be drinking (blanco, reposado, anejo and Antiguo) and we promptly decided the good stuff (antiguo) would be our preference. We then had a spanish language overview of the tequila tradition in Mexico and then the mariachis started their performance in our train car. What a blast! we were served snacks along the way as well.
The train was very comfortable, the service was great, and the tequila was top notch. And all you can drink! Now, of course this is Mexico and not the USA so you SIP the tequila...no shots you rookies out there! So we had a nice slow ramp. Once we arrived at the hacienda, we were very impressed by the scale of the manufacturing facility. We had a very good guide who was a student at a local university and spoke excellent english. Once we completed the tour which included a walk through a museum of tequila industry artifacts, we watched a video about the history of tequila and then were led to a banquet area where we had a nice buffet...lots of food, very good food, and were entertained by a variety of performances. They were also very good natured...i decided to crash one of the performances and was graciously included in the fun. Unfortunately i was far enough along that my jump roping skills were impaired by a general lack of coordination due to tequila saturation. But people are pretty chill in Mexico, so all was good...Viva Mexico!!
Keep in mind that our servers kept bringing out the tequila as long as we requested it. So Dan, Francisco and I were having great fun. We decided it would be appropriate to have nicknames (nickname = un apodo en espanol) for the trip, so Delue being the creative guy he is, chose Gigantor for me (variation of Gigante) and coined the name omniF for Francisco (omni, meaning pervasive and alluding to Francisco's generous good natured personality). However, Francisco out did Dan by zeroing in on Dan's essence as a big man who looks imposing but is really just a big teddy bear (unless you rile him up or take away his honey - tequila!) and pinned the apodo "El Oso Tequilero" (Tequila Bear) on big Dan...everyone loved that!!
Once the performances were over, the crowd converged on the dance floor and everyone started dancing. unfortunately, just as we were getting warmed up with the worm dance and more zaniness, they cut the music short and herded us back to the buses for the return trip. That was the most disappointing part of the trip - not being able to get our groove on for a longer period of time. oh well...we were ready for the trip home.
The train ride back is a bit of a blur...i just know that El Oso Tequilero kept ordering tequila and we laughed the whole way home. Not sure how many of our newly made friends remained friends after that journey back...ah well, just big boys having fun, no harm done. lots of loud laughter.
I think the consensus was that the Tequila Express trip was one of the best guys weekends we have had. A huge hit for the three of us and highly recommended to any one else who enjoys tequila, mexican food, mariachis, trains and a good ol'time.
Francisco was a true friend, hosting two big Gringos in his house and making the arrangements. We started out the trip with a really nice hike in El Bosque La Primavera just outside of Guadalajara. That night we had some good food and a little tequila to get our engines warmed up. The next morning we were at the train station...a dedicated train station for the Tequila Express, at 9:20 AM, and began the wait for boarding time along with a lot of other tourists from Mexico and the rest of the world.
Once the mariachi band finished their opening round of songs, we all made our way through security and boarded the train according to the color on our label. The three of us became known as Los Azules Locos (the crazy blues) since we were in the "blue" wagon. Once on the train, we were given an orientation to the agenda for the day - a train ride to Amatitman ( i think that was the name of the town), a bus ride to Hacienda Herradura, a tour of the tequila plant and its museum, a buffet and performance and the return trip. Our host explained the types of tequila we would be drinking (blanco, reposado, anejo and Antiguo) and we promptly decided the good stuff (antiguo) would be our preference. We then had a spanish language overview of the tequila tradition in Mexico and then the mariachis started their performance in our train car. What a blast! we were served snacks along the way as well.
The train was very comfortable, the service was great, and the tequila was top notch. And all you can drink! Now, of course this is Mexico and not the USA so you SIP the tequila...no shots you rookies out there! So we had a nice slow ramp. Once we arrived at the hacienda, we were very impressed by the scale of the manufacturing facility. We had a very good guide who was a student at a local university and spoke excellent english. Once we completed the tour which included a walk through a museum of tequila industry artifacts, we watched a video about the history of tequila and then were led to a banquet area where we had a nice buffet...lots of food, very good food, and were entertained by a variety of performances. They were also very good natured...i decided to crash one of the performances and was graciously included in the fun. Unfortunately i was far enough along that my jump roping skills were impaired by a general lack of coordination due to tequila saturation. But people are pretty chill in Mexico, so all was good...Viva Mexico!!
Keep in mind that our servers kept bringing out the tequila as long as we requested it. So Dan, Francisco and I were having great fun. We decided it would be appropriate to have nicknames (nickname = un apodo en espanol) for the trip, so Delue being the creative guy he is, chose Gigantor for me (variation of Gigante) and coined the name omniF for Francisco (omni, meaning pervasive and alluding to Francisco's generous good natured personality). However, Francisco out did Dan by zeroing in on Dan's essence as a big man who looks imposing but is really just a big teddy bear (unless you rile him up or take away his honey - tequila!) and pinned the apodo "El Oso Tequilero" (Tequila Bear) on big Dan...everyone loved that!!
Once the performances were over, the crowd converged on the dance floor and everyone started dancing. unfortunately, just as we were getting warmed up with the worm dance and more zaniness, they cut the music short and herded us back to the buses for the return trip. That was the most disappointing part of the trip - not being able to get our groove on for a longer period of time. oh well...we were ready for the trip home.
The train ride back is a bit of a blur...i just know that El Oso Tequilero kept ordering tequila and we laughed the whole way home. Not sure how many of our newly made friends remained friends after that journey back...ah well, just big boys having fun, no harm done. lots of loud laughter.
I think the consensus was that the Tequila Express trip was one of the best guys weekends we have had. A huge hit for the three of us and highly recommended to any one else who enjoys tequila, mexican food, mariachis, trains and a good ol'time.
1 comment:
What a perfect event for a Boys weekend....sounds like you guys had a lot of fun on the train and in general.
I'm looking forward to our visit in April. Do they have a shopping train too?!
Glad you posted ALL the pics Honey...I think it really gives your readers a balanced view of the train ride.
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