Today is Thursday, May 15, 2008, 4 am. This is the time I get up from bed. Not to celebrate being done with school for 1 month but to ready to go to school again…but this time it involves beer. That’s right, today Casey and I are going on a field trip with Jasmin´s class to the Corona Factory in Zacatechas, Mexico.
We got up early. We called her up. Found out we had to get there at the bus at 5:15, so we had to pick her up at 5. I got up so early and then messed around and so when it was time to leave, I wasn’t even ready. We picked her up and right before we were about to leave from her house Casey reminded her of her candy. Jasmine is the CandyGirl in her class. She buys candy at cheap pirces, like 1 peso a piece, and then sells for 2-3 pesos. Quite the business woman she is. As we headed over, Casey and I had no idea what to expect. On the way Jasmine said she was happy because she wasn’t late as always. Well as e arrived there we found out that not only a majority of the students were late but the bus was late as well. That’s Mexico for you. We ended up leaving on the bus at 5:30 and picked a few stranglers on the way. Then the bus ride to Zacatecas began.
So its about 5:45 in the morning. The bus ride will be about 2 hours. There was cold wind blowing in, whch actually felt really nice, but the students in the bus were so noisy! Dang! I have never seen a group that old be so noisy. But I could tolerate it. I mean, at least I could understand what they were saying in Spanish. Poor Casey sitting next to the window was having a harder time with it. He was trying to sleep and cold and could not take all the shouting, yelling, and wineing of a middleschool class inside his bus....and these were college students???? seriously?. There was this one dude, named Albarot who made the worst yelling and wineing out of all of them. He was desperately in need of attention, and we were on for a long ride.
The founder dude of Corona and the Mexican Beer Group
We arrive to the Cornoa Factory at 7:30 am. Our presentation wasn’t till 8 am, so we had time to eat some good sandwitches that my grandmother made. When it was time, we entered the glorious factory of fine drink that was before our eyes. Well, first off we saw plants, then buildings, and then huge barrels and huge rooms were the beer was made. But we went into the visitor´s centre first. The dude from Corona was really cool. He was wearing a leather jacket and was about 5´9" and we later found out he knew somewhere between 5-10 English words as well. Before we began he gave us all some really nice Motorola walki talki radios and a headset. He said some parts of the factory are loud so we use those to listen his presentation. He had to
show all the student how to listen to the radio and how to press the button if they needed to ask a question. It was a cleaver idea besides the fact that just about all these Mexicans had never seen one of these radios before so it took us 25 minutes of him going around the room telling them over and over again how to use it. They were staring at it and playing with it and completely confused on what this little piece of plastic was capable of. And then they finally seemed to catch on so we could moved on to the fair.
We first watched a video. Apparently this Mexican Beer group is one of the top in the world. I believe it to be number one in imports to the US. They could produce something like 25 million bottles of beer a year. They produce 8 beers, of which Corona is the most famous and Victoria come in second. The video showed us a lot of other useless information like how Corona and the Mexican Beer Group does good for society by sponsoring programs to help the people in Mexico and education and advances in technology and health….the only thing they forgot to mention was helping people get drunk....can anyone say PROPAGANDA? But I guess that part was understood. He showed us some statues of the founder (Mr. Corona) and a model of the entire plant. The whole thing was interesting, from the water source to the grain and yeast, and even making the malt. They even had a recreation center that included lush gardens and a section full of endangered species. He showed us a video of the dangers of alcohol abuse. Then it was for the good stuff.
He said we could take videos or flash photography inside the plants. We we got some footage of the outside. We first went into the giant mixing room where the yeast was warmed up and stuff. They had huge bottles with mixers inside to stir it and warm water pipes for the yeast. He showed us the main control lab of the entire factory, with the computers which ran the entire plant. I really wanted to unplug one and see what would happen, but I decided that might be a bad idea. I asked about what would happen if they were hacked, but said since they are not online, they don’t have that problem.
After that we moved on into another building where they mix the beer. This room was colder and the air smelled like frathouses on a college football game day: Beer, beer, beer. We walked around in there and it was really cool.
Ok, here I (Casey) must again tell a story and take a much needed break from daniel´s stories. So as we were walking along inside the building, we could definitely smell the sweet incense of beer. So, I wondered to myself if it was possible to get slightly intoxicated from the strong odor if a person worked their all day. I mention this to Daniel and he immediately pulled out the radio and louldly announce that we had a question. " WE WERE WONDERING IF WORKERS CAN GET DRUNK IF THEY WORK HERE LONG ENOUGH" Daniel shouted over the walkie talkie, so everyone including the teacher that had so kindly let us come along for free could hear. In that moment, a part of me died. The guy looked a daniel, faked a polite smile and tried to hide laughter. Fortunately, Daniel realized how poorly he had asked the question and managed to do some damage control in spanish...... the guy went on to answer our question and told us that it was unlikely, but we still have our suspicions.
After we went through the building we went upstairs of the same building and entered the chemical lab. Here they test a a sample beer form each section of the brewing process to make sure everything is up and good. Here we decided to ask a few questions to gain our credibility back, like what they did when the beer went wrong and whether they discovered new flavors here and what degrees all these people working in this sector had. We then proceded down some stairs, which the Mexican students once again had problems with, and into the bottleing sector. It was so cool. There was all kinds of equipment going on at once. First the bottles come up and go into this hyper cleaning machine. They come out and are scanned. Any craked, broken, or dirty bottle would be dumped. The lable would be placed, the beer would flow and the cap placed. Then the bottle would go into a pressurized area to get a factory sealed bottle. They would be boxed and then shipped, by train to the US, Canada, and other American contries, by air to Europe and Asia, and by truck to all of Mexico. Half their beer stays in Mexico and half is exported. So this bottling area was devided in half. The area on the left which was running when we came in was specifically for exports and had different labels on them. The right side of the room was for bottles that stayed in Mexico. Every week one side of the wherehouse is cleaned while the other is in full production. Very interesting system.
What was more interesting was the recreation sector. He took us on a little site-seeing-bus-type-thing to go see. Since the class were were going with was studying science, they were interested in the plants. Casey and I were only interesting in the free beer at the end of the tour. We went through and saw the plants and the warm river that flowed the water to the plant and saw some eagles and cats and wild hogs. One of them cats was evil and tried to attack me as I tried to get footage and Casey tried to feed me to the cat....
We finally drove back to the welcome center. And then it was time for the beer!...and chips and pig skin fried stuff (pork grinds) and picante. It was great. We looked at the Corona store, took some more pictures and left for the city of Zacatechas.
I know, this is a long post, but it is almost done and this part just owns on pictures. We arrive to Zacatechas. We took a bus to the center of the city. We then walked to the Cathedral so that we would all know where to meet up at 5:30 pm. At this point it was 1pm. Then we split and Casey, Jasmine and I backtracked our steps to find all the little shops we had seen and wanted to go on our walk to the Catherdal. We looked around quite a bit.
Daniel had been complaining for about a week about his hair being long, even though it was only about two inches long. He came to a brilliant decision.....for once in his life he was going to try a new hair style. Daniel decided to buzz it. Jasmin said I shuld cut it while I was in Mexico. Well, as fate had it, as we were walking once again, we passed by a hair stylist solon. We stopped in our tracks and they both got me to go in. It was only going to cost 50 pesos, or $5 USD to get by hair cut. The lady was about 35, and seemed to be very interrested in Daniel. Jasmin told her: Hacelo guapo…which translates to, just make him hansom. At that instruction the second lady looking over me laughed and said, “Mas guapo?” confirming the fact that she liked daniel. She cut And laughed. And giggled. And cut. Daniel decided that he wanted to be a girl and no longer wanted to get a buz, despite constant encouraging from his supportful friend Casey. Finally they finished…and sadly daniels hair looks just like it always does….average...not long or short. I payed my 5 bucks to the nice ladies and walked out of that hair stylist solon a new man. It was great.
Before and after
Then we got hungry and went to eat. But we got lost because they were not following my clear directions: We are going the wrong way. We finally got ourselves in order and went to this really nice place and we had Horchata and Enchiladas. Casey and I were worried of the ice and the water they used for the Horchata, but Jasmin almost pounded in my head that they used safe water. But them enchiladas weren’t safe. Dang thy were hot! The people sitting next to us and the waiter all said they weren’t hot. But they were! 
Ok, unfortunately I (Casey) must again speak up to tell the true story about the enchiladas.... on a 1 to 10 scale of spiceness i give them about a 4. They werent bad, as long as you had a little something to drink, the average person would have no problem. Back to daniel....
So the lesion for today is: Never trust a Mexican….when he talks about hot food. Because it aint true, and whatever he says take it to the extreme. These Mexians live life on the edge with them hot sauces and spiceyness. But you know what¿? That is ok. Just don’t involve me and my poor mouth into it.
Casey´s lesson for the day is Daniel cannot handle anything that is more spicy then potota chips.
We went to get some tastey Mexican style ice cream. I got the Tequila one, Casey got the Tequila with lemon, and Jasmin got the Rasberry and peach one. You can see where our heads were stuck at. We kept moving a long. Casey found some stuff to buy, conquering the market with his bargaining skills.
We then went to the Cathedral when it as 5:15. There was no one from our group there. I thought they must have all died or been shot, so I went into the huge Cathedral that they had just opened up. It was nothing short of spectacular. The roof must have been 150 fet high, higher still at the domes. The pillars were like 5 feet thick. The organ was inspiring. And it was too cool to be true. We thought the outside was cool, well the inside was fabulous as well. Contrary to my uneducated commentary in the video, the Spanish built this cathedral 4 centeries ago. This elaborately carved cantera (red stone) structure was built between 1730 to 1760 in the churrigueresque arquitecture style. It was so cool.
We got out and it began to rain. No one in sight. We waited and wait. I then saw a dude that looked somewhat familiar that was waving to me. So I got the other 2 and we found the teacher. We took a cab and went to the bus. We used the restroom at this basketball gym that was really cool. Then we left. The ride back was not as cold and not as tiring. But the noise level was still at full capacity. Casey was trying to sleep, and the loud mexican kept on yelling and shouting obnoxiously. Finally he had enough, the next time the guy shouted Casey turned around in his seat and glared at the guy with a look that could kill. The bus was quiet atlast. We made it back, took the bus to Jasmin´s house, took a cab to my grandparent´s house, and then our energy level died. I still had to go by the bus station to have my tickets cleared for Monday. And then this long, long, very long day came to an end.
Thanks for reading this far if you did. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, haha. This post gets the award of being the longest thus far- over 2400 words. Pictures and vids will be up soon. Please put some comments! What do you think of Zacatecas? What do you think of the cathedral and of spicy foods and of noisy Mexicans? Speak your mind! And we will talk to you soon!
