Qro; The Good and the Bad

School is definitely getting harder. Our teacher, Lulu has been forcing us to speak in past tense. No biggie in English, but in Spanish you have about five or six different verb conjugations for past tense. And of course, the most commonly used words are the irregular ones. We have a few irregulars in English, like go and went, but dang-it, they’ve got a ton. Lulu speaks at a normal speed, which is really fast for us. This is a fairly educated city, and lots of people speak English. Fortunately, they prefer Spanish, so we can practice.

The director of our school invited us to go wine tasting with him and his girlfriend. That was an adventure. We drove through the open country past vast ranches and farms for a long time. Then we went through tiny villages, where they had so many things for sale in front of their tiendas, we could hardly get through the street.

The first winery was gorgeous, and almost empty. We couldn’t taste their wine because we didn’t have an appointment, but we ate there… one of the best hamburgers I’ve had. It’s called Vino del Cielo. It looks like one of those places you’d want for a wedding venue. They had an attached hotel and a nice swimming pool. Plus they had a big grassy area with a man-made lake and waterfall.

Freixenet was like going to an amusement park. It had families and couples everywhere. The huge motorcycle group we’d passed on our way to the Queretaro Wine Region was there with their black leathers on, sipping sparkling wine. Because of covid we couldn’t try their wine, but I could buy a glass of wine… I wasn’t impressed with this, but they certainly weren’t hurting for business. The reserve cabernet sauvignon was good, and I got the wine glass as a memento.

My favorite was Tierra de Alonso. It had a funky little shop up front, but then it opened up to a gorgeous garden with a little cage of rabbits for the children to feed. The sommelier came to our table and gave us tastings for three of their wines and I bought a bottle of a really unusual tasting wine they call Coupage. I can’t figure out what the varietal is. They even had cheese and wine ice cream. I have no idea if it was good.

The ride home took us past a giant rock named Peña de Bernal. It’s the third largest monolith in the world, surpassed only by the Rock of Gibraltar and Sugarloaf Mountain in Brasil. My photo from the car was terrible, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Queretaro is a unique city. I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s really pretty with its cathedrals and cobblestone streets. The shops and restaurants are good. I think the best part is the people. They are polite and helpful. Everyone goes out of their way to help. The huge cathedral near the end of the aqueduct, lets all the homeless sleep along the walls. At night piles of blankets cover them, but during the day there’s no sign of them near the church.

Pets are a big thing here. I’ve never seen so many pet grooming shops and veterinarians anywhere else. But, unlike the US, I haven’t seen very many dogs at restaurants or in stores. They even have professional dog-walkers here. The other day we walked past a guy leading eight dogs. I can’t figure out how he got them all to behave?

There’s a canal that runs through the city in front of the university. It has a bike trail and a walking trail. It’s really pretty with all of its little bridges crisscrossing over it. Our side is the colonial side, and the other side is a mix of old and new. There’s people there at all hours of the day and long into the night. When we come back from the city center at nine or ten at night, we’re going the opposite direction of the people flowing into el centro to get dinner. Mexicans eat late and stay out late, probably because it’s cooler.

People dress nice here… sometimes I feel like we’re in Barcelona. It’s nice enough, but for some reason it’s not for us. Part of the problem is the incredibly dry air and the minerals in the water. My feet look like I’m wearing alligator shoes! The dust is wreaking havoc on my sinuses. I’ve had a bloody nose every single day. And then there’s the altitude. We’re at 6,500 feet! Somehow, I didn’t know that ahead of time. It wasn’t until we finally admitted to each other that we were getting winded just climbing the stairs, that we suspected some dark force was against us. Now I don’t feel so old and feeble… it’s the altitude.

Another oddity is the number of people wandering around who are drunk (I see maybe two or three a day, sometimes more). The puking kind of drunk. I’ve never seen that many in a truly Mexican city. A tourist city like Cancun, maybe, but not Puebla, Oaxaca, or even Guanajuato. Maybe it’s a sign on the times? It reminds me of Antigua, Guatemala, where the drunks are protected by a spirit, unless a black dog licks them… then they’re doomed. So, no one messes with the drunks there, even if they’re laying on the sidewalk in front of your establishment.

Our house is interesting. It has two rooms and a bathroom with doors, but the rest is open-air with screens (mostly). Mosquitos don’t seem to be a problem here, but we’ve found two giant cockroaches in our place… dead, thankfully. Our Airbnb is extremely basic. Enough toilet paper and garbage bags for a few days. The sponge was ancient, so I bought some. She gave us four bath towels for two weeks and no change of sheets, so I have to do laundry—by hand in the kitchen sink, which only has cold water. The fridge is the size of a carry-on suitcase. We definitely won’t stay here again, though it is cute, cheap, and conveniently located by our school. Hopefully our next place will be a little better equipped.

Another interesting custom is the way the restaurants compete with each other. Normally they stand out front and try to talk you into coming into their place. Not here. It’s not unusual to have someone hold the menu for you to read, then when you decide to eat there, they lead you to a restaurant two doors down. Sometimes they stand next to each other and stick two or three different menus under your nose. A host or hostess dare not leave their post for a moment, or another restaurant host will stand at their entrance and entice the customers away. We found a really clean and modern looking place and stopped to look at the menu. The sweet young guy standing at the podium handed us the menu to peruse. It looked good, so we decided to eat there. Suddenly a girl came racing out of the restaurant and shooed him away and proceeded to hand us the correct menu. Fortunately for her their menu looked good also.