The Jose Cuervo Express
Guadalajara is only about 50 miles from the town of Tequila. Every Saturday in Guadalajara there is a train specifically devoted to tours of the Jose Cuervo Tequila distillery. While I'm not a huge fan of Tequila, it's good to explore the resources available to you when you are a visitor and Jose Cuervo is probably the most well know one in Guadalajara. We arrived at the train station and checked in with our tickets that we had bought on the internet. Check in was easy and we were greeted with coffee hot chocolate and Mexican pastries. I had assumed that the train would be full of Gringo's however probably 70 to 80% of the people that were there were Mexican. Once we boarded the train and as soon as the train started moving, the Tequila started flowing, I guess I didn't realize that it was an all you can drink train ride, both there and back. I don't know how much Tequila was drunk going to Tequila but it was probably only about a quarter as much as was drunk on the way back. By the time we got back to the station there was a couple of groups of knee walkers, but everyone was well behaved, just having a good time. The train is arranged with groups of four seats facing each other. We happened to be sitting across from a couple of young ladies from Monterrey who where in Guadalajara finishing up there medical studies to become doctors. They had 3 months to go in their studies before they were to begin residency. Their English was perfect. We toasted the completion of their studies with our first Margarita of the day. I'm surprised that the blender on the train didn't overheat with all the work it did all day long. As we moved along on our journey to Tequila, we could see the were a couple of young girls, about 5 or 6 who were separated from their parents because of the seating arrangements. We offered to switch seats with them so they could be nearer their children. It was a couple from Switzerland and a couple from Barcelona. We chatted briefly about Barcelona and Spain and then gave them our seats. They were very appreciative. We then sat across from an older Mexican couple who spoke no English but were very nice. He was a singer and guitar player with 3 children. We had a nice time even though our conversation was pretty limited.
The tour of the distillery was good but I had kind of seen all of that before, It was similar to winery. How humans are able to turn naturally occurring plant product into alcohol. Creative, but I've seen that before, By far the highlight of the trip was the Mariachi concert at the end of the tour. I've been to native performances before where the indigenous people recreate their traditional music, dress and dance to entertain the bourgeois. I find that very offensive, however this was different. Because the audience was 70 to 80% Mexican, they were really into it, They knew the words to all the songs and were singing along with every song. They were really having a great time. That was a lot of fun to watch. One thing that I have learned about the Mexican people is they know how to have a good time.
For us one of the funniest things during the Mariachi concert was something that we did not understand until later. Near the beginning of the concert, they had invited someone that was on our train car to come on stage and sing a song with the Mariachi's. Linda and I thought that he must have been some big rock star who happened to be in the audience. The crowd was going crazy cheering him on. He seem to know all the words to the song, and when he finished the crowd went nuts. They started cheering "Mota", "Mota", "Mota". We assumed that this guy was the famous rock star named Mota. It wasn't till later that day that we found out this guy was nobody, just somebody on the train, and the crowd was chanting "Otra", "Otra", "Otra", which actually means "another". So while the crowd was trying to egg this guy on, we thought they were being treated to the great "Mota"
Listen to the end of the video you'll hear the crowd chanting "Mota", "Mota", "Mota", or so we thought.
The tour of the distillery was good but I had kind of seen all of that before, It was similar to winery. How humans are able to turn naturally occurring plant product into alcohol. Creative, but I've seen that before, By far the highlight of the trip was the Mariachi concert at the end of the tour. I've been to native performances before where the indigenous people recreate their traditional music, dress and dance to entertain the bourgeois. I find that very offensive, however this was different. Because the audience was 70 to 80% Mexican, they were really into it, They knew the words to all the songs and were singing along with every song. They were really having a great time. That was a lot of fun to watch. One thing that I have learned about the Mexican people is they know how to have a good time.
For us one of the funniest things during the Mariachi concert was something that we did not understand until later. Near the beginning of the concert, they had invited someone that was on our train car to come on stage and sing a song with the Mariachi's. Linda and I thought that he must have been some big rock star who happened to be in the audience. The crowd was going crazy cheering him on. He seem to know all the words to the song, and when he finished the crowd went nuts. They started cheering "Mota", "Mota", "Mota". We assumed that this guy was the famous rock star named Mota. It wasn't till later that day that we found out this guy was nobody, just somebody on the train, and the crowd was chanting "Otra", "Otra", "Otra", which actually means "another". So while the crowd was trying to egg this guy on, we thought they were being treated to the great "Mota"
Listen to the end of the video you'll hear the crowd chanting "Mota", "Mota", "Mota", or so we thought.
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