This is a blue agave plant. The one that is use to make the national drink of Mexico...Tequila. We are in the actual town of Tequila.











Gus helping to shave off the sharp leafs of the plant to get to the heart of the agave. This long handle tool is razar sharp and easily slices through the leafs to expose the 7 year old bulb.











All harvesting is done manually, from 6am to noon. Field work stops because of the heat.











This pine apple looking thing is the agave bulb. From here it is cut in half and stacked in an adobe steam room.

Olivia in the steam room for the agave. The agave will steam for 36 hours to convert the starch into sugars. Next the agave is pressed to extract the sugars before fermentation.



These are the conditioning tanks(holding tanks) before the distillation process begings to make the tequila.














A look at open fermentaion.












Aging tequila in wooden cask barrels.

We had great 7 hour guided tour around Colima.
Olivia and Gus are picking coffee beans












We stopped by a micro roaster and got to see how the process works to get our morning cup of joe. Here the beans are being sun dried, this takes about 6-7 days.














These are the beans before roasting.












After roasting, Gus is displaying a medium roast and a dark roast. Olivia is hands deep in the medium roast barrel.

Amy,Gus, and Olivia getting a veiw of the volcanoes of Colima.












The cap could blow at anytime and vents every few minutes.













When the volcanoe vents steam and ash are released with the winds blowing to the right. On the left is ash dust being kicked up from tumbling rocks.

In our tour of Colima our guide took us to this incredible wooden Bull fighting ring. The main event would be later in the day(we did not attend). This is the only wooden ring this size in the world. It is 153yrs old and is only put up for 50 days, then taken down and put in storage. All wood and woven mats. It holds 7,000 people and is also used for rodeo and concerts during this period. The below photos give a bit better perspective.

The city of Colima was founded in 1527. It sits below one of the most active volcanoes in the world. In the back ground is the snow capped older extinct volcanoe at over 14,000 ft. This area also experinces many earth quakes. Besides the natural disaters...this is a lively city filled with music, art, museums, and wonderful food.









Checking out a puppet muesum.













One of the parades around town square.

Ooops. We thought that the bus from P.V. would drop us off in Tena Canita (a small beach town). It dropped us off 12k from town. We had a choice to either walk or hitch. This is one of 3 trucks that picked us up and dropped us off at there end of destination. We made it... minus Amy's new headband that must of flown off in the wind.

Gus catches a ghost crab in on the beach of Tena Canita.













Close-up of the ghost crab.














Olivia strolls along the shoreline looking for shell.












Amy- in the shade.

The kids had fun with the grandparents in P.V. it included beach/pool time, an aternoon at a waterpark, many meals, and catching up.

Olivia gets here hair braided in Sayulita.

Going out on a ponga boat for whale watching.












Gus at the bow of the boat spots more whales.














The waters off of San Blas are know as a nursery for whales. We spotted many with there young calves.
Olivia finds a swing after we get off the boat.

Ice cream stop before our croc. boat trip,













Boarding the boat by jumping in.












Off on the adventure.

Gus on the look out for crocs in the mangrove water shed of San Blas.













One one several crocs we saw.












Turtles were spotted. This area is also home to over 200 species of birds.













We were told that this was a croc free zone. There was a fence around this swimming hole. The water was clear and warm, Gus and I had fun on the rope swing.