On the first BAJARRIBA Blog I mentioned that I would expand upon how the Tres Cabo Amigos all met in Cabo. Mike had moved to Cabo in 1989 and had started playing music and writing songs about Cabo. He and his wife Josefina opened a restaurant bar in 2004 where Mike would perform for their dine in customers and then started his El Arco brand tequila and was becoming a local celebrity within the Cabo community.
Then Jay arrives in Cabo and purchases the Cabo Lounge in 2004. Jay and Mike know some of the same people and run in the same crowd so they met. During these years Rico had been traveling to Cabo since 1992 after moving from Idaho to Arizona in 1991. In 2004 Rico had met both Mike and Jay through a mutual friend Mariana Estrada who knew nearly everyone as she was one of the best bartenders in Cabo. She had moved to Cabo from the mainland of Mexico and with her fluency in both Spanish and the English language she had gained many friends and acquaintances.
Now enter Johnny and Maddie Corona, a couple who took a life changing motorcycle trek from their home in Salem, OR to the tip of the California Baja – Cabo San Lucas. Fast forward to 2010, a couple from Salem, OR ride down on their motorcycles and decide they are going to live in Cabo and started the Caboholics Support Group with a Blog and Facebook page in 2010. This group was started by Johnny and Maddie Haney aka Johnny and Maddie Corona who both moved to Cabo in 2013. Johnny Haney R.I.P. was born on December 18th, 1953 and passed away in Salem, OR on February 4th, 2017. Mariana, Mike and Rico were all within the first 100 members to join this group which is now has over 16,000 members from the world over with most being from the 50 US states, all provinces of Canada and a few local Mexicans, Americans and Canadians living in the San Jose and Cabo area.
Rico finished writing his first novel, the award-winning, best-selling novel “My Bad Tequila” in 2010. Rico was on his second book signing tour early 2011 which included Cabo San Lucas, Mexico as one of the stops. Rico had reached out to Mariana who arranged and set up two book signings, one at Cabo Lounge which was formerly owned by Jay, who sold it to Juan Ramon Tatemura Quesada R.I.P. and the other at Mike’s restaurant – Miguel Loco’s. Fate would have it that Jay was visiting Cabo during that time and came to the book signing at the Cabo Lounge. Rico and Jay had met each other prior to that time a few years earlier in Cabo before Jay had left in 2009.
Rico moved to Arizona the first time in 1991, left in 1994 living in England and Lithuania, then returned in 1996 to Arizona, leaving again in 2000 for South Carolina and returning for good in 2001. Jay moved to Arizona in 2018 from Vegas and then Mike followed up his move to Arizona from Cabo San Lucas in 2019. In September of 2020 Mike married Pam which was officiated by Rico, and the wedding was at Canyon Lake, AZ on Jay’s yacht which has now been renamed BAJARRIBA!
In October 2020, Rico called both Mike and Jay and invited them to meet him at Streets of New York Pizza in Fountain Hills, AZ to discuss putting together a partnership for a new tequila brand. A few days later the three friends formed Tres Cabo Amigos, LLC which owns the BAJARRIBA brand. And the rest is modern history of the three of them taking their first trip together to Guadalajara where they teamed up with Tequila El Viejito distillery in Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco which is in the Highlands region, 60 miles east of Guadalajara. On that trip we also secured a steel mold manufacturer for our one-of-a kind, unique bottle, the talented painter / artist who hand paints the beautiful Baja peninsula shaped bottle, an incredible bottle / glass manufacturer of which we use only recycled glass, the cork manufacturer with a medallion inscribed, wooden top with synthetic cork. The reason we chose a synthetic cork is that the wooden corks over time can become soggy and break, sometimes falling into the 100% Blue Agave tequila thus contaminating the entire bottle. We too, found a great box manufacturer and then all components are shipped to the bottling plant where our brilliant, tasty agave juice is poured, corked, bottled and shipped to the border of Tijuana / San Diego, CA. We stayed at Mike’s good friend – Carlos Chacon’s beautiful home in Guadalajara. Carlos has turned out to be one of our closest Amigos and has picked us up and dropped us off at the Guadalajara airport numerous times. On this first trip in April 2020, the Tres Cabo Amigos flew to Cabo San Lucas for some fun and relaxation after a grueling 5 days of meeting and closing deals with all the aforementioned vendors.
Pictured below is our first Ad in TEQUILA AFICIONADO for July 2022!! Salud!!!
BAJARRIBA = Bottoms Up!!
Peace, Love & Tequila from the World's Most Interesting Writer!!! - rico austin