The recovery after surgery went smoothly. Since they’d gone in primarily through my belly button (which may never look quite the same since they sliced it open), I couldn’t use my core for anything. Sitting up was a process of propping myself up and twisting around while pushing myself up with my arms. I couldn’t sleep on my stomach for a few days. But I hardly needed the pain pills – I basically just took one before bed to ensure a decent night of sleep.
After a couple of days of lying low, Leena asked if I wanted to take a walking tour. Uh, no, that doens’t sound that great. But when she pitched it a second time as a food tour with some walking between stops to eat, I was in.
We headed to Tlaquepaque and met our guide; we were the only two on the tour that day. We started with a walk through the local market. This really whets the appetite!
The local bread is a bit like sourdough and derives its unique flavor from the local water and yeast.
They make hand-made tortillas at the market and sell them at a premium. Here’s the automated tortilla making.
Beautiful produce.
I was very ready to eat at the first stop. We enjoyed birria and cazuelas. Birria is a spicy stew with goat meat marinated in adobo spices. The drink is tequila with a bunch of citrus juices. It’s somewhere between a margarita and a paloma. Delicious.
Some photos from walking through Tlaquepaque.
A tile recreation of a famous Diego Rivera mural depicting several eras of Mexican history.
We also stopped for tejuino (fermented corn drink), chile en nogada, tascalate, torta ahogada, some local chocolates, and a tequila tasting.
This shop claims the world record for most different bottles of tequila (1700+).
Thanks to another day of recovery, I was ready for a tour of Tequila about an hour’s drive from Guadalajara. Like Champagne, you can only call a spirit “tequila” if it comes from a specific area and is made from the blue agave cactus. Mescal is a similar spirit made in different areas and different cacti.
We started with a tasting at a medium producer, Marengo.
I inspected the fermenting tank at a large producer. The smell is STRONG when you open the lid.
Blue agave field in Tequila.
We concluded the tour by stopping for lunch and a cocktail in the town center of Tequila.
We went one day to a screening of Han Solo. Going to the English screening at 2p on a Tuesday means you’re solo while watching Solo! We had the theater all to ourselves.
