School Is Out. Time To Travel! Part 1. Tequila!

It has always been Ashley's passion to travel once the kids were old enough to really appreciate it.  When the Park City house sold last fall, the green light for adventures was lit.  To this point, we had experienced so little of Mexico other than some close by excursions to places like Guadalajara, San Sebastian del Oeste and a trip to Oaxaca City a few years ago.  It was time to change that.

Some of the places to visit that we had on our list without getting on an airplane were to Tequila, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato City.  So, we dedicated some time this summer, made some AirBnB reservations and got the car tuned up for our summer 2019 road trip.

Tequila

Tequila is more or less the same distance from Sayulita as Guadalajara so our first destination was just a half day's drive.  Famous for one thing, "tequila". We were in town for just one night and our hotel was just a few blocks from the central Plaza.  An older place built hacienda style with rooms surrounding a central garden and courtyard.  Not the nicest place but for one night it was fine.

Tequila is a "World Heritage Site" for the town's history and culture behind tequila production.  The Plaza and downtown area was a mix of old Mexico and a recent influx of cash by some of the big tequila names in town.  Market tents, entertainment, cheap tequila drinks and the occasional gimmicky Tequila tour bus would drive by every few minutes.

Choices

One of the things that Ashley loves to do is to go inside the churches and see the ornate paintings, sculpting and grandeur of these places. The churches are so rustic on the outside but inside they are totally amazing.

Outside the church in Tequila's central plaza

Inside the same church.

Some of the adjacent streets to the historic Plaza have been remodeled as pedestrian areas with places to sit under trees and to stroll along at a slower pace in a more modern day setting.  Having only a few hours in town, we know we did not have a bunch of time to really explore Tequila and appreciate more of the city but we got a basic idea of things.  We were looking ahead to a full day's drive from Tequila, through Guadalajara and to San Miguel the next day.

The night brought lots of rain but the morning was wet but clear for the 5 hour drive.  Most of the drive would be on the "Cuota" or toll road so the distance on the two lanes going east would be covered easily at the 110+ km/hour posted speed limit on a Sunday.  One of the things I took for granted along the way east of Guadalajara was that there would be occasional places to fill up the gas tank.  We would be sure to find one just off the road in some town or at the frequent toll booths.  Not the case along this route and we were really in the middle of "nowhere" central Mexico.

Trace entertaining himself during the trip to San Miguel.

So, I admit, I pushed it way farther than I should have and there were some sweaty moments when the fuel light came on and the there was pretty much no possibility of getting off the highway to look for gas or going back to the last exit.  We were essentially trapped and all I could do was go forward on fumes and pray there were plenty of down hill sections until the possibility of the next exit.  Well, we finally made it to an exit and the small town gas station was not far from the ramp and my nerves finally calmed as the car drank heavily at the pump.  I won't make that mistake again and I made sure that we were topped off the remainder of the week especially since now I knew the route and the service limitations along the way.

Next destination.  San Miguel de Allende

Casa Pōno - The Pōno Suite Coming Together

It seems like forever since we have been trying to get the first level of the house to a point where it could actually be put out to the public for nightly rentals.  We have had friends and family stay with us and the suite has been a great space to offer to them and the feedback has been positive so far.

I am currently putting together some images to put out temporarily so that we can at least promote the rental property to the masses in the next few weeks.  We will have the full set of professional images done as well since my staging, lighting and old phone camera just don't do it much justice.  Plus, there are several things still needing some attention and added to make this space a real solid rental offering.

Details, details, details.  Mirrors, hooks, appliances, furniture, lighting, linens, decor, floor covering etc!  It never seems to end.  We can skimp on our own space upstairs and have done without lots of things in our own home but that just wouldn't fly in the apartment when someone is actually paying cash each night and fully expects things to be in place and usable.

Once we get to end of putting the space altogether and advertise it I think it will be a solid offering in the highly competitive rental market here.  We are not in this to compete with the guy down the street as much as we are eager to have a great space for people we know and then perhaps even cover a few bills with any income we generate.  We feel like we want to offer it to couples or perhaps small families since the space can sleep 3 very easily.

As I was taking the photos we had two very nice families stop by and ask it the space was for rent. There must have been some kind of "new rental" energy emitting from the space. I do not now if they were looking to rent the whole house or just the apartment but suddenly people were asking.

Wish us luck!