De Jalisco, para el mundo!

Hanging out at Diegos apartment in Guadalajara while he´s off playing doctor today. His friends are really great. I´m taking a relaxation day today, as it´s been nonstop go go go. There are a million things to see here. Cathedrals, Plaza Minerva, huge cemetaries, nightclubs, parks, restaurants, markets, colonial districts, everything!
We went to an Irish bar night before last called Red Pub, you walk through the pub to an Irish style alley, down that into a huge open air pub, decorated like you´re in an Irish street. It was pretty amazing, and authentic as you could get. We ordered big dispensers of beer that sit on your table, and you pour your own as you wish. A large frozen bottle of water sits in the middle of your dispenser-pitcher to keep it cold. When the bar closed at 11, we still had a lot of beer left, so they brought us to-go cups. We left with two each, no problem.
Diego took me on the Tequila Express train yesterday, waking up way too early after the night before, scarfed some breakfast, then caught a cab for the train station. They started serving tequila drinks in a can at 11 or so. The train ride was great. We traveled through the Jalisco countryside, for hours through blue agave fields. Arriving in the town of Tequila, we took busses to the Hurradura factory. The place was absolutely amazing. I could spend days there just taking pictures.
After our tour of the facility, we enjoyed an enormous buffet of every kind of mexican food you could imagine, of course with more tequila, complete with mariachi band, BLARING music, (Mexicans love having their ears blasted out by loud music) and an exibition of the Mexican national sport, Charrería. Charrería is something you might find at a rodeo in the States, where skilled rope-handlers jump and skip through spinning lassos. It was extremely entertaining. After two hours of having my ears bloodied, we loaded back into the train for the ride home.
As the sunset lighted the agave fields and Mexican countryside, we sipped some of the best tequila ever made. We were instructed in the way of true tequila appreciation- you take a sip, roll it around on your tongue, slowly swollow, and as you feel it tingle down your throat, exhale slowly through your nostrils. We were told you can pick up hints of chocolate, spice, Kentucky white oak, and other marvelous sensations. Between tastes, you bite lime and drink sangrita- a kind of tomato fruit juice, sans alcohol. To tell you the truth, I tried very hard to taste these flavors, but no such luck. I may have to do some follow up research.
I heard from Jason and Michelle, my KLR traveling buddies from Canada. They're in Acupulco, headed for Costa Rica for Christmas. I hope to catch up with them later in their trip.
My foot is healing nicely. Still a little purple, but with less and less black every day. I'm going to see if one of the markets here sells Manta Ray, buy a big hunk of it and cook it up for tacos.