Aguascalientes - Fair!

You know that you've reached the Feria (Fair) in Aguascalientes when you can hear all the bands playing. These are groups with anywhere from 3-8 people playing music at full blast, within hearing range of other groups playing just as loudly. There are people milling around, but, mostly, they are dancing to the music or wending their way through the crowd, drinks in hand.

We have arrived!
There is a band on the right side with a sousaphone.

During the Feria of San Marcos, (or, as their logo proudly states, "The Fair of Mexico"), as long as you don't enter into any of the clubs/bars, you can bring your own alcohol and drink it out in the open. Of course, there are lots of drinks you can buy, too. The Feria is famous for it's liter large mojitos, bombas and gringas gigantes (the name for micheladas in Aguascalientes). Only 50-80 pesos (~$4-6). During the Feria, which is the biggest fair in Mexico, the area in which it is held is called The Largest Cantina in the World.

Micheladas = Gringas Gigantes

While you're hanging out, enjoying drinks in the beautiful, cool evening in Aguascalientes, there are lots of street vendors walking by, hawking their wares. We asked one trio to play us a couple of songs. None that I knew. Sadly, I am very uneducated in banda music. Then, there are the "toques", vendors walking by while clicking two metal cylinders together. I had no idea what I had agreed to when we all joined hands and the two people closest to the "toques" held the metal cylinders. Soon, there was a light electric current. Then, it grew stronger and stronger until we were shouting and someone finally broke the circuit.

Trio playing banda music for us

After all the excitement, don't forget to get some food on your way home. It was after 3:30 am when we stopped for tacos that were 5 for 35 pesos. But, the Feria was still going strong at that point. No last call or closing time for this Feria. By the time we got home at 5 am, we were all pretty exhausted.

Lamb birria

Later that morning, with not quite as much spring in our step, we stopped for some delicious lamb birria for breakfast. In Aguascalientes, birria is stewed meat, served on a plate. It comes with unlimited tortillas. At Birrieria Santa Cruz, we wolfed down the delicious lamb while watching Selena music videos on bandamx television.

Cristo Roto from www.turiguide.com

While the main attraction of Aguascalientes is the once a year Feria, the city has lots of other attractions nearby. We drove out to El Cristo Roto (the Broken Christ) in San Jose de Gracia. It's a cement statue on an island in the middle of a lake. An either side of the sculpture are miniature replicas of Christs from different churches. The lake, island and surrounding area is gorgeous! I regret that I forgot to bring my phone to take pictures on this expedition. Boat ride out to the island is 35 pesos (~$3).

Another great place that we stopped to eat was El Taco Loco in San Franciso de los Lomos. El Taco Loco is famous for its carnitas, or shredded pork. The restaurant itself was very open. You could order meat in bulk or order items like quesadillas freshly made. However, if you order in bulk, you get to walk past the women making tortillas to the back of the store and select your own meat cooking in huge metal pots. Then, you carry this meat up front for it to be cut into little pieces. There's a bar of salsas and pico; and, your server will also bring peppers and lime, as well as an unlimited supply of tortillas. The carnitas were so delicious! We made our own tacos with the tortillas, salsas, pico, peppers and limes. The restaurant, though, is not for the faint of stomach. Raw, unpackaged meat was rolled in crates through the middle of the restaurant. Then, an employee would take chunks of raw meat and bring it to the middle of the restaurant to cut it using a band saw. However, the sight of raw meat couldn't stop me from eating lots of mouth-watering carnitas!

Hacienda de Letras vineyards

Finally, we stopped at a winery called Hacienda de Letras. It's very much in the middle of nowhere. You will need to stop and ask for directions! Yet, it was worth finding it. The grounds and buildings are all beautiful; and, there were even people taking wedding photos in this quaint location when we arrived. There are a variety of tours of the grounds. We opted for the 150 peso (~$11.50) tour, which included 4 tastes of wine. There was also a 50 peso (~$4) tour that included a glass of wine. The tour of the grounds and the machinery was very interesting. However, the tasting was even better. Our sommelier walked us through tasting each wine with him. We looked at the colors, transparency, bits of grape skin in the wine. We smelled and tasted and tried to sound cultured in our ideas of what we smelled and tasted. A great tip was tasting the wine with cheese. We'd have a sip of wine and a bite of cheese. If it's a good pairing, the two complement each other, but, the taste of the wine is what remains in your mouth.

For those traveling from Guadalajara to Aguascalientes, there are about 500 pesos (~$40) in tolls each way for automobiles. There is also a bus that runs between the two cities.