Santiago de Querétaro 2022
Today it's back to the drawing board with Aero Mexico trying to figure out how we're going to get home. I'm not worried... yet. We've paid for our AirBnB through to March 13th, so perhaps we can get an itinerary that keeps us here a couple days longer (our current, incomplete itinerary has us leaving on March 10th, but being stranded in Vancouver).
Brent and I looked at different options with different airlines, and even talked about looking for other accommodation for some extra days and going back a little later. He then called Aero Mexico to see about getting our itinerary either fixed, or canceled, and... just like magic, now the YVR-YEG flight is back on our itinerary. I guess we'll see how long it takes for them to drop it again. |
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Before she left, Elissa gave us a brochure about things to do in Querétaro and there are several things on there that I think we'll check out with our remaining days. I worked this morning, and then this afternoon, we went for an outdoor lunch, and then went to the Museo de Bichos de Querétaro (bug museum). The bugs on display were interesting, but nothing we hadn't really seen before (being bug museum aficionados). The highlight was getting to hold a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, and Amelia the Tarantula. |
I have a lot of work to do, including meetings at noon and 4 (Queretaro time), so, today I am mostly working, very little Mexico-ing. Fit in a video visit with Cheryl in the morning.
When my meeting ended at 1, though, Brent and I walked down to the Mercado, had lunch at the Fonda Lupita stand within, and bought some groceries, including a Mamey Sapote, which neither of us have eaten before. |
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Another work day. Worked. Went for big burritos. Had a walk. Worked some more. Video visit with Shannon. Just a day, but a day in Mexico! Yay for days in Mexico! |
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I think our bird-o-clock days may be over. When we got here, every night between 6:15 and 6:30, huge flocks would fly right over our building. We'd watch them go over, and sometimes they would be close enough that we could hear their wings. As time went on, though, their path and time shifted. They're flying more between 6:30 and 6:45 now, but the worst part is that they're flying in a much more north-bound route and not going over top of us at all. For a few days we had great bird-o-clocks over at Elissa's hostel (the Blue Bicycle), but I think the bird route has shifted enough that they're probably not going directly over the hostel anymore either. Sigh. It was awesome while it lasted. |
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I worked a full day today, but we still managed to fit in lots and lots of great Queretaro stuff. We started with a walk over to El Tepetate, a market area north of Rio Queretaro and west of us. We had an excellent fried chicken lunch from vendor Jesus, and then walked back home via the Musea Casa de la Zacatecana where we stopped for about an hour to see what it was about. Then I had a work meeting, followed by a video visit with Mom. After our visit, Brent and I went down to "our" square and had a couple of cervezas while we waited for the sun to go down and then we walked all around Queterato Centro to have a look at the city after sundown. It's a completely different place in the daytime as it is in the evening. A different energy and a different bustle. It's a wonderful city - I love it. |
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We had earmarked today to visit some museums. I chose three museums, but we only made it to two of them before I ran out of steam. I didn't get enough sleep last night. So, we had to save the Art Museum for another day. Hopefully we'll have time to visit it before we leave. Otherwise we'll have to leave it on the table for a future visit. |
I had searched museums in Queretaro hoping to find the best ones to visit. One of the blogs that I looked at most highly recommended the Calendar Museum. Huh. Who would have guessed. But we put it on the list and I'm glad we did - like the blog said, it's way better than you would think.
It starts off with an overview of the solar system and the universe. Then, it talks about the various types of calendar systems in use: Lunar, Solar, and Lunisolar, and describes a bunch of different calendar systems and what types they are:
- Egyptian (Solar)
- Chinese (Lunisolar)
- Hindu (Lunisolar)
- Maya (Solar)
- Celtic (Lunisolar)
- Persian (Solar)
- Hebrew (Lunisolar)
- Aztec (Lunisolar)
- Roman (Lunisolar)
- Muslim (Lunar)
- Mexican (Solar)
- Inca (Lunisolar)
- French (Solar)
I had no idea there were so many different calendar systems in the world (and I'm sure there are more than these) although it makes sense. I think I'll add learning about calendar history to my list of 100 things to do when I retire.
After the history lessons and tutorials, it goes on to display a huge collection of original art that went into making mass-produced calendars, and then a huge collection of samples of mass-produced calendars. It really was so interesting.
The museum also includes windows into what's beneath the floor - interesting discoveries made while they were renovating the building to make the museum. |
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Early in this trip I said we hadn't seen any mosquitoes, and we didn't for the first week or week and a half. After that we started getting a few, which was a mild annoyance but nothing too bad... until last night. The whole back of my left arm is completely covered in bites, and I have a few in other places as well. When I saw my arm, with multiple bites all in rows, my mind went to bedbugs and I made Brent get out of bed to check out my arm, and our bed with me. He says they're mosquito bites, and we had annoying mosquito sounds keep us awake for a good part of the night to prove it. Ugh. Maybe they've woken up with the warmer weather? Our temperature range when we got here was about 6-20, and now it's more like 15-30. |
We were going to go back to San Juan del Rio today to see Laura and her family. We were going to visit Tequisquiapan and then have a BBQ at her parents' house. This morning she messaged me to say that her daughter, Ines, was sick with a fever and cough, so we decided not to come. We'll leave Tequisquiapan, and family visits, "on the table" for a future visit.
So, after some ruminating about what to do today, we decided to visit the large Querétaro cemetery (Panteón Municipal de Querétaro), and the art museum (Museo de Arte de Querétaro). As a bonus, we stumbled across the indigenous art museum (Museo Indígena Querétaro) and visited it too. |
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After having not slept well three nights in a row, today I was done. I worked almost a full day, Brent and I went for lunch, and then came back to La Encantada for a bit of roof sitting. I conked out at about 4PM and slept for 12 hours. |
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I'm sad that it's our last day here. Working "from home" in Mexico has been absolutely wonderful. Queretaro is a wonderful city and we've thoroughly enjoyed everything about being here. |
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Miracle of miracles - we got a message this morning from WestJet saying that we're confirmed on our flight from YVR to YEG. I guess we're actually going home. |
After my spectacular night's sleep last night, I felt much better than I have the last couple of days. I worked for a while, then we went for breakfast at my favorite square (outdoor seating), then I worked for a while, then we went walkabout in Centro Sur. Then, one last visit to Taco Tucson, where we had some awesome tacos and we both enjoyed a 1L cup of guayaba (guava) juice.
After dinner we headed back to La Encantada to have a quiet beer on the roof, but the city had other plans. Apparently tonight was the night for a feminist march that came by right underneath our building, circled around El Tanque, and then returned from whence they came. We're a little disappointed that they vandalized El Tanque in the process. |
Elissa had an easy experience with Chopo when she went home, so that's where Brent and I are heading for our "swab up the snoot" this morning. Elissa got a coupon after she had her test, so she's sent that to us. Be nice to get a few bucks off, but if it doesn't work... meh.
Our flight leaves Mexico City at 9:05AM, and our Antigen test needs to be within 24-hours, so we hustled down for exactly 9:05 because I need to be at a meeting at 10AM. We got there and waited in line for a bit, then the lady told us they do the Antigen tests, but only after noon, so come back later.
We went back after 1PM and got the swab treatment. It was easy. The hardest part was trying to function with our dismal Spanish. |
I am SO OVER Aero Mexico! When we came down we couldn't check in ahead of time because their stupid website didn't recognize/accept the first leg, which was with their "partner" (very dysfunctional relationship), WestJet.
This morning, I sort of hoped it would work going the other direction... at least for the Aero Mexico legs, but nope. When I try to check in on their website, I jump through all the hoops then at the very end it just says "oops an error has occurred please try again". Grrrr. So, then I downloaded their app and tried to check in with that. Jump through some hoops, get to the page where you can indicate checked bags. There's a fee for that, so I fill out the payment info... three times... it won't proceed. So, I checked us in without a checked bag, and it let me do that but it only gave me boarding passes for MEX-YVR. Our first and third legs... no boarding passes. Checking in ahead/online is supposed to be a convenience. There is nothing convenient about this. |
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My makeshift office on the last day
One thing I will NOT miss. Note the big change since the beginning of the trip: Laptop is raised up sitting on an upside down draining board.
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Mabuhai on our Last Evening
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I’m so happy and grateful to have traveled again. We spent the last month in Querétaro, Mexico - our first time visiting the interior instead of the coast. Travel is my favorite thing to do and the lack of it has been what has been most depressing for me since the pandemic started. I hope to do lots more in the future! |
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Got ‘made’ by the food sniffing dog in YVR. Smart li’l fella picked up on the empty grocery bag in my computer bag. |
When we checked in with AeroMexico they only checked us through to Vancouver. I expected this - I figured we'd have to check in for the WestJet flight when we got to Vancouver. Unsurprisingly, when we got there, the WestJet computer didn't recognize our passports, so we had to wait for a person. The person was very helpful and got everything straightened out relatively quickly, but dang... just a dysfunctional relationship between those two all around.
Once we got the flight sorted out, we had just enough time to take off with Brent's brother, Doug, for a whirlwind visit (including Lisa and David again) and sushi. It was pretty rushed this time, but still nice to see them, and nice to eat some awesome Vancouver sushi. :) |
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Simon drives us to the Airport at 3:30AM
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Time to fly
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