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Published: June 21st 2009
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Today we ride the famous Tequila Express train from the FerroMex train station in Guadalajara to the Amatitan valley. Supposedly the birthplace of tequila, the town is home of the Casa Herradura tequila distillery at the Hacienda San Jose del Refugio.
The tour is extremely well organized, the assembled group is divided among four packed train cars, all very modern. We are in the red car. As we line up to board we are greeted by a mariachi band, Los Toritos (they actually have songs available for download on napster). Like tequila, mariachi also traces its origins here and is another of Guadalajara's famous exports to the world.
The train ride is about 1 hour 45 minutes during which we are serenaded by the mariachi band. The train passes through nice country, filled with farms of blue agave, the plants which are harvested after about 8-10 years to get the heart for making tequila. Because of all the agave, the color of the landscape is bluish, reminding me a bit of the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, Australia which are blue because of the eucalyptus trees.
We are offered canned party mixes that are available now including tequila with coke, tequila
Los Toritos mariachi band
Greeting the riders in the station before boarding the train with apple juice, tequila with grapefruit juice and tequila with peach juice. I try a can of the tequila with coke and can't drink more than a couple of sips--I'm not a big fan. So we opt for a beer instead--it's a long day and have to pace myself, can't start out right away with glasses of tequila.
On arriving at the station in Amatitan, we are bussed to the Hacienda for a tour of the distillery to learn about the process of making tequila. It is pretty interesting. If I learned it right, the process is a total of 72 hours from the pile of agave hearts to tequila ready for bottling (the cheap stuff for mixing to make margaritas and doing shots) or storing in barrels (the better stuff for sipping--the longer in the barrel, the better the quality).
After the distillery tour, we have a buffet lunch of typical Mexican food--and typical of most buffets, the food is not all that great. The lunch is followed by entertainment, mostly from a mariachi band and also a couple of mariachi singers, including Alejandra Orozco and a guy, the back of whose jacket proclaims him the new king of
Jalisco landscape
Blue agave in the foreground the falsettos so he must be good.
The ride back is more entertaining, listening to all the riders join loudly with the mariachi music and watching the older women try and get close with the band members--it's pretty funny. Dave and I finally decide to have a glass of the aged tequila--no ride on the Tequila Express would be complete without at least one. Now I realize why I'm not such a big fan of tequila.
We arrive back at the station in Guadalajara a bit before 8, in time for dinner and then calling it a night. All in all, a good day enjoying the things for which Guadalajara and Jalisco are most famous: tequila and mariachi.
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