Slowphil gathers momentum

:eek1

Touché, touché

I'll stop pickin' for a day or two....

Go Phillip

What a great ride report so far. Fantastic pictures. And so glad you could stay with us at the beginning of your trip.

Ride Brother man, ride!!

Looking forward to the rest of the ride. Great job so fat.

BTW - I love that HD Double Eagle Evo Cargo Springer Chrome Net

Hey Philip, I've been following your trip, and I finally joined the site as a user. Could not think of a clever handle though. Trip sounds great. Sue and I want to join you somethere this winter but I know it is too early to ask about your itinerary in January. ....... K

Ok, this is going to be chopped into really small segments this is the fifth time I've written this, something, either advrider or my computer seem to have become very unstable

obligatory hotel room shot, some one suggested I show the price once in a while so this was 300 pesos in a renovated tourist area


view from my room of the distillary advertising painted all around the town

there has to be hundreds of shops selling tequila in the town, all the same product and it seems all at the same price




the courtyard of the municipal buildings



and the mural itself

went on a little museum tour

one of the original copper stills



apparently it was a toss up between using horses or human labour to turn this to grind the agave



the barrels are all burned with the makers symbol, the casks came from and still do come from Kentucky. The prized ones were used before to store liquor, it didn't matter what kind as long as they had been used

some more of the life of the town

this guy was proud as punch, you could see it



I had to put this one in because I've never heard a garbage truck play classical music before



these guys were having the time of their lives aggravating all the other dogs


This was one of the back gates to the distillaries



agave plant in captivity

All the distillaries use a symbol, the oldest one uses the crow and they have it everywhere, in the front gate



inside the back gates





a few more distillers signs


Next: we see how this stuff is made

Apparently an agave plant takes upwards of twenty years to grow from a seed to a harvestable size but if you remove the babies from the mature plants and plant those you get a full size pinapple (thats what the harvested bulb is called) in 6.

All the leaves are removed in the field and the pinapples shipped to the factory where they are put into ovens and steamed



after they're cooked they look like this and they're easy to break apart




the pieces are actually quite sweet and juicy if you chew on them

the pieces are then fed through a shredder



and fed into the fermentation tanks

and then into the distillers, the liquid is distilled twice sometimes even three times



water is added , it's aged in the casks and viola there you go, instant headache in a bottle

everything is done at the factory including making the bottles



and hand painting them



hope you enjoyed the cooks tour

Well, look who's climbed out of his bouncy cave. Welcome back to the real world YK!

How about giving us the names of the hotels. Pretty useful info.

... doing price checks on fuel in Quebec - $1.64 per litre - howse that compare to your price Phil. Nice digs your at too. And NO I didn't go up to Goose.

YK

Definitley a great ride report. Hope those Oakley glasses are still working for you. And thanks for the shameless plug for an armchair adventure rider/artist in Virginia. You're trip is very inspiring. Maybe I'll do it someday. Hope all goes well.

Looks like you took the Cuervo Tour...good tour!...I am leaving La Paz On the Ferry to Mazatlan Tuesday the 4th will be riding through out Mainland Mexico I will be on a Black KLR......May do a RR as well.. enjoying yours at the moment..

GUADALAJARA



WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY, as you walk down the streets you find one square after another
each of these columns represents an important figure in the cities history



one beautiful square after another





There's sculptures, statues and figures everywhere

this is one of my favourites




after wandering around all morning it was time to sit down and indulge myself, cervaza in the oxxo stores runs about 11 pesos, this one cost me 24, yikes

it's time to save my feet and ride in style



the tour was a couple of hours and after seeing a fancy arch built to celebrate the opening of a new highway



there was the theatre of the University of Guadalajara



and the art in front