Saturday, February 20, 2021

Queretaro; Settling In


The shower dilemma was solved by turning the hot water heater on an hour before shower-time. So Monday started off good. We made breakfast with the eggs we bought at the big market and headed off to our first day of school. That was also the first day Queretaro opened for business for both indoor and outdoor dining. I can’t imagine being here for three weeks with take-out food only. That would’ve completely undermined the whole process of learning the language and immersing ourselves in a culture.


When we arrived, on Sunday, it wasn’t possible to purchase alcohol, and all of the restaurants were closed for indoor dining. Joe was very disappointed, to say the least. When the school director asked on Sunday how we were settling in, I texted him, “We’re doing fine, but there’s no beer on Sunday in Mexico!” The first day in class on Monday, he came in with four beers for Joe. I thought Joe was going to kiss his feet with joy. The next day he brought three bottles of wine into the class to show me what the store below carried… and the store was having a two-for-one sale!


Our teacher, Lulu, is a sweet lady (Chantico Language School). She pushed our limits the first day and now we’ve settled into a curriculum. It was pretty comical when she tried to give us homework. We flat-out refused. I don’t think she quite knew what to do. We prefer to wander through the community and practice our new skills on the locals, like the owner of our favorite coffee shop, Laura, who doesn’t speak any English. But she has a son who is an intermediate English speaker. We set up our own inter-cambio date with him and today we went for a walk to go see the aqueduct, Los Arcos. For the first half-hour we spoke Spanish, the second half-hour we switched to English.


This is a really clean city. They pick up the household garbage every day, which is why we ran out of bags and had to go buy more… it’s an American thing. Used toilet paper in a can with no lid is no bueno. We probably take our garbage out faster than anyone else in town. The streets are constantly swept clean. They use brooms made out of twigs tied to a broomstick. All of the streets in this part of town are cobblestone and a lot of them are pedestrian only.


The food’s been okay. We went into a restaurant Monday night and I ordered a steak. The server said it was very flavorful and traditional. Joe got the chicken breast. Both had been beaten and pounded down to about a quarter of an inch thick. We could hardly cut through the meat, but it was kinda flavorful once we got past the scrawny cut of meat. Last night we went to a popular and noisy bar, we ordered nachos. That was good. The menu cracked me up… it was about six feet tall. The server came to our table and placed it right in front of us. I thought that was hilarious. Last night we finally ordered the item on the menu at every restaurant; enchiladas Queretanos. Talk about a disappointment! Two scrawny enchiladas with salad on top. Joe ordered Abondogas, meatballs. There was only one, so not sure why they called it abondogas? But it was big and extremely tasty. Today’s restaurant, The Blue Fish, wins the grand prize—fish and shrimp tacos. They were absolutely delicious, especially with the sundried jalapeƱo salsa.


Yesterday, Emiliano, our inter-cambio guy, told us a little more of the city history. We went to the hill of bad blood, Sangre Mal. A tiny church marked the spot of the final battle between the indigenous people and the Spaniards. A vision appeared in the sky of an angel mounted on a horse. It looked like a Spaniard, so they took it as a sign that the Spaniards should win the battle and have the land. A large replica of this event is on a monument near the church. That’s the reason for the city’s name; Santiago de Queretaro. I asked if the indigenous people also saw the angel. Emiliano just shrugged. As I said, he took us to where we could see a huge part of the aqueduct. It’s amazing. It was built in less than 20 years and is over five miles long and as tall as 75 feet at some points. Emiliano said the traditional story is; the man who planned for and paid for the aqueduct, did so as a gift to his girlfriend because the water in the city was polluted. At that time in the 1720’s, a lot of people were very rich, but this guy was even more wealthy than most. Probably a billionaire by our standards.


For the first time, we haven’t been able to find a place to have our laundry done. It’s a good thing I always bring laundry soap. As I type, our clothes are hanging all over the house. By the way, we rented this house (two bedroom and one bath) for only $21/night! Other than the nearby trains coming and going all night, the church bells that start ringing at dawn, the intermittent barking and meowing from the veterinary hospital next door, and the occasional celebratory M-80’s, it’s very peaceful.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting place. Enjoying the pictures too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sissy la la I love reading your blog. The six foot tall menu is brilliant and COVID friendly lol

    ReplyDelete