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Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining TEQUILA: A Trip To The Heartland Of Mexico's Fire
Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining TEQUILA: A Trip To The Heartland Of Mexico's Fire | TEQUILA: A Trip To The Heartland Of Mexico's Fire |
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| Written by Billy Shields | |
| Saturday, 06 February 1999 | |
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When you think of Mexico you think of tequila.
When the 6th annual Mariachi Festival began last September, the prospects for the fledgling Tequila Express were not optimistic. Passenger trains had stopped service in Mexico just a few months earlier, and the train tour to the Jalisco town of Tequila had only operated on one previous occasion -- during its debut at the 5th Mariachi Festival. But the public's response was so great that the promoters of the project, the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce, soon decided to make it a permanent fixture. The Tequila Express has never looked back. This all-day train/tour won't blind you with the history and science of Mexico's most famous export but it will offer you a taste of the folklore that surrounds this spirit lying at the heart of Jalisco's roots. The Tequila Express leaves the Guadalajara train station at 10:30 a.m. each Saturday to snake through the rolling Sierra Madre with its fields of spiny, turquoise agave plant that are used to make the famous fiery liquor. Each car is equipped with a bar, a sound system and a compliment of white-coated, bow-tied waiters running through the aisles serving beer, soft drinks ... and tequila. The trip to Tequila lasts around two hours. Once there, passengers are bused into the town center to be subjected to a pleasurable barrage of Mexican traditions: mariachi music, folk dancing, lariat- throwing ... and tequila. "If you don't have a good time on this tour, it's your own fault," remarked Judy Cryterman, a visitor from Minnesota. Mariachi is ubiquitous throughout the entire experience. A band plays for a half-hour before departure, up and down the moving train, in downtown Tequila, during the comida (lunch) and on the journey home. The musicians say they have seen every type of tourist on the alcohol- intensive tour. "But we've never had any problems with drunks," confirms Hector Ruiz, leader of the 12-man Mariachi de San Marcos. A brief respite from the music is provided during a tour of a museum that was once the home of tequila pioneer Cenobio Sauza. He is credited with being the first person to export the famous liquor to the United States. The first shipment apparently consisted of three barrels and six bottles in 1888. The museum is a fascinating tribute to the life of a great Jalisco son who was educated at St. Mary's College in California. Of special interest are signed letters from John Wayne, a personal friend of Sauza's grandson, Francisco Javier, who wrote: "I feel great ... to prove it I drank a case of Conmemorativo during (a motion picture shoot)." Wayne was apparently a very satisfied customer. In a later letter to Javier Sauza he said: "Your very special product has become as necessary in our household as air and water." Unlike many pack-as-much-in-as-possible tours, the Tequila Express is more laid-back, partly because it has to appeal to Mexican tourists' rhythms as well as foreigners'. "It's one of the best experiences I've had so far," said Ricardo Garza, a visitor from Mexico City. "I have had the opportunity to visit France, Germany and Spain, but Mexico is mine, and this place shows the best part of the best that we have." After downtown Tequila visitors move on to the site of the original Sauza distillery, La Antigua Cruz. They are shown the mill where the agave plant was crushed in back-breaking and time-honored fashion, as well as the caves where the barrels of tequila were aged. Lunch is held on the Sauza grounds beside a picturesque lake, right in the middle of a maguey field. The fare is good: an all-you-can- eat buffet of pozole, flautas and other Mexican delicacies. Waiters are on hand to serve beer, soft drinks ... and tequila. Everyone came away from the express happy, and the only complaints had to do with a lack of bathroom facilities in downtown Tequila (there are bathrooms in every car of the train). As for service and the quality of the experience, the tourists were emphatic. "The train was very clean, the service was excellent. The waiters really seemed like they wanted to help you, and the drinks were very good," commented a sleepy Veronica Carrill, a visitor from California, as the train pulled into the Guadalajara train station around 8 p.m. It may be that Carrill's statements were made to comply with the law in Tequila, for as one entertainer stated: "The only thing illegal here is not to have a good time!" THINGS TO DO: To book on the Saturday Tequila Express passenger train/tour call the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce at 122-9020. Other companies run bus tours to Tequila during the week; for more information call the state Tourism Department at 613-0387. To drive to Tequila take the Nogales highway (15) out of Guadalajara, on Avenida Vallarta. |
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