What a great afternoon!

The day was going along lazily, as most days seem to do here at Altarose Rancho RV Park. But we had mentioned to owner Garry that if he wanted to go for a hike at some point that we'd be wanting to go with him.

But this wasn't just a hike!

First, a little background. Garry runs ATV (all terrain vehicle) quad tours up in the mountains. It's a neat little business they have going, where they take up to eight or ten tourists on ATV's on some trails through the jungle up to a private tequila ranch and event salon. The tourists have fun on the quad bikes, then they enjoy an hour or two at the ranch and have some drinks and maybe some food, and then return on the trails.

So Garry wanted to check out the possibility of making a trail up an old access road to the top of a hill where an old cell tower used to be.

That involved us hopping on the ATV's just to get there! It was about 1:30pm when we took off. We didn't get very far when I noticed that one of Garry's tires was going flat and we made a little detour to a repair shop.

Flat tire repair.

At the tire shop.

Didn't take long, and we were on our way. To get to the trail he wanted to explore, we had to go to the tequila ranch first and pick up Juan, the guy who owns the property. 

Ruth and I heading up to the ranch.

It's a pretty spot, in the middle of nowhere.

Quite an oasis!

And with puppies! There were three little ones.

And then we headed off to search out this old road. We did find it, and we went as far as we could with the quad bikes, but eventually we left them and set off on foot. The road was built about 14 years ago to put up a cell tower, and then the deal apparently never came together and the project was just abandoned. So the road is eroded in some spots, and overgrown in others. But it wouldn't take much work to make it accessible with the quad bikes and then they would be able to bring people to the top of the mountain for the view.

Kevin, coming through the forest on his ATV.

Gary and Juan doing some clearing.

Starting to get a view.

Heading up on foot.

What's left of the old tower at the top.

View towards Nuevo Vallarta.

It was 5:00pm by the time we reached the top! Fortunately, it was a quicker (but much steeper) route back down, but it was still after 6:00pm by the time we made it back to the tequila ranch. Then of course, Juan insisted we have a cold drink and of course the talk made it round to tequila, and he insisted we try the various versions!

Socializing back at the tequila ranch.

The tequila isn't actually produced here, and it's not for public sale so you won't find it on store shelves. But he does sell it to friends and some of the tourists who visit here. It is good tequila!

They have a pet coatimundi at the ranch. It's part of the raccoon family.

Ruth and her baby.

Everybody loves puppies!

What a great afternoon. Didn't make it back to Sherman until 8:00pm! We were exhausted!