This lady makes wonderful cheese (and Eric doesn't even like cheese) in a tiny hamlet outside of a small town outside of Tequila.

We stumbled upon this fiesta in Etzatlan, not a hard thing to do in Mexico.

Beautiful Hacienda el Carmen.

Karen and Mike (our host in Tequila) at the great ruins of Guachimontones, an amazing (and free) archaeological site of great importance that is almost unknown even among Mexicans.

Karen paseo de caballo through the Blue Agave fields outside Tequila. Photo courtesy of Mike (@mickou)

The Jose Cuervo crow. In case you hadn’t figured it out, cuervo means crow in Spanish.

La Cava de la Reserva de la Familia holds the cream of the crop at the Jose Cuervo distillery. This is where the delicious Family de la Reserva is aged in oak barrels. Additionally, the Cava holds some REALLY old tequila, part of the family's private stash.

A jimador makes the not-so-easy job of harvesting the blue agave look easy.

Fields of blue agave surround the town of Tequila.

Things are on a different scale at the small-scale Columpio distillery where they cook their agave with fire in the oven shown here, as opposed to steaming it as the larger distilleries do. This gives Columpio tequila a distinctive smoky, firey smell and flavor.

The stills at the Columpio distillery are just a tad more rustic than those at Herradura or Jose Cuervo...

Our host in Tequila, Mike, sampling the goods at the Columpio distillery, straight out of a plastic five liter bottle. Hurts so good!

A barrel or a bus? Tourist transport in Tequila.

A real barrel filled with tequila at Casa Herradura.

The heart or "pineapple" of the Blue Agave is what is steamed and juiced to make Tequila.