Susanne After our brief tour of Tequila we headed out of town into the mountainous countryside. Not far from the town of Tequila we stopped at a rural restaurant along the major road, where we were going to have a very late lunch. The restaurant, called “Los Mariscos II” was an open-air restaurant with an absolutely phenomenal view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. I savoured my garlic pork chop while the mariachis were entertaining us with traditional Mexican music. The sky was still very dark and the weather had cooled off substantially, but I thoroughly enjoyed this exposure to typical Mexican hospitality.
My tasty pork chop
In the late afternoon we started our drive back towards Guadalajara. José shared with us some local stories and insights about living conditions. He explained that the minimum wage per day is roughly $5.00, a very small amount of money. Many people make $10 or $20 a day, but life is still hard considering that they have to pay about $200 in rent per month. He added that for an average person here it would be almost impossible to purchase a house, because houses cost somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000. What makes home ownership even more difficult is that there is no proper mortgaqe lending system, so people essentially have to come up with the whole purchase amount in cash. As enticing life here looks to the tourist, many locals are still battling significant economic hardships.
View from our restaurant of a cloudy landscape near Tequila
Back in Tlaquepaque I thanked José for a very interesting and informative tour and got ready for a relaxing evening. My excursion to Tequila had been an important introduction to the real life in Mexico.
