Sylvie's Travels Home

 As soon as Shaun got up, he went fishing on the beach.  At some point a big fish snapped his fishing line so he lost his new lure. 

We packed our bags and left at 9:15am for another little escapade, this time to San Sebastián del Oeste, Mascota, Talpa de Allende and Mayto.  

We did a few stops on our way to San Sebastián, a Pueblo Magico.  Shaun and Max bought new hats on the side of the road.  Max had heard of a bakery worth stopping at and it was great!  The decor was amazing and the food and coffee were delicious.

We had to rush afterwards because Max had arranged to meet with the owner of a raicilla distillery called Tesoro del Oeste, just past the village of San Sebastián.  She now wants to learn more about different agave spirits.  We arrived a little bit before noon and first met with the father who started explaining his son’s business.  Checo the owner then arrived with his wife and kids on horses, just like in a movie.  He told us that he started making raicilla just 2 years ago.  He is a landscaper by trade but he has 2 full time employees working in the fields and he spends weekends at the distillery.  We tasted his 2 bottles of artisanal raicillas than he brought Max and I inside his aging room and introduced us to his next raicilla.  Max was the first one, besides his family,  to try it.  It was actually really good.  Meanwhile Pogo was droning over his property.  He was so patient and explained everything to us.  To make it short, his piñas are first baked in a concrete oven then distilled twice.  He had maps to show us the different states where different agaves grew, where different spirits are from, how he is starting to seed his wild agave, instead of transplanting babies like they do with blue agave, etc.  I did learn so much as well. We were there for almost 3 hours and after talks of collaboration between Max and Checo, we went back to the village, walked a bit and then went for lunch at Jardin Nebulosa.  It was another recommendation from a follower of Explorradict.  What a find in such a rustic village like San Sebastián.  Just driving by, we would never have stopped as it was just a small sign on a rock fence.  It was a tastefully decorated oasis with a great bar and beautiful dining space.  We had incredible food and service.  We shared trout ceviche.  Pogo had ribs, Shaun had rabbit medallions, Max had lamb carnitas and I had wild boar chili but with a very unique presentation. Max tried a new raicilla and Shaun had a beer made with raicilla.

While Max and Pogo walked back to get the car, Shaun and I walked up a steep hill on a jungle road to visit a spooky cemetery.  There were maybe 5 or 6 really big tombstones full of moss.

We stopped at another raicilla distillery called La Taberna de Don Guelo. This one was quite different from the one before. Very rustic and looked like a moonshine operation with a bunch of people drinking and feeling no pain.  Luis the owner didn’t speak English and seemed very nervous to talk with Max, probably because of the language barrier and because he had been drinking with his buddies. It was a quick visit and we were grateful for it.

We finally arrived in Mascota, another Pueblo Magico, at 6pm and went straight to our hotel Encanto de la Sierra.  We sat in the pretty garden for a while sipping a seltzer then went for a walk.  We had a drink in a little bar overlooking the town square and the church.  The streets were pretty deserted and some pretty dark.  We walked to Santa Maria, the hotel we had previously stayed at 2 years ago to show the kids. The owner let us walk around and told us to go upstairs to the terrace/bar which we had not seen before.  We had a great view of the town.

We grabbed a bite at a little pizza place on the way back to the hotel.