So I've been in Jalisco in Mexico for almost a week now and mostly I have just been doing local stuff, hanging out with my family, and talking, and not really doing anything that would be on the tourist radar at all.
In these adventures we end up doing some things that probably took my family a while to get used to and to a lot of the world might be normal, or might be a little bit crazy.
In the USA what we did today would definitely be illegal and I always have my suspicions every time the USA makes anything illegal, is that something is banned because it cuts into the profits of someone else who is better connected.
My dad gets fresh milk from a local corner store of sorts and when I say fresh, I mean you actually see it coming from the cow into whatever container you bring with you. While i have been on dairy farms in the past, these were always high-output operations that had machines that would milk the cow. Here at this dairy bar (a term i made up) the cows are all kept in reserve in the side yard until the demand for their product exists and then, one by one, they will be brought out to give milk.
This ins't a terribly urban area, but it also isn't a farm. On both sides of this milk bar, there are small supermarkets, restaurants, and the other stores are mostly related to agriculture.
The cows just kind of hang out over there until it is their turn and from what I witnessed anyway, the cows are quite excited for it to be their turn. They get the good grain when it is their turn to stand there and all of the cows I saw were completely cool with the process.
The cowboy bartender just takes what you need at the time and puts it in your container. Ours was a 2-liter jar that my Dad brought with us, but there were a bunch of guys dressed like cowboys - because they are cowboys not some sort of fancy dress costume party - and they would have individual glasses that they filled up and then customized to whatever flavor they were looking for.
According to my father, some of this is booze and while I can't imagine having booze at 8am, especially not mixed with milk that was recently inside of a cow, it does seem to be a rather normal part of life out here and who am I to judge?
Later on I had some of the milk after it had been cooled off in a refrigerator and it simply tasted like a strong tasting milk that you would buy in a carton at the store. There's nothing dangerous about it. I think that for most people this is just kind of a shock because we have grown up in rather sterile lives where we never have to see the farm-side of where our food comes from.
There were a lot of people here but I don't take pictures of people with their faces in the shot without permission. I feel strange about doing that to anyone and don't like it when I am subjected to it.
This was a fun little situation and our 2 liters of milk cost around $3. I have no idea what the large cups of fresh milk the cowboys mixed with booze costs but I don't think that is where people go to get tanked, I think it is just a part of their work day.
"Don't know it until you've tried it!" is what they say and this was an interesting cultural experience for me, that's for sure
