Day trip with Ian and Linda to LosOsuna distillery, La Martina hacienda restaurant and La Noria (March 27th)

Ian and Linda have been in Mazatlan for the past two months and we haven't taken them anywhere!  Today we decided to rectify that.  Our truck has been in sick bay over much of the winter so that is the real reason for not taking them anywhere.  Today we are off to the LosOsuna distillery, La Martina restaurant and La Noria.  I'd read about both places on Carol's blog "More Golden Years" and decided that this was where we must go.

 First we picked up Ian and Linda at their condo in Cerritos Resort.  Doesn't Ian look happy!

 Out to the free road, head south, take the turn off to La Noria and then head about 20 miles east to the turn off to the LosOsuna distillery. 

 Heading down the single lane dirt road to the distillery.

 Lots of agave growing here.

 Here we are.  Not a place we would come on the bike as it's not paved.  There were lots of small tour buses here when we arrived and lots of people milling around drinking.  You pay 50 pesos each for the tour and tequila tasting. 

 Brothers, brothers!

 Pretty here and we wandered over to have a look at the distillery equipment.

 These guys were just standing around waiting.  In the old days they would have been used to grind the agave roots.  They were well fed and just looked bored. 

 I did not really pay much attention to the guy that was giving the talk as he was conducting a tour that we weren't on.

 He explained what each part of the process was but I think if you are really interested you could go take the tour!

 Obviously to crush the agave.

 This is the big new machine which they use if they have enough agave "pineapples" to make it economical.  The older equipment is still used here.

 Wandering through on our own.

 Checking for clarity I guess.

 Aging vats.

 Eric wandered around looking at all the old machinery as that is his big interest.  He has an old flat belt planer at home that he restored and converted to run on our David Brown tractor. 

 We always say that he was born in the wrong century.  He would have been much happier when things were done by hand and he has always had an interest in blacksmithing.

 Looks like a bread or pizza oven.

 Crush you crush you!

 See that Linda says Eric.   At this point we were ready to go.  We didn't pay the 50 pesos as we didn't want a guided tour and we had no interest in drinking tequila at 11:30 in the morning.  Lots of people were but they were on a tour and probably on a short term vacation. 

 Linda and I were in the back seat on this trip so it was difficult to get pictures as we traveled along.  We went back out the road we came in on dodging the oncoming tour buses and cars with tourists.  Just as you get back to the highway you can head up the road to the La Martina hacienda restaurant and here we are. 

 Lovely inside and we chose to go out the back to eat.  After all the tourists at the distillery we expected it to be full of diners but....just a few people eating.  Odd as I would have thought they'd come here.

 So lunch was ordered along with cold cerveza. This is Ian's poblano pepper soup.  Ian is trying to lose weight and just like the rest of us would rather go light on food rather than beer. 

 Linda and I had the chicken salad.  It was full of fresh home grown greens, beet chips, small tasty cheese balls and we both decided it was the best salad we'd ever eaten.  Neither one of us could finish it.

 Eric had enchiladas in mole sauce and then he helped us out with our left over salad.

 Do we look happy....you bet!

 I'm not sure if Eric is looking adoringly at the waitress or the beer!

 Looking towards the front of the restaurant.  They are doing lots of work on the grounds and for a more in depth description of what's happening have a look at Carol's blog.  Just type More Golden Years into google and it will come up.

 That table is made from one slab of a tree.  That was one monstrous giant of a tree.

 An old inlaid table.

 Bye bye we'll come back again next year.  I think this would be a great place for our lunch ladies to visit.    Now onward to La Noria. 

 A dog day afternoon in one of the local leather shops. 

 Now that is some saddle.  Hand made here.

 Just beautiful. 

 Tools of the trade.  They also had hand made leather sandals and leather masks which Ian and Linda were interested in buying.

 Hand made silver stirrups anyone?

Main street La Noria.  Ian and Linda had bought two masks one from each leather shop.  We didn't see anything that caught our eye but we already have one that we bought years ago when we were in Copala.   At the very end Ian decided to buy a " ball bag" for his son Gordie who just turned 50.  It is made from the scrotum of a bull and fashioned into a hard bag with a long strap that you could carry something in.  It wasn't finished and Linda and Ian were to pick it up in downtown Mazatlan later in the week.  The woman in the shop also works in a shop in centro so she said she would bring it in.  I guess the bull didn't need it anymore!

At this point we drove northeast towards Lake Picachos which is a dammed bass fishing lake.  Ian's Cerritos Resort landlord Jose has offered to take him fishing next year as he has a boat that he hauls up there from Mazatlan.  It got really hot, up to 37C as we headed farther inland and Linda and I were sweaty in the back seat.  We toured a couple of villages as we headed along and decided the whole trip deserves a repeat next year.  Again hard to get pictures from the back seat and too hot to open the window. 

So a good time was had by all and we headed home.  Linda had invited us for dinner so we picked up some cold beer and had a nice evening together after a nice day together.