Hello, Querétaro!

January 20, 2023

I am off to Mexico for 3 weeks to explore cities and towns of central Mexico, with Mexico City as my base. My “partner in crime”, Alice, isn’t able to join me this time, but she’ll be back soon, not soon enough for me. On Thursday she drove me to the airport at 4 am, just in time to avoid the incoming winter storm. Then to Atlanta and Mexico City. Arriving at the Mexico City airport I recalled my very first trip there 38 years ago when I knew no Spanish and also had to take a bus to a neighboring city. This time it was easy, with a bus station right at the airport.

It was a smooth 3-hour ride to Querétaro, the largest Mexican city you likely don’t know, with 3 million inhabitants. I got a taxi immediately to the historic center where I am staying in a boutique hotel on a pedestrian walkway lines with artisan booths. I got outside for a little food and tried to take tour led by actors dressed in historical costumes, but my exhaustion got the best of me and returned for a well-deserved rest.

This morning I arose to a beautiful cool morning. I had found a 4 mile self-guided walking tour and headed out. I stopped for coffee and later a second breakfast. The city was relatively clean, but with a very heavy rush hour traffic. Coming back from the tour I needed to get some cash out of an ATM. Absent-minded lay, I left my debit card in the machine and walked back to my hotel. YIKES! I realized I would have a very tough time if I didn’t recover the card. I walked back to the bank, went inside, and asked a nice young man at the reception. He opened a door, asked for my identification, and VOILA! There was my card! Hopefully I don’t make that mistake again this trip.

In the afternoon I took a free walking tour. You might not have noticed, but these have proliferated all over the world. the idea is that someone offers their services giving a tour for free, and lives off to the tips. My tour guide was another theatrical actor who chose this tour to practice his very poor English. Though I would have done much better in Spanish, I went along with it and helped to tutor him a little in his English by reverse translating whenever he said something incomprehensible. I’ll add a few city pics from today.