G'day from Australia. Future Mezcal makers

[DonQuiote]

If you explore where Hidalgo, Queretaro and San Louis Potosi converge there are a number of national parks/mountains with some totally cool plants but also interesting places historically. For example, and not that I am at all religious, there are five huge old mission churches built in the late 1700s that are fantastic to see, main one at Jalpan (which is a great place to stay) Pretty safe, too, I would imagine. Las Pozas, the surreal garden of artist Edward James, is there or thereabouts. Same area (ish) is the high peak of Cerro La Laja, home to the southern population of Agave montana. That is interesting because it grows alongside Agave mitis (a very high population!) and produces natural hybrids, should you be lucky enough to find seeds.

The last time I was in the mountains of the Nuevo Leon/Tamaulipas borders looking at Agave montana, 9 years ago now!, we were stopped by paramilitary police in an armoured truck - they had automatic weapons and kevlar armour. That was actually quite reassuring. What I took from that is an area I had always thought was safe to travel in was suddenly off the agenda - they weren't there looking for agaves.

Perceived risk is a strange thing. Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I used to be a police officer. I don't scare or intimidate easily and have been in some 'sketchy' situations many times. But looking down the end of a few rifle barrels 2hrs from the nearest town in a country where life is cheap and reknowned for violence was, for me, a game changer. They didn't shoot first. They could have done. It's only plants, after all.

I love visiting old Catholic churches in Latin America. That all sounds cool! Yeah, the mountains near NL have ovatifolia and what looks like hybrids, and possibly some somewhat cold-tolerant echeverias that interest me. But I doubt we'll go to any of those areas any time soon, so I'm not planning on anything as of now. So I don't know about what you ran into, but when we have been there have been cops in flak jackets in the back of trucks with mounted guns in quite a few places. Even more so in touristy areas. To keep up the visible presence to deter crime is what I was told. Yeah, there are so many variables that would affect how we all would take it, and who knows until we are in the situation. It is easy to not be as afraid of it without experiencing it. Also, having some kind of advanced warning changes things. There are definitely things and places I won't do/go there.

@DonQuiote I don't know about public land rules there and all that, but would you be able to go grab some of the invasive/wild agaves from non-private land there and plant on your place so you can have a head start on their starting size?

That's the plan. I've already been grabbing angostfolia pups from council planted garden beds. I just put on my hi-viz and dig em up. Nobody has asked any questions so far. The larger plants are a bit more conspicuous. I think I'd have to have a chat with the local council and see if they would be okay with me removing them.

[jam]

No, that was the last time. Having guns pointed at me in the middle of nowhere was a sobering experience.

It is funny how people here think that encountering gun toting and pointing people is a Mexico thing... Plenty of areas here in the US where you can run into the same thing... likely for somewhat different reasons, but just as uncomfortable.

When I still regularly did fieldwork all over the western US while working for the DOE Geothermal Energy program there would not be a trip where I did not have at least one encounter where someone would approach me with gun or rifle pointed at me - on public lands mind you. The message usually was get the fuck out of here and well when someone is pointing a gun at you, you are unlikely to argue that you have a legal right to be there.

Exactly. The first and hopefully also the last time I got many guns pointing at me was in New Orleans, LA in French quarter, 2 or 3 blocks from Bourbon street. By many I mean somewhere about 5-6, was not able to count. Was I scared to death? Yes. Did it stop me from revisiting? Nope.

[Paul S]

I guess you guys don't read the news. Link here to the most dangerous cities worldwide (by murder rate per 100,000) excluding war zones. The top 6 are in Mexico.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/243 ... er-capita/

The border towns clearly feature heavily but issues with the drug cartels spread wider than that, hence seeing the armoured truck in the mountains above La Pena.

Anyway, we all make our choices about risk - I've made mine and I'm not going again!

[jam]

I guess you guys don't read the news. Link here to the most dangerous cities worldwide (by murder rate per 100,000) excluding war zones. The top 6 are in Mexico.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/243 ... er-capita/

The border towns clearly feature heavily but issues with the drug cartels spread wider than that, hence seeing the armoured truck in the mountains above La Pena.

Anyway, we all make our choices about risk - I've made mine and I'm not going again!

I'd love to visit MX before I get old to see the country, its people, flora, etc in my own eyes. Having not done so, yet, is a testament of me taking your words seriously. The other day you told me the story in private conversation. It left a mark on me.

[nsp88]

The top 6 are in Mexico.

Oh I agree with you and the stats that it is dangerous there, and I certainly am not visiting those places.

Ain't no way in hell I'd go to nola again after having a bunch of guns pulled on me. Wild.

[Tom in Tucson]

Since this thread has gone completely OT, I might as well "jump into the fray".

I'm not endorsing the following, but with changing times, come changing attitudes (and why the total legalization of all drugs has a lot of merit); case in point:

In the not too distant past the Mexican drug cartels main source of income was centered around the smuggling of cocaine and marijuana into the USA. Later on these drugs were replaced with methamphetamine, and some less popular drugs. Now the current means to the cartel's profit is the smuggling of fentanyl, and taking the savings of the unfortunate gullibility of desperate people at their wits end in Latin America, by promising them a safer life, but "dumping:=" them at the US border to fend for themselves.

A new "twist" in this despicable behavior is the greed of the Chinese. They are now the main supplier of the chemicals used to produce fentanyl, and their illicit behavior is ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

End of rant. Let's get back to the sublime pursuit of growing incredible looking plants.

[JoyinAlb]

I’m not starting a farm “on purpose” but I did mention to a neighboor that when my Americanas get too big for their space that I might pineapple them and learn to make mescal. Her reply was “ knock on my door when the time comes, cuz I know how!” Right then she became my favorite neighbor

[coz]

The Mexican Government has given the Australian Government permission to grow Agave Tequiliana, for biofuel and there are apparently large farms of it in the state of Queensland.
Because of the low altitude in Australia, Agave spirt is suppose to taste like shit. This is one of the reasons the Mexican Government has given permission, with the understanding that any spirt made will be called Agave spirt and will not be called Tequila or Mezcal, as it is the national drink of Mexico. There are a few Agave spirt distilleries in Australia that use a blend of feral Agave Americana, Augustafolia and other things. One is called Black Snake Distilleries in the town of Narrabri in the state of New South Wales, that I have not tried yet.