Two beautiful colonial cities end our Mexico journey

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We ended our visit in Mexico with two colonial cities, Queretaro and San Miguel. Queretaro was a wonderful surprise for me and Ilan, as it is one of the prettiest cities we have seen. It's historical center is filled with beautiful, well preserved buldings and plazas. The city was full of people wandering the streets with their children and having a good time. San Miguel was our last stop. Our main goal here was for me to meet with a local midiwifery clinic and school, to look at volunteer options. The day I spent there left a strong impression on me; the need here for social and medical services is just huge. There is so much that needs to be done for the women and families here. I hope to come back in a few months to work with this organization. (If you want to know more about it, you can look it up - http://www.casa.org.mx/index_esp.html).

Anyway, in a lighter tone, from the kids' journals:

Amit: "I like to call Queretaro the "Land of Balloons". I call it this way because in the the plazas there are a lot of vendors selling baloons. We stayed at Hotel Hidalgo. Did yo know that Hotel Hidalgo was the first hotel ever built in Queretaro? It is more than a 100 years old! Sadly we only stayed there for 2 days so we had little time to explore. First we went to the Plaza Central, the main plaza, a very big space with a lot of statues for Christamas, such as Adam and Eve. We each got a huge pencil baloon that we could make fly. Then we went to eat at a restaurant called El Comal. It was delicious! I had a fun time at Queretarao. Then we took a bus to San Miguel de Allende, I loved the hotel's food there- it was delicious. "

Shakked: " Our stay in San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro was not that interesting except for one highlight - both cities had amazing plazas. They were kind of like the market in Tepoztan except for the lack of stalls and shops. In a few fenced- off -places there were life size statues of Jesus, his parents, and other people and beings. This was all in honor of Christmas. The plazas were full of people, some wandering aimlessly and some walking with a clear purpose in mind. All of of them were eating, talking, laughing, selling or buying. As I said earlier there were no shops but one things was selling madly : baloons. Hundreds of vendors roamed around the wide stone spaces, carrying baloons of every shape and size. There were animal balloons, people balloons, plane balloons, balloons on sticks, balloons on wheels, even huge pencil balloons. Now about the food: In Queretaro we went to one of the best ice cream shops I have ever been to. I had nutella and cinammon ice cream, it was delicious and tasted just liek their names. In San Miguel de Alllende there was an excellent truffle shop; Amit and I ate extra dark chocolate truffles. There were so delicious it makes my mouth water just thinking about it."

And finally, Shakked's summary of Mexico:
"Here is what I think about Mexico after our stay here. Food: the soups and quesadillas are excellent as are the ice cream and chocolate. People: Thepeople are very nice and love kids. Places: the plazas are fun, the temples are amazing and the musems are very interesting.

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Comments

[Hery Kamimura]

Que envidia!!!!
Hola Liora y familia!! Que bonitas fotos de Queretaro, no he estado ahi, pero si he escuchado que es una ciudad muy bonita. Nosotros llegamos de Mexico el domingo, asi que he estado desempacando y alineando a todos a la rutina de nuevo. A pesar de que esta vez viajamos en carro e hicimos el recorrido largo de toda Baja California Norte y Sur, nos fue super bien y disfrutamos del desierto y los pequenos pueblos en el camino a La Paz. Temia que seria demasiado para los ninos que no estan acostumbrados a viajar en carro, pero se portaron estupendo, asi que ya estamos listos para hacer mas viajes en carro. Es tan bonito Mexico,verdad?, lastima que el narcotrafico le este dando un tono tan oscuro ultimamnete. Nosotros estuvimos en la pequena burbuja de Norotillos donde no pasa nada, pero la violencia se esta dando ya muy cerca de alli y aunque nadie de la familia lo ha vivido, si se alcanza a sentir en el ambiente. Pero bueno, no quiero sonar tan pesimista, cuando tu estas tratando de relajarte y disfrutar de tu experiencia. La verdad es que si me da envidia de la buena que esten teniendo esta experiencia,pues me parece que es buenisimo para los ninos, que por cierto escriben mejor que varios adultos que conozco. Espero seguir viviendo un poco tu experiencia por medio de este blog. Un abrazo muy fuerte, Hery

[Nesya, Amiel, and Selilah]

MMMMMM! Chocolate
Nutella ice cream sounds good!!! We wish we could eat ice cream and pick out balloons with you. Too bad you only got to stay in Queretaro for a short time. It sounds like a neat place. Did Maytal like eating the chocolate as much as she liked wearing it? Liora's experience at the midwifery clinic sounds very interesting. Look forward to hearing about her experience when she starts working there.

[Tamara Valdivia]

Me encanta, me encanta, me encanta.Esta divertidisimo su viaje.No habia podido meterme en mucho tiempo a leer su blog y hoy que finalmente tengo tiempo no puedo parar de leer y de emosionarme de todo lo que estan haciendo.Un besote.Aloha!!!!