My neighbor Richard is a hydraulic engineer with a talent for finding waterfalls. After a quick look at the area around Amatitán using Google Earth, he put his finger on the screen: “Right here there has to be a waterfall,” he declared.
Naturally, the next day we went out to see if it was true.
Amatitán is located about 30 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara on the “libre” highway to Nogales. Just before reaching the town, we turned onto a nicely paved road heading east. After 4.3 kilometers, we reached a bridge over the Río Arenal. Some local men confirmed that if we followed the river downstream, we’d soon come to a waterfall “150 meters high.”
Off we went to see it for ourselves, but no sooner had we left the road than we came to some impressive ruins, obviously the remains of a once-elegant hacienda.
On one of the building’s walls we found a plaque both in English and Spanish explaining that we had stumbled upon Rancho de la Cofradía del Puente, a hacienda that was producing tequila as early as 1800 using primitive production systems.
The writing style and high-quality English told me that this information had been written by the late, great archaeologist Phil Weigand.
“The Big House located in the middle of the extensive agave fields, is made up of a double corridor with three apartments that were connected by an arcade made up of nine arches held up by Tuscan pillars that
today lack a roof,” writes Weigand. “One of the apartments has two levels. The area for the worker housing was very modest in its construction ... and the housing units have formal elements of the neoclassic style common in rural Jalisco in the XIX century. The unfortunate overall condition of the site is testimony to the lack of vision in the manner of executing land redistribution in the 1940’s; the process benefited landless peasants while abandoning numerous buildings of architectural value. A restoration project for this ex-hacienda could still restore its functional and historic qualities.”
Sad to say, no such restoration has taken place, but the ruins are well worth a visit. You can see the interesting techniques used to make columns (employing curved bricks) and admire the aesthetic adobe blocks, which apparently contained agave fibers instead of straw.
If you are feeling adventurous, you can keep going another 3.5 kilometers east, along the same road, to La Taberna de los Tepetates. There you’ll find another plaque which says: “This old distillery found near the small village of Los Tepetates is difficult to access and is well hidden from view. It is easy to imagine that the location of this rustic facility was selected to secretively produce mescal wine without having to report it to the revenue agents.”
Fortunately, there is a tall chacuaco (chimney) rising up from the brush around the old taberna which will help you find it. Note that both the hacienda and the taberna were located alongside streams which provided cooling power for the distilling process.
Speaking of streams, you may be asking “How about the big waterfall on the Arenal River?
We walked downstream 400 meters and there it was: maybe not 150 meters high, but certainly close to 100. Unfortunately, the river smells of detergent and human waste, definitely reducing the pleasure of hiking along it ... and I doubt any of my canyoneer friends will be rappelling down Río Arenal for the foreseeable future. Maybe Google Earth has to add a new layer for “smells.”
How to get there
From Guadalajara take Avenida Vallarta to the Periférico and continue west on the “libre” Nogales highway 37.6 kilometers (to N20 50.135 W103 43.405), just before the hairpin curve bringing you to Amatitán. Turn right and drive east 4.3 kilometers to the bridge over the Arenal River. The Hacienda is at N20 50.146 W103 41.007 and the waterfall is at N20 50.319 W103 40.921. You’ll find the Taberna at N20 50.218 W103 39.429. The entire route is on Wikiloc.com under Cofradia Hacienda Taberna.