The little artists' enclave of Tlaquepaque (sound it out!) is filled with street art like this very tall purple lady!
It also has an awesome sculpture of pure bliss!
The pigeon is slightly more philosophical and tranquil than Father Miguel Hidalgo, father of Mexican independence.
We saw Mexico's famous roof dogs. This one was particularly displeased about the Turibus passing under its eaves.
Walking along the pedestrian zone, we thought we saw a monument to broccoli!
Unfortunately, on closer inspection, it was not a monument to broccoli.
The cow climbs up the building!
A modern twist on the golden arches. This one is burger-and-fries free!
This is a monument to a major stampede. Now it's in a different kind of stampede: the center of a traffic circle!
We saw this traffic sign from the Turibus and were pretty glad we didn't have to figure out how to navigate it! Traffic in Mexico is messy at best!
Another wonky traffic pattern.
The Guadalajara area has all sorts of traffic complications.
On Sunday we got up early to go on the Mundo Cuervo tour! I made Ian have a photo with the bus, and then all the other tourists did the same thing!
The tour took us first to an agave field overlooked by the Tequila volcano. It's a double volcano, and the vertical in the middle is part of the first core. There is something about the soil and its minerals that makes agave grown in the shadow of the volcano the best in the world, according to the Cuervo people who source their agave from here.
An agave worker, Ismael, hacks back an agave plant to demonstrate the processing. He's got several specialized tools - all of them are very sharp!
Ismael hacks the agave plant into the "pineapple" that can be processed. The pineapple weighs around 20 kilos, and every six kilos of pineapple produces about a liter of tequila.
The ovens cook the "pineapples" to separate the sugars and starches from the rest of the plant. Note the steam coming from the top of the door.
The "pineapples" come out of the ovens looking dry and crumbly.
And it goes into big barrels to age. In fact, the nice stuff goes in big barrels, and the less nice stuff goes into giant vats. They were in the dark and off limits for photos - wonder why??
The display of the Reserva de la Familia line was quite lovely...
But Ian decided he likes the expensive "Clase Azul" much better than Cuervo's finest!
That's one big raven!
And then they sell only the finest tequila at shops along the highway.
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