Jose Cuervo train and theme park

Tequila giant Casa Cuervo will invest 25 million dollars in the next 18 months in its bid to turn the town of Tequila into one of Mexico’s leading tourist destinations.

Apart from operating the new Jose Cuervo Express tourist train, which made its inaugural journey from Guadalajara to Tequila last week, the company is building an 87-room hotel, four museums and a conference hall.

The new hotel will be operated by the upmarket Camino Real chain, while the museums will focus on contemporary art, folk art and the equestrian sport of charreria. Cuervo is also promoting the installation of small privately-owned liquor stores in the town in an effort to reduce sales of adulterated tequila.

Jose Cuervo's express train to Tequila The new seven-carriage tourist train has a capacity for 395 passengers and will make three weekly trips, on Fridays evenings, from 7 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The luxurious train is equipped with a full bar and restaurant.

Unlike its established rival the Tequila Express, the Cuervo Express travels into Tequila itself and takes visitors to the Cuervo distillery and its ancillary tourist development, Mundo Cuervo (the World of Cuervo). For more information on the Cuervo Express, visit www.josecuervoexpress.com or call 01-800 681 0442.

Guadaljara Reporter article

Fabrica de tequila Patron en Atotonilco

Except for all the promotional hype that the Patron brand of Tequila puts out there are very few good reviews. Mainly that it's way over priced for an average to below average Tequila. Most of their sales are in the US and what do Americans know about Tequila ... evidently very little.

Anyway .. this is a good video on the making of Tequila

My Mexico 2011

This is slideshow of images all taken within a 4 hour drive of Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Beaches, Mountains, Historic cities, People, Lake Chapala, Flowers all show the amazing diversity beauty and opportunities to explore that people living at Lake Chapala have. Even though some of the fotos are from Michoacan they are only about 4 hours distant.



Talpa de Allende

Talpa de Allende is most famous for it's pilgrimages to pay homage to the Virgin de Talpa. The icon is housed in Talpa’s basilica, built in her honor in 1782.

There is an old story that shortly after the virgin was found in the mid-1600's, she disappeared to Masota because the mayor of Mascota wanted the devoted coming to his town. Mysteriously the virgin kept returning to Talpa until the mayor finally gave up.

The festivities begin every year on March 24th to commemorate the day the Virgin was unearthed. The fiesta continues for 3 months, till May. The route of the Pilgimage is from Ameca along highway 70 to Talpa.

Talpa, a town of about 10,000 people will triple in size at times over the festival. It's lcocated south of highway 70 between Ameca and Mascota in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

View of Talpa from near highway 70


Town of Talpa


Talpa’s basilica

Concepcion de Buenos Aires

A friend told me about Concepción de Buenos Aires somewhere off the new road to Mazamitla as being an attractive place to visit. The turn off is about 10-12 miles up the hill from Amacueca to the right. Putting that name on a road sign is next to impossible so you'll see something like - Cocep de BA. About 12-15 miles on this secondary road full of not very deep potholes appears the gates to Concepcion.  Without a map in this area it's hard to tell if you are in Jalisco or Michoacan. This is Jalisco!

The town reminds me of a number of Colonial mountain towns like Tapalpa, Mazamitla or even Patcuaro with the tile roofs, buildings painted similarly and lots of wood. However this town was only founded in the 1850's and became head of it's municipio in the 1880's. The sign on the entrance to town says - 'Land of the friendly people'