Good first impressions of Queretaro

Beautiful blue sky sunny day yesterday, with a high around 23C (73F). Pretty much perfect.

Queretero (pop 800,000) has to be one of the cleanest Mexican cities we have visited. And apparently it's also one of the safest, as we have read in several publications. That probably has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of good jobs here, with a lot of international companies, and a more educated population.

Based on day one, we have a very good first impression of the city.

We asked the front desk here at Flamingo Inn if there was a tianguis market in the central area, and sure enough it's only a 10 minute walk away. We were getting low on fruits and veggies and the tianguis market is always the cheapest place for fresh produce.

That was our first stop along the way just to check it out. We stopped in on our way home later in the afternoon to make our actual purchases.

The downtown Queretaro tianguis market.

Then, we simply wandered the central core for a while. Lots of churches, and as I mentioned the central area is a UNESCO listed property. From the UNESCO website...

The old colonial town of Querétaro is unusual in having retained the geometric street plan of the Spanish conquerors side by side with the twisting alleys of the Indian quarters. The Otomi, the Tarasco, the Chichimeca and the Spanish lived together peacefully in the town, which is notable for the many ornate civil and religious Baroque monuments from its golden age in the 17th and 18th centuries.

This fellow is missing his head. We need to find out if he was designed this way, or what? He is located high on top of the church, so it's not like it would be easy to steal!

Another high up statue.

As we were standing on the street corner opposite this church, an old lady (I say she was over 80, Ruth says between 75-80) who was only about 4 feet tall is slowly making her way across the street. She gets to our corner and holds her hand out asking for help up the curb. No problem..I offer her assistance, and once on top of the sidewalk she says "Thank you" in English!

You see these old Mexican people and just assume that they have never spoken a word of English in their lives. Anyhow, she stood and spoke with us for a minute. Turns out that she lived in Boston a long time ago and moved back to Mexico in 1982. Says that she still practices reading and writing in English but she doesn't speak it very often. So whenever she sees someone who she thinks speaks English, she makes an effort to talk to them. Nice!

Another Queretaro church. There was a service of some kind going on, so no interior photos.

Quite a few downtown streets are closed to traffic.

Came across some kind of political event. This guy was obviously a big whig of some kind. I did some research and he's some kind of Queretaro state representative. He was talking about their new initiatives for safety and security in the state.

The Queretaro cathedral.

Next door to the cathedral is some kind of local government offices. Nice interior structure.

Arches.

We started thinking about looking for somewhere for lunch. So we walked back towards the western side of the central area. But we kept getting sidetracked! We saw this one temple that looked very plain and ordinary on the outside, but we've learned that the exterior is not necessarily reflective of the interior. And that was the case here.

A very ornate church!

Gold leaf.

Dont forget to look up!

Another street.

Noah's Ark display in one of the plazas.

Indigineous warrior statue.

No indictation of graffiti yet. Proof once again, that if the city wants to keep itself clean, it will find a way. Bogota, Colombia could learn a thing or two. Bogota Graffiti.

We found a little restaurant off the main streets advertising "menu del dia" menu of the day. Juice, soup, three choices of main course, and a desert...for 50 pesos ($4.15 CAD).

Nice. We chose the fish. Had to ask if it was breaded first though, so we had to look up that word. Empanizado. We try to learn a new word every day!

Good meal for a good price. Spicey vegetable soup with fresh tortillas, mandarin orange juice, fish fillet with rice and a cold salad, and a strawberry milk jello dessert. All for 50 pesos.

Nice city. I think we're  going to enjoy our week here!

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