Tequila!

Early 20th century Babcock and Wilcox boiler at the La Martineña tequilaria. We were able to wander around freely through the facilities, which weren’t in use at this time of the year.

This is a photo essay, the last from our recent journey to Mexico, covering Tequila, a UNESCO Heritage site in the state of Jalisco between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. The town sits in a valley, surrounded with beautiful hills. It’s an old historic place, with two centuries of tequila making under its belt. The famous brands, Jose Cuervo (the crow), and Sauza, both have major facilities tricked out for tourist visits. But what we really loved was the hundred-year-old tequilarias that still fill the back streets along the Atizcua River that runs through the town.

Close-up on the boiler’s provenance.

Adriana and her mom under the “cuervo” at Jose Cuervo’s fancy-schmantz tequila factory and tourist center (rather Disney-ish, actually).

Here’s a bunch of the agave plants that are the source of tequila growing above the old laundry washing area in the heart of the old part of town.

Here’s the 82 laundry stations where the town’s laundry was done for more than a century, prior to better plumbing.

This is a spring adjacent to the laundry zone, still flourishing.

Inside the Cuervo facility I did come upon this eerily beautiful view from their chapel towards a blue courtyard.

We followed the tequila route to the older facilities upstream from the tourist-ified centro.

This was our favorite spot since we had free run of the place and ended up buying some of their unpretentious liqueurs (almond and coffee). The famous brands were bragging in town about their rediscovery of the old ways and their newly branded artisanal lines of tequila. Here, they just keep making it the same way they have for over a 100 years and don’t make much effort to brag about it.