We're Not Dead Yet...

Life is difficult my friends. Life is difficult.

I continue to be amazed that we can hold up under the burdens we bear. We've been subjected to both beautiful scenery and gracious hospitality. The most onerous of duties has been drinking well-made and finely-aged tequila. Somehow...we carry on.

I've started taking private spanish lessons in addition to my classes. Barrett's parents were here last weekend too, so we are staying muy busy. Oh yeah...rockin' the spanglish. Here are some pics of our recent excursions. Feel free to send me your questions about the production methods of tequila, because yes, I am now an expert in both production and consumption!

Our School Sponsored (that's right, Mexico rocks) trip to the town of Tequila.

The beautiful landscape of the town of Tequila. We visited an agave farm and a distillery. Both were just outside of town.



A gorgeous little chapel at the distillery we visited.



All tequila is made from blue agave grown in only five states in Mexico. Anywhere else or any other type of agave and all you've got is Mezcal.



Megan and the jimador. Jimadors harvest the mature agave pinas (the hearts are called pinas, spanish for pineapples, because that's what they look like with the leaves cut off). Agave must be harvested by hand, but be careful! These plants are very spiky and prickly.



Cooking the agave in clay ovens.



Tasting cooked agave. Yum...tastes like sweet potatoes!



After the juice from the cooked agaves is squeezed out, fermented and double distilled, it is aged. Tequila is aged in white oak barrels. All tequila is clear until it's aged, then it slowly gets darker the longer it's in the barrel. This distillery was very environmentally conscious, so they keep the aging room cool and at the right humidity by letting trees grow through the building.



Of course we're smiling. There's tequila in them bags!



We ate lunch overlooking the beginning of the San Andres fault line.



We've also found a beautiful little suburb outside of Guadalajara called Tlaquepaque (try saying that three times fast). It's become one of our favorite places to go to get away from the busy city.









Obviously we are suffering greatly, but we've decided to tough it out and have even extended our trip until February 9th. I'll post pictures of our mountain top "Puebla Magica" trip with Barrett's folks very soon. I have a lot of pictures to go through thanks to the keen eye of my mother-in-law. She likes taking photos like some people like breathing.

Until then dear friends Barrett and I will continue to be brave and not shirk our responsibilities. The weather this week is supposed to be in the 80's. Oh...the responsibility!

Carrying on,
Megan