Mexico - Winter 23/24
Today we took the bus out to El Pueblito, which is kind of a suburb of Querétaro. We came out here in 2022, but we went straight to the pyramid (El Cerrito) and then walked all the way back, which didn’t afford us time to look at El Pueblito itself at all. Today we took a good walk around El Pueblito and it’s pretty interesting. I like it a lot.
We looked at a couple of Catholic Churches (because of course we did). I found Santuario del Pueblito particularly interesting because it has two domes beside each other that give an interesting 3D effect when you walk up to the stuff inside them when you’re in the church.
Next time we come out this way I want to walk through the neighborhood on the side of the big hill. |
Today we had to drop off some laundry and then meet our new acquaintances, Rob and Anita, for lunch. So that scratched off any far-flung expeditions for the morning. We decided to finish our ongoing church tour. The highlights, along with some fantastic street art, were the unusual Christo Rey on the far west side of centro, and the heavily bead-laden Templo San Francisco.
We then met Rob and Anita at Los Pirineos for ciabatta sandwiches and sweet crepes. We made plans for them to come meet us in Tequis while we’re there. |
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Today I had to take a sick day (again). I have been having trouble getting enough sleep, and I guess it caught up with me. I’ve got some kind of cold or flu… hopefully not the ‘rona. We went out this morning to get some groceries and cold medicine and I slept most of the day, although it didn’t stop me from appreciating some of the wall art along the way. |
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Annnnd now Brent is sick too. We went for a short walk up to the river and then back home to drink Vicks Noche. Bleah. |
Today we’re mostly over whatever is ailing us, although we’re still not 100%. We did feel good enough to go for a long walk this morning.
We wanted to check out the other Barrio Magico (El Tepetate), and we also wanted to go back to a cool area that we walked through when we were here two years ago. Well, wouldn’t you know it, they are the same area!
We got a good look at the neighborhood, including Parroquia San Sebastián and the Centro Cultural Casa del Faldón. As usual, everything was very colorful, including the decaying buildings and wall art. |
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Looks like we pushed Brent too hard with the walk yesterday. He’s down and out for the day while I run a few errands. Hopefully everyone’s back on their feet tomorrow. |
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Poor sick Brent
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Today is our first day back from being sick… we hope. We visited JardÃn Zenea where we sat and watched some pigeons and grackles for a while. Then we visited Museo de Arte where we saw a great exhibit of Mayan Jade, and some sculptures by Jorge MarÃn, who seems to have a bit of an obsession with winged men and bird masks. Next, we visited Museo de la Ciudad, aka Museo de la Restauración de la República, where we learned about the failed French invasion of Mexico and the presence of Masons in Querétaro. |
Casa de la Marquesa
Yesterday we were invited in to a restaurant at a time that we didn’t want to eat. But we looked inside and it was BEAUTIFUL! Brent asked what time they open and they said 7am, so we went there for breakfast today.
From their website: Legend has it that the Marquis fell in love with a Poor Clare nun, who, out of loyalty to her vocation, did not accept any relationship with him, asking him to build the now majestic aqueduct to convey water to the city, and to also build the house. most beautiful in Querétaro, which has been carefully restored, revealing the original decorative paintings on its walls.
On our way back we finally got a look at the inside of Templo de la Merced. |
This afternoon we met up with Rob and Anita (we met Rob on one of our random church tours a while back) and they took us on a grand walking tour of the west part of centro, and across Rio Querétaro into El Tepetate, one of Querétaro’s Barrios Mágicos.
Some highlights included:
- The inside of Templo Santa Clara, which we had missed before
- Lunch at Tlayoli
- Fuente de Los Platitos
- Antigua estación del Ferrocaril, the museum in the beautiful old train station
- The old carols at Parroquia de Santiago
It was a really great first full day up after having our cold. |
Today we planned to take a bus to La Cañada, the neighborhood beyond Hercules, and walk back. We wanted to check out La Cañada, and also finish looking at Hercules, which we didn’t get to finish before. A few busses marked La Cañada passed us over and a bus for Hercules stopped, so we jumped on it instead. We got off in Hercules and started walking out towards La Cañada, but given the distance to walk there, we decided to focus instead on getting a good look at Hercules and trying for La Cañada again by bus another time.
Hercules is very interesting, and we also spent some time again in La Estación across the railway tracks. We discovered the Hercules Aqueduct, climbed up and up the hill in La Estación, and had a look at the Hercules Cervezaria. We wanted to have lunch and beers there but they weren’t open for that. Too bad. So, instead, we had lunch and beers on our way back at the Celtic Spub (yes I know it’s actually the Celtics Pub… stop raining on my fun). |
From our rooftop in Querétaro we can see the El Cerrito pyramid off in the distance in El Pueblito. We can also see a big hill out that way that, from our roof kinda looks like a really mondo pyramid itself. We’ve talked about it a number of times and talked about walking on it. Today was the day. We jumped the bus out to El Pueblito and walked up the east side of the hill, which doesn’t have much on it, and then walked around and down the west side (the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood of El Pueblito). One thing I hadn’t anticipated (because… d’uh) was that we’d have a really great view of El Cerrito nearby. The hill is definitely not another pyramid, but it was definitely interesting, and with today being exceptionally cool, it was a really good day to walk up it.
On our way back we found a toy store that sells plastic cutout flags, which we’ve been looking for for our yard, and then had lunch at Santa Cecina Taqueria, which has great food and really fun decor. |
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