Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Mexico and Independence Day. What is that all about? I gotta tell you, this video is going to depart from maybe my normal reviews or talking about tequila. And really, I want to talk about the people of Tequila and the traditions that we witnessed while we were there this week. It was absolutely unbelievable. All right, first of all, I'm going to pour me a little glass of this new Madera. Viva Mexico. This is batch number one, Sergio Cruz and Cesar Babanka. And this one is a 54 ABV tequila. And I wanted to sip on this and really talk about what my wife and I got to experience on the trip that we just recently took to Aranda San Tequila. First of all, we flew into Guadalajara on the 11th and took a trip down to the town of Tequila where we got to spend some time with our close friend Cristiano Moratans from the Hinta Buena foundation. And we got to spend the evening at a fiesta at Atanacio. We got the opportunity to walk through San Pedro de los Lenderos, the town that we've been helping Hinta Buenta foundation bring water to. It's been a one year anniversary since they started. And we walked through and we've seen all of the cisterns that have been installed. I believe there were 10 or 11. And that affects 20 to 21 different families that now those people have running water. And to get to see the. The work that's been done to raise the money and then to see them actually installed was really impressive. And I thank Christiana much for having us be involved with this. From there, we went to a fiesta that was at The Londeras Familia nam 1599 Atanasio distillery, where they make Valor and they make Athanasio. And we got to spend time with some of the people behind making this happen. And some of the families, even though my wife and I don't speak Spanish, and those people did, they got up and shared their stories and it was so exciting to hear them be so happy and so thankful for the water that they now receive in their homes. And. And they showed a video of the different people that were interviewed. And it was neat to see each townsperson just cheer when the other person was interviewed. It was such an exciting evening and it was great to see all of the hard work that has been put into this actually come to light. We spent the night at Casasayas. From there we were picked up by our friends from Trujillo and they took us over to Casa Trujillo and we got to visit the Trujillo Distillery, which was amazing. And Casa Trujillo, with their houses that you get to stay in on the grounds is phenomenal. If you get a chance to go there, do. The place is awesome. They had a great hacienda there where we had amazing food and great drinks. And the tour of the distillery was absolutely amazing. And to see a company that is doing so many things and be so transparent in what they're doing and show you everything, there was not a curtain closed. There wasn't a door we couldn't go through. Video cameras on the whole time. And it was great to see that kind of transparency from there. It was September 14th and the party had begun for Independence Day, so everything else was closed. We traveled into Arandas. We stayed at a friend of mine's apartment, which I'm so thankful that he let us do that. And we woke up on the morning of September 15th and decided that we were going to go on a hunt for the buried Yayo bottle. If you don't know anything about this, put in Yayo buried treasure in your Google and look at the website. Every year, Yayo and Sergio Cruz put together a one of a kind bottle. They put it in a time capsule and they bury it. And then they make a treasure map and they say, hey, if you can find it, the bottle's yours. So we got the treasure map. My friend Tequila Tim sent me the map. Since I did not have it on the Internet, he sent me a picture of the map. So we had something to start with. And there were a couple of clues. One, the bottle was buried by an iconic Arandas citizen or somebody from around us. And I kind of figured that out. The only iconic person I know is Sergio Cruz. So we got a couple of hints. They said that if you were there on the search, you could message to John and to Sergio and to Yayo, and they would give you some hints. So the first hint I got was, do you know where Sergio Cruz's house is?
[00:04:17] I did not. So I. I reached out to Sergio and said, I need my hint. And Sergio Cruz dropped us a little ping of where his house was. So once we got out there and we started looking, it said that it was in a field of agaves that were planted three years old next to a tree. And when Tim sent me the map, it had a tree on it. So we knew we were looking for a tree. So I asked the groundskeeper, hey, we, where do we go? And he showed us all of the agave fields that were there. We dug for four hours and voila. Here it is. This is the bottle. So we did find it. So that's not really the part that I pulled you here for. What I really wanted to talk about was the time that we spent in Irondas. In America, we celebrate Independence Day differently than they do in the town of around us. We cook some hot dogs, we shoot off some fireworks, we drink a little beer, we go back to work. This party started on Friday. Independence Day wasn't until Wednesday the 16th, which happens to be my wife and I's 36th anniversary. And I am so glad that we got to spend it with so many of our friends. Cesar Vivanca from the Vivameco distillery. We got to spend some time with Oscar Vazquez, we got to spend some time with the owners of Masta Tequila. And it was a blast. And these people celebrate the liberation of their country like no other. We were down there on the 15th and it was a party in the streets. Mariachis, great food, loud music, great tequila. But on the next day, the 16th, the actual day of their Independence Day, they told us to be down in there around 3:30, 4:00 in the afternoon, because the horses were going to come into town. And we seen these horses start at 4:00'. Clock. These guys would ride in these beautiful horses. They would dance as they came into town, and then they would go around the corner and go back out of the town. And people started to just fill in the town. It was so amazing. And by 7 o' clock that evening, when the last horses rode through, there were over 5,000 horses. With people riding these fancy horses, it didn't matter if you had money or if you rode in on a donkey, it was all there to celebrate that independence. The story was so amazing, the people were so amazing. So we drank some great tequila, we watched all these horses. It was absolutely amazing. Mariachi bands everywhere, loud music, great food, and a celebration that made my wife and I, who were probably some of the only Americans walking around, feel so welcomed and so safe. After that, we left. We walked up to the place to get a cab. We knew we were about a mile and a half from our apartment. And of course there were no cabs. There were 60,000 people in town. It was booked. So what do we do?
[00:07:00] We walk back to our apartment knowing that we're safe walking anywhere we go in Mexico, in Arandas and Tequila and Jalisco, it's such a safe place to go. So if I can encourage you to pack up your bags, get on a flight, go to Guadalajara and visit the Tequila region, go check out Casa Trujillo, Go to Tequila and stay at Casa Sae. Go when there's a big holiday. It's amazing what this place is like and I know you'll enjoy it. If you have questions about how to go, where to go and places to stay, please DM me. I'll let you know. If you have more questions about tequila or the region, hit the subscribe button and the like button. I'll try to put as much great information out there as I can. I got some reviews coming up about this tequila Cesar. Ivanka is going to do an interview with me. I'm going to talk about how this high proof is aged in just their wood fermentation tanks and what makes it special. It is unbelievable. And I got a blind coming up between this and the Tojon. Thanks for watching. Have a great night.
