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.
