Road tripping.

We have survived our first encounter with the Mexican Highway Patrol.

The rental car agency had warned us about the possibility of being pulled over for no obvious reason. Adding that should this happen to us , we should stand our ground and refuse to pay the fine. We should bring the ticket back to the office for them to pay. So, off we went, fully prepared for the 6 hours of road ahead.

It didn’t take long before a police officer on his motorbike plucked us from among a nervous line of traffic jammed cars. He steered us aside with the claim that My Captain was a danger on the potholed inundated road because of his “unorthodox” driving style. This was absolute nonsense. Of course. 

With the prophetic words of the rental car people flashing red before our eyes, we geared ourselves up for the fight. The fact that the police officer looked rather skittish did help to act braver than we felt. We nervously had to refuse to get out of the car, we had to refuse to follow him to the police station and we had to tell him that no we were not going to pay the fine right there and then.  And yes, write it up already so that we can take it to the car rental folks. Over and over again in a unnerving loop. 

We were getting rather sweaty, as we thought we were “ losing our ground.” The more that all of our heroics were uttered in perfectly broken Spanish. But then we noticed an increasingly puzzled look spreading over his face. So we went for our last resort: a very loud and agitated phone call with the car rental people regarding the situation at hand. And that’s when he finally gave in. He returned My Captain’s driver’s license and car papers with the words. “Luc, LUC!” (My Captain’s attention was on me and my theatrics on the phone.) “OK. Está bien, pero calma, calma” making the calm down gesture with his one hand and waving us off with the other.

With that sorted out, let us take you down because we are going to the agave fields ….and all things Tequila. The awesome tollway leading to the town of Tequila cuts through undulating blue agave plantations , building a landscape that has made it on to the UNESCO list. (A feat not likely to happen any time soon with Saint Vincent’s cannabis fields, although equally awesome if you ask us.)

The town of Tequila itself is a rather ramshackle affair with a nice enough Mexican plaza and dozens of distilleries offering tours. And a whole lot of “Mexico in a bottle” for sale. 

We stayed at a place just outside of town that had its own working brewery, its own ceramic factory and a lot of filthy looking geese waddling and pooping all over the place. Before entering their premises, we had to walk through a kind of car wash that sprayed disinfecting stuff all over us. We are now also protected against foot-and-mouth disease, we hope.

Ceramics is an eternal Mexican art and each year the best potters from all over Mexico compete for the National Prize. After all, they believe God was the very first potter artist and his prize worthy creation is the world and all creatures in it, including mankind.

The ceramic factory of the Tequila brewery is manual mass production, though.

What impressed us the most is the back-breaking hard work it takes to grow, harvest and process the agaves. The plant needs to be completely destroyed as its heart -the piña- is to be cut free from the leaves in order to be unearthed. It’s the piña that is baked and shredded for its juice. During the tasting, we were offered a slice of baked piña to suck on (very sweet!) as well as a shot of Tequila right out of the distiller boasting a 50% alcoholic strength. They told us to take a deep breath, take just a sip, hold it a few seconds before swallowing and then to exhale through the nose. Which I did. But My Captain misunderstood, poured the shot in one go down his throat as seen in the movies and exhaled. When he tried to inhale again, he couldn’t. And he had to try three times before he could continue the tour. There he stood, gasping for air as if having been socked in the gut. Luc, LUC! Calma.

Next stop Guadalajara. (We love to pronounce it the Mexican way). After all of these months either on the water or in the woods, this megacity proved to be a couple of sizes too big for us to handle. Fortunately, we found refuge from the metropolitan madness in the historical center where all architectural landmarks are just a walking distance away.

Guadalajara played an important role in Mexico’s revolutionary past. Orozco -the muralist who is a bit less famous than Rivera because he had a darker vision on the world and also because he was not married to Frida Kahlo whereas Rivera was- was commissioned by the government to help boost Mexico’s national pride. Hence the bigger than life murals in the Palacio de Governo.

The fiery mural by Orozco depicting Father Hidalgo as he utters his “Shout for Independence” really grabs you by the collar as you walk up the stairs. Hidden in the darker corners, serious trouble is looming.

And when Father Hidalgo is signing the Declaration of Independence he is already looking worried. President Benito Juarez- the first indigenous president who fought for the people’s right- signs his “La Reforma” with a steady arm. And Emiliano Zapata is tucked in a corner, but is present ! Real Mexican heroes deeply loved by all up till today.

The blissfully cool evenings and nights we dreamed away in our colorful small scale all Mexican retreat in Tlaquepaque, a few km away from downtown Guadalajara.

The quintessential splurge was reserved for our last night in Guadalajara. The Quinta Real Hotel had lured us in with an incredible promotion: instead of the usual 400 dollars/ night they offered the “ Gran Clase Suite King” for 78 USD. So what the heck, let’s check it out. 

It was pure colonial decadence. The walk in shower was big enough for a family of seven, we could have built a stronghold with the cushions on our king size bed, and the 54 channels on the 70 inch screen kept us wide awake until way after midnight. 

We ended our road trip with what we love the most: getting lost into the woods. Just outside Puerto Vallarta, the botanical gardens combine the best of both worlds: the serenity of a nature trail down to the mountain river that runs through the premises with the sophistication of manicured gardens and the sweeping view from its onsite restaurant.

We hope the plants we brought back to O2 will flourish as well as they did over there.