Santiago de Querétaro 2022

Trip List Calendar

2022-02-19 : Lazy Day
Just a slow day today. I worked this morning. Elissa had to change from an AirBnB to a hotel, so she brought her stuff over for it to hang out here in between her two places. The three of us went out and did a little shopping. Elissa and I bought pants that we could wear to ride horses to get to the butterfly location on the butterfly tour. We went for lunch, did a bit of grocery shopping at the Mercado, and then Elissa left to check into her hotel and now Brent and I are just hanging out. A very pleasant day.


2022-02-20 : Peña de Bernal with Laura
Woke up this morning to another notification that Aero Mexico has changed our reservation for our return to Canada. They've changed the flight from YVR to YEG again. Three hours later on March 10th than what Brent arranged. We'll see how many times they change it between now and March 10th, and how long it takes them to change our YVR-YEG flight to happen the day before we fly from MEX-YVR. Unbelievable.
Today, Elissa, Brent and I hopped on the local Queretaro bus 19 and took it to the main city bus terminal where we hopped a regional bus with Amealcenses (approx 60 pesos each) to San Juan del Rio, where my friend, Laura G, picked us up. We drove out to her parents' house and picked up her daughter, Inez, and her mom, Rocio. The five of us went for a lunch of Carnitas, then out to Peña de Bernal for the day, then ended back at her parents' for a beer where we met her dad, Jesus, and saw his amazing irrigation system for his alfalfa crop. Laura then organized a driver... like an Uber but not an Uber... to take us back to Queretaro. This is one of my favorite days ever - thank you Laura!!


2022-02-21 : San Miguel de Allende
Woke up this morning to ANOTHER notice from AeroMexico that our flight itinerary has changed. When I looked it up, the leg from YVR to YEG was completely gone. Spoke to the customer service agent and he says the WestJet flight isn't "cancelled" but is not "confirmed" (I think probably related to a WestJet strike). His recommendation: Wait a few days and see if the flight gets confirmed.
On the spur of the moment, Brent, Elissa and I decided to head out to San Miguel de Allende today. It seemed like a good thing to do. We had a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was to take busses - city bus to the terminal, then regional bus to San Miguel. The city busses were not running efficiently and the regional bus schedule was few and far between, so after waiting at the city bus stop for a while, we gave up and got a taxi. Cesar took us to San Miguel for 600 pesos (plus tip). We got his phone number for future excursions.

We came back with a taxi as well. We could have taken a bus, but the best option was to take one at 4:50PM, and we weren't ready to leave when we had to to get to the bus depot, so with the price of the taxis being so good in relation to the busses (because the taxi costs the same for three people as for one, but the bus is per person), we just grabbed a taxi again. This one was 800 pesos plus tip. On our way into town, our cabbie got pulled over for some reason - we're not sure why. We think maybe it was to check to make sure he was not picking up in Queretaro, which he may not be licensed for.
San Miguel de Allende is a more beautiful and interesting city than Queretaro (not that there's anything wrong with Queretaro, mind you). It also has more restaurant-ey restaurants. The trade-off is that there's WAY more tourists, many of them English-speaking. There are two walking routes for SMDA, and we walked both of them, seeing what we could see. We liked the morning better when it was less busy, but the whole experiences was fantastic.
After we got home from San Miguel de Allende, Brent and I had a beer on the roof to await "Bird-O-Clock", which is the time when the big flocks of black birds fly over. "Bird-O-Clock" usually lasts from about 6:15 to 6:30 in the evening. Tonight there were more flocks, and bigger flocks than usual, and a lot of them flew RIGHT over top of our property, and some of the birds flew just a few feet above our heads. We love this evening ritual!


2022-02-22 : Sleepless Night Hangover
I really have to learn to lay off the coffee, even as a treat. When we went to San Miguel de Allende yesterday morning I drank a latte. Then I suffered for it all night. I only got about two hours of sleep, starting about 3AM. I had a few meetings this morning, but otherwise didn't work. I have to get my head cleared before I attempt much.
Laura W and Ann will be thrilled to know Brent has finally won the ATM-War. Before we left Edmonton, he went and got a new bank account at Scotiabank, and voila. Just like that, he's able to get money out of an ATM when we're out of country.


2022-02-23 : Las Americas - Boa Mistura
We took a city bus up to Las Americas. The bus was jam packed with bodies, hot and stuffy. It was not pleasant. We were happy to get off the bus.

Walking around Las Americas was really interesting. At one point, a random truck driver who was delivering candy to a store gave Brent three RockaLota lollipops, which were really unusual. Different layers of spicy, fruity... unusualness. Not unlike the neighborhood of Las Americas, which is on the side of a hill, so everything is steep and layered. Layers of spicy.

Rather than get back on a bus to go home, we decided we were ambitious enough to walk the ~6km back from our walk. It was really interesting too, and I can't wait to go back and explore some more in the neighborhood just north of the river from us.

For dinner, Elissa suggested her favorite local taco restaurant, Taco Tucson. It was delicious, and almost shamefully affordable.


2022-02-24 : Workday
I have a lot of meetings today and a lot of work to do, so today is a workday for me. Brent went walkabout without me. He walked and walked and walked to the west looking for a fire we saw in the distance last night but he never found it so he just turned around and walked and walked and walked back.


2022-02-25 : El Cerrito Pyramid
We started the day with breakfast (Guacamole Toast) at Las Palma (an Elissa discovery).

We were going to take a random cab out to El Cerrito, but we had communication problems with the first two cabs that we tried to flag down, so instead we texted Cesar, our cabbie who took us to San Miguel, and he came right away and took us out to El Cerrito, which is in a town on the outskirts of Queretaro called El Pueblito. Elissa took the opportunity to negotiate a ride out to the airport on Tuesday from Cesar. Yay for Cesar!

El Cerrito was very interesting. We could walk up to it, but, like many Mesoamerican pyramids, they no longer allow people to climb all over it. I agree 100% with that decision.

After we got a good eye-full of the pyramid itself, Elissa discovered more leaf-cutter ants, and we spent several minutes watching and photographing them.

After El Cerrito, we decided to walk to the Chopo (Covid testing clinic) about 1.5km from there. We inquired about Covid tests for our return voyages to Canada. Chopo clinics are walk-ins (no appointment needed), the antigen tests cost 600 pesos (about $45CAD), and we found out that there's a Chopo really close to where we're staying.

After we found the Chopo, we wanted to find a place to try and watch the far-end (arrivals) of our nightly bird-o-clock. We've been hoping to see the birds arriving at their nightly tree. That was not to be, however. We tried looking at the intersection that Elissa had been given by a biologist friend-of-a-friend, but it was a nightmare highway interchange. We thought maybe Centro Universitario might be a good spot, so we walked up there. Yeahhhhhhh.... no. Not so much. So, we walked up to Rio Queretaro, thinking we might find a place for dinner where we could face the rio and keep an eye on the ficus trees (where the birds supposedly roost), but that was a bust, too.

We ended up going for dinner at the plaza near where we're staying. It's really close to the big church that, every night, rings their bells incessantly, and then sets off firework explosions (not the pretty twinkly kind... just the boom-ey kind). It was REALLY loud in the plaza, and there were a lot of children playing nearby when we realized that large pieces, particularly long sticks, from the fireworks were falling in the plaza and the children were collecting them and playing with them as they fell. Yikes. It's all fun and games.....

All-in-all we walked about 12km back from El Cerrito to our "homes" over the course of the day. Something like this: Map


2022-02-26 : Workday
My lower back hurts quite a lot today from all the walking yesterday. Laying low and taking the opportunity to catch up on some work.
Our flight from YVR to YEG still doesn't appear on our Aero Mexico itinerary so I phoned them again this morning. No change - they still don't know if the WestJet flight is going to go or not. Their recommendation: Just wait longer. Call them back in a couple days.


2022-02-27 : Butterfly Tour!
Today we went with Uriel from Bike Tour Queretaro to Michoacan to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve. I have heard for years about the migration of the Monarch Butterflies, and that they migrate between Canada and Mexico, but I never expected to be able to actually see the place that they congregate in Mexico. Today I saw it and it was amazing!

We left Queretaro at 9AM to make the long drive to Michoacan. Along the way we noticed that the closer we got to the butterfly reserve the more the terrain resembled St. Vincent. Very beautiful big lush hills and valleys.

We had lunch at one of the food stands at the parking lot. They offered a selection of quesadillas, including ones with Huitlacoche. I thought the name seemed vaguely familiar, and when we found out what it was, I realized it was because I'd first heard of it on the hilariously written Steve, Don't Eat It! blog (scroll down to Vol 7). Sooooooo... guess what we had for lunch!? And it honestly was quite tasty.

After lunch we stood in line to buy our admission tickets. Then we stood in line to buy our horse ride tickets. Then we stood in line to get on our horses. Apparently it's the busiest day they've had in three years because of the pandemic, and the conditions today were really good. Getting up to where the butterfly colony is is a fairly long and steep trail up. You can walk up, but most people choose the horses, and that's what our tour included. Elissa and I bought special horse-riding pants because we were warned that the horses may have fleas and we didn't really have any pants along that were suitable for riding flea-infested horses.

The horse ride up was good. Elissa and Brent had fairly calm horses, while mine was quite... spirited. It's been a long time since I've ridden a horse, but I managed to stay on while my steed tried to gallop up a 10% grade. I pretty much gripped the oversized saddle horn the whole way up.

Once we were up the hill we joined the hoards of people on the hiking trail to get to the heart of the butterfly colony and the experience did NOT disappoint. There were, literally, millions of butterflies. It was completely magical, and photos don't do it justice.

We were fascinated to learn the life cycle of the Monarchs. It is not the same critters that you find in Canada that end up in Mexico. They have three one-month generations and one nine-month generations, with the nine-month generation essentially being the one that does most of the traveling. Here are some Monarch FAQs.

After watching the butterflies, Brent, Elissa and I hiked down the trail while Uriel chose to ride the horse down. We had a nice drive back to Queretaro, with a short stop in the pretty little town of Angangueo, and then took advantage of the fact that vehicle passengers don't get in trouble down here for having a beer in the car.
Since photos just don't do this experience justice, here's a video:
Michoacan


2022-02-28 : Elissa's Last Day
Today will be Elissa's last day in Queretaro before she heads back to Canada. Although we weren't expecting to have her around for this long (we were planning on a couple of days, but her plans changed), it's been SO MUCH FUN having her along for this part of the trip. It will be strange when she's gone.

Today I am working a long day. Brent and Elissa are out running errands - picking up a parcel for Elissa at the bus depot (which, at the end of the day, was more than an ordeal), and getting her Antigen Covid Test done so she can board her plane tomorrow.

Meeting up after I'm done work for Taco Tucson and Bird-O-Clock at the Blue Bicycle hostel.
I am really loving my Unightie. I'm a huge bamboo fan already, and when Calgary entrepreneur, Jackie, approached the COC with this interesting new product she designed, I was an early adopter. I was thinking that I would mostly use it on cycle tours, since I don't do much backpacking these days, and thought I'd give it a trial on our trip to Mexico. I have slept in it every night since we got here, and when I've been working, which is most days, I just stay in it. So, I've been wearing it, let's say, an average of 10 or 12 hours per day since Feb 11, and IT STILL DOESN'T STINK. Today is laundry day and for the second week in a row, I am withholding the Unightie from the ritual. Let's see how long I can wear this baby for before it starts to offend me...

One thing I do wish it had... not for Mexico, but for cycle tours (and backpacking) is a front-flap for the peeing. I would use it with my pee style, but since Jackie wants the product to appeal to men as well, I think a front-flap is in order.

The only other thing about it that may not be ideal... although it's more funny than anything else... is that the magnet sometimes holds onto something that I don't really want it to. Sitting on my chair working, the waist magnet grabs onto the chair. Sleeping... the Unightie bunches up around my waist and the lower magnet engages with the waist magnet. :)


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