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Published: September 2nd 2008
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After a couple days of touring around in San Miguel with our good friend Urian, we decided to take a day trip to a city full of history, restaurants and shopping: Santiago de Querétaro. The city holds the same name as the state, and it is the state capital. It was a town that neither Ronnie nor I have ever been to and Urian was happy to join us for some place new.
We got a late start in the morning as we couldn't decide which town to go to for a day trip, so by the time we got to the bus station it was already noon. The station was very clean and a lot nicer than I expected. My only real long-drive bus stations I have experienced was the Greyhound station in San Francisco, which is pretty dismal, so this was a great surprise. We went to the second class bus booth to ask when the next bus was leaving and lucky for us, one was leaving in only ten minutes. So we bought our bus tickets ($4.50 each) and hopped on the orange and yellow bus. We stopped in several small towns picking up women carrying babies
wrapped in navy blue shawls, men in cowboy hats and jovens (young adults) with fancy hair heading home from school. The total ride took about an hour and a half.
Querétaro is a much larger city than I was expecting. For some reason, I have gotten used to the idea that most of Mexico is like our quaint little San Miguel. But Querétaro was a bustling industrial city with many cars swerving around each other, a large college with many students wandering into shops and buying clothes that say "American Eagle," all surrounding an amazing colonial area that houses the earliest movement of the Mexican Revolution.
From the bus station, which looks more like an airport, we had to buy a taxi ticket from a stand instead of waving one from the street. We hopped into the first cab in line and to my surprise, we had a woman driver! This is the first time in Mexico I have experienced this! So she drove us into Centro Historico where all the historical buildings and monuments were. Once we got out of the cab, we were starving, so we went to a restaurant that was housed in an old
colonial house. Ironically, the restaurant was named San Miguelito and had amazing statues of the archangel soaring above diners. Our lunch was fabulous. I had Chile En Nogada, a poblano chili stuffed with meat and fruit then covered in a walnut cream sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds, a national dish that shows the colors of the Mexican flag. Urian had steak tacos and Ronnie had chicken wrapped in a tortilla and then covered in mole. Que Ricos!
With full bellies and happier spirits, we started our walk through the historical streets. The city was founded in 1531 by Spanish conquistadors and used as a base while they continued their expeditions. It is also where the first meetings discussing Mexican Independance from Spain in the home of Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, a national hero, first took place. She discovered there was a traitor who had informed the Spanish about the impending revolution, and let the others know about it, starting the revolution 3 months ahead of schedule. Querétaro was the capital in 1847 during the Mexico-American War. It is also where the two countries exchanged their ratifications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where Mexico ceded to the
US its territories of Alta California and Nuevo México (today the US states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico). Then just twenty years later, it is the city where Emperor Maximilian was executed. Sorry for all the history, but having a degree in it, makes me want to share the wealth.
After hours of walking around the cobblestone streets, we ended up needing a drink, so we headed to the "Center of the Constitution," where found a Harry's Restaurant and Bar. So we sat on the square, drank ice cold negro modelos and watched the people go by. After a bit more shopping, we hopped into a cab towards the bus station. When we got to the counter, they didn't have our reservation! (We made it online that morning) Turns out, silly me, booked tickets for the following day. Luckily, they still had seats left on the bus, so we were able to board that one instead. We took the first class ETN bus back to SMA. There were no stops this time and we all slept the whole way home. When we got back to our little town, we were hungry once
again, and so we got some late night tacos at our favorite stand close to our casita. Exhausted, we all crashed into bed after eating.
We knew we had an early morning the next day as we were catching the 7:00AM bus to Ciudad de Mexico, also known as Day Fey (D.F.), also known as Mexico City...
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Dad
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You can never have to much history for me :)