After leaving Puerta Vallarta, we drove through the mountains to the Pueblo Magico, Mascota. This lively town has a pretty little plaza, beautiful stone work, lots of plaster, colour and tile roofs. It is surrounded by pine covered mountains. We found a place to park after making our way through some narrow and occasionally double-parked oneway streets. We wandered around town for an hour or so with Piper, had an ice cream, bought some tequila….it’s all about priorities.
Church in the plaza of Mascota.
Everywhere we go now there is Christmas music playing, often Spanish versions of the songs we are all familiar with, and the town squares are being decorated with lights, streamers and ornaments. I laugh every time I see a cut out of a snowman down here, and I have to keep reminding myself that Christmas is right around the corner.
PInata hanging in the second floor of a home on the main plaza.
Looking down on the town of Mascota.
From there we continued on the the town to Tequila, a village founded in 1530, and the birthplace of the drink made from the blue agave plant. On the drive to Tequila we saw fields upon fields of blue agave, it was even planted in the ditches along the side of the road. It has such a distinctive smoky blue green colour that you could easily pick it out from the surrounding flora in the distant hills.
By the time we arrived in Tequila it was getting to be late afternoon, and we needed to find a place to camp before it got dark. The iOverlander app said that there was a nice wild camping spot on Tequila Volcano above the town. To get there we had to drive through the tight streets of Tequila, then along an ancient, narrow cobblestone road the width of a horse cart that wound part way up the volcano. We arrived to a clearing among the pine trees, set up camp in the cool mountain air, and settled in for the night. We wondered if any of you had looked at our “Where are we now” page and thought, “What! They didn’t stop in the town of Tequila!”. But then you know us better than that, don’t you!