The other day I received a telephone call from Raul Campos, member of an organization called Senderos de México.
“We are going to Amatitán tomorrow to sign an agreement with the municipality about a new trail near the town. We hope you’ll join us,” he said.
As Senderos de México is continually rehabilitating and signposting beautiful and interesting trails, I immediately said yes, and then went to my computer to see what they have been up to near Amatitán. On their website, senderosdemexico-jalisco.org, I found a map of a 21-kilometer trail that takes hikers up and around two truly beautiful hills immediately south of town. This sendero (path or trail) is in the shape of a figure 8, meaning you have the option of doing only the shorter, eight-kilometer “Turtle Hill” loop, if you prefer.
As we drove to Amatitán the following morning, Senderos Director Alicia Castillo told me that the entire route is now marked with symbols of the Grande Randonnée (GR) code used in much of Europe.
“Fixing up and marking the trails is only part of our project,” she said. “We must then get a guarantee from local authorities that the trail and signs will be maintained in the future, and that’s what the Presidente of Amatitán will be agreeing to today.”
The meeting was held in Amatitán’s Museo de las Tabernas near the main plaza. This is a most interesting place that may surprise you if you think that tequila originated in the town of Tequila. Anyone in Amatitán will tell you, “¡De ninguna manera! The blue Weber agave is native to our Tecuane Canyon (located five kilometers north of Amatitán) and the oldest ruins of tabernas (distilleries) in Jalisco are found right in that same canyon.” In fact, a giant diagram of the oldest tecuane (ancient distillery) decorates a very long wall in the museum, where you can clearly see how those bygone tequila-makers used gravity to move their product from a primitive cooking pit (where heat is applied from above instead of from below) to a giant millstone for grinding, to some 42 gigantic fermentation pots carved in solid rock, and finally down to stills at the bottom of the hill.
And guess what? All the displays in this museum are bilingual, offering information in Spanish and English.
While the trail-maintenance agreements were being signed by representatives of Senderos and the local administration, I had time to tour the museum and a most interesting room near the entrance. It looks like a very well-stocked bar, but is really a store where every alcoholic product made in Amatitán is on display and available for purchase.
I recognized the Herradura and Tres Mujeres brands but none of the other 16 for sale here, which included a curious “rosé tequila” called Código 1530, created by aging tequila blanco in barrels previously used to age rosé wine.
My biggest surprise, however, was the discovery that Amatitán produces agave beer. The brew is 7 percent ABV, and I find it refreshing on a hot day. It tastes very much like the lechuguilla drink usually sold in blue plastic bags to overheated people jogging up the Huentitán trail on the north side of Guadalajara. Your taste buds may need some adjusting to this agave beer, which tastes not at all like actual beer.
“Be sure to serve it ice cold,” recommends museum employee Oswaldo Andrade.
If you go to visit the Museo de Tabernas, plan some time for wandering around the town’s beautiful back streets, which, in my opinion, ought to qualify Amatitán as a Pueblo Mágico. In the most unexpected places you will find plaques in Spanish and English, like the following, which describes (in 1795) the benefits of drinking tequila:
“Is this drink bad for you? It is not. [At worse] it inebriates and causes lethargy. The same happens with the finest wines from Spain and no one has said that is harmful to your health. Drinking mezcal in moderation, as one should … is good for the stomach, comforting and medicinal and as such is recommended by doctors. I have tried it and know that it is helpful.”
Who wrote this? Anyone reading the often curious and interesting plaques along the streets of Amatitán would know it was none other than Esteban Lorénzo de Tristán, Bishop of Guadalajara and Durango, in a letter to the Spanish viceroy.
In your tour of Amatitán, don’t miss the qanat (underground aqueduct) on one side of the plaza and the church on the other, which has cupolas designed by Mexican architect Luis Barragán, as well as four paintings inside which locals swear were done (under protest) by José Clemente Orozco himself.
Yes, Amatitán is full of surprises and I hope I will soon be able to describe the new network of trails set up by Senderos de México. The museum is open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. Entrance is free.
How to get there
Drive west out Guadalajara toward Nogales, following “libre” Highway 15 West for 38 kilometers to Amatitán. As you descend to the town, you’ll notice a cemetery on your right. Across from the cemetery, on your left, is Calle Niños Heroes. It’s the very first street of Amatitán, on the left-hand side, so keep your eyes open. Turn left onto this street and it will take you south about 643 meters, directly to Amatitán’s Plaza. To reach the Museo de Tabernas, walk north from the plaza on Calle Juárez less than 100 meters to Juárez 24. The driving time from the edge of Guadalajara to the plaza is about 35 minutes.