One of those "bad" Mexican days....which ended rather well...

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We bought our glasses this morning and will pick them up tomorrow before leaving for Ajijic....

We next walked to the old bus station in the middle of the city to get a bus to Amatitan, a tequila town on the way to Tequila. It took us awhile to find the station, but when we did, we were told there was a bus in about 15 minutes....in Mexican second class bus time, it was 30 minutes and a change of busses half way through the wait. It took the bus over an hour to just get out of the city, and another hour to get to Amatitan.... only the last 15 minutes were pretty: agave fields and forested mountains.

The little town was hot and deserted....and while the UNESCO listed plaza was interesting, the church was closed and we couldn't find a few of the other sights. The town is known as the birthplace of tequila, which had a more interesting route to my drink yesterday than I realized. Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of Amatitan. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called octli – later called pulque – long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave (using copper kettles invented by the Arabs), to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits. (Thanks, Wikipedia, for your help..)

We tried to find place to eat, but came up empty-handed. The tequila places were closed too. Hot, tired, hungry, and tequila-less, we decided to get a taxi back home...it was under $30 and the bus cost $11, so well worth it! The cab driver picked up his wife to come along, and the trip took half as long as the bus...

We asked to be dropped off near a place to eat, and they left us in front of a small Italian restaurant about a 20 minute walk from our hotel.... And it was the best Italian food I've had! Very fresh, and perfectly seasoned cannelloni...So the day ended well...!

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