El Peregringo

So on Friday a group of 36 students and several faculty went to Tequila to visit the blue agave fields and the Cuervo distillery, officially known as the Fábrica La Rojeña.

I have had an off and on relationship with tequila over the years. My sophomore year in college, a friend brought back a bottle of Mezcal (another distillate of a different species of agave) from spring break. We sat in my room and drank the whole bottle, straight from the bottle, passing it around in a circle. I ate the gusano at the end (parenthetically, I ate several gusanos in tortillas last night at dinner…). The next thing I remember I woke up the next morning fully clothed, face down, my feet on my pillow and both fists clenched beside me. There was a woman I’d never seen asleep next to me, also fully clothed, face up, but with her head on the pillow next to my feet. I got out of bed to hit the john, and when I came back to my room, she was gone. I have no idea who she was. I didn’t drink a distillate of agave for nearly 20 years after that.

(Continued)