Before we left Mazatlan we made a day tour with a group of ten to the small town of La Noria, an hour into the foothills east of the city. There were several interesting points of note for the day, not to mention a pleasant ride, a delicious lunch and a well-mannered young guide who was very fluent in English. Our first stop was at the blue agave plantation and distillery of Los Osuna, which has been in business for over 100 years. In the above photo you can see Alice standing by a blue agave that is still not ready for harvest. When ready for harvest, the plant is at least seven years old and the core, called the pineapple, weighs about 300 lbs. That is chopped up and then cooked and pressed to begin the fermentation process. You will see the vat of agave juice with yeast in it in the photo column to the right of this article. Between the sweet juice of the agave and the bountiful bouganvillas, the plantation was alive with butterflies. We both took tons of photos! Then we drove on to La Noria itself where we toured a leather factory where men were making everything from belts and purses to shoes and saddles, the old fashioned way! We also saw the barn where they were tanning cowhide, the old-fashioned way... the stench was almost more than one could handle! The above photos show one of the huge old sewing machines and also a table covered with white-tailed deer legs, waiting to be made into whip handles! Hopefully, we can do more shore excursions as interesting as this one.
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