Bernal and Tequisquiapan

This past weekend we had our first day trip, and we visited Bernal and Tequisquiapan. Both are very closed to Queretaro, only an hour bus ride but even if it was a longer drive, the shopping you can do in both Bearnal and Tequisquiapan is oh so worth it!!

We arrived in Bernal around 9 a.m. and most places were still closed but I was able to see one of the biggest rock in the world, La Peña of Bernal and it is said that the people of Bernal enjoy extraordinary longevity. I don't know if that is true or not but I did see several older people, maybe because I was told that and now I am on the lookout. Although there were not many shops open we did find a few and took advantaged that there were not many people there, the only bad thing was having to rush to make it back to our bus on time and to make matters worse we waited on this hot bus for 45 minutes while we waited for those who decided to climb La Peña, and it wouldn't been so bad if they (meaning the primos) would of lets us go back to shop some more. After "patiently" waiting for what seemed an eternity, we finally got on our way to Tequisquiapan.

La Peña of Bernal

The drive was short, which was nice because we were starving. Misty, Steph, Tish and I searched for a good place to have lunch. We sat on the main plaza overlooking the church and had a quick bite; we were all ready to shop.

If I could find a few words to describe Tequisquiapan it would be "Shopper's dream", here you can find just about anything, from hand waved baskets, blankets, pottery and jewelry. I was able to find a lot of neat stuff to take back and a few little things for me too, unfortunately times flies when you are spending money and before we knew it was time to leave.




Overall it was a really fun weekend and I hope it will be just as great this next one when we visit San Miguel de Allende.

Mexico City Weekend

I have returned from a fun and educational weekend in Mexico City. We left Queretaro on Saturday at 5:30 a.m. and headed towards the Piramides de Teotihuacán. We had this cute boxed breakfast in the bus and we were not even done eating when we arrived at the pyramids.
The morning was perfect, and it seemed that we were the first group to arrive because the little shops were not open yet =( We got separated into two group and our tour guide was Tonatiuh Vasquez. First stop El Templo de Quetzalcóatl, This temple is decorated with several serpent head that represented fertility and Quetzalcoatl means "el gemelo divino".

Temple Of Quetzalcoatl

We made our way to the museum of Teotihuacán. This was the first time I got to visit the museum so I was very excited. The Museum was great; it showed all types of artifacts from the Aztecs. There was so much to see and learn, there were findings of recent digs, including several tombs, with skeletons wearing necklaces of human and simulated jawbones, but with any large tour group there is never enough time to see everything.

I am proud to say that I climb the pyramid of the Sun all the way to the top, and the reward was the spectacular view of the ancient city. There is a sense of energy when you are up there knowing that thousands of years people built this magnificence pyramids without the help of our modern technology is so impressive. We also visited the Palacio de los Jaguares were the warriors gathered and some of their original murals still remain, talk about good quality of work!

After spending all morning at the pyramids, it was time for lunch. We eat at the Quinta Del Sol Hotel and the food was so good, so I got a little bit of everything. We also had a dance performance of the traditional Aztec dance. After lunch we headed back to the city to visit the Palacio Nacional.

The Palacio Nacional houses several murals done by Diego Rivera and they tell the story of Mexico is his own way, very political to say the least. Last stop was the Templo Mayor. The Templo Major was the ceremonial center at the heart of the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan ( now Mexico City) and it was discover in 1978 during the subway excavations. This Templo was the main site for human sacrifices and there is a museum that shows the history of this place and their culture. Our tour guides continue to be outstanding throughout all the places we visited, they told us the history and importance of all the places.

court yard in the Palacio.

After a very long day we finally go to our hotel, Fiesta Americana and it was a four star hotel which was awesome especially the super comfy beds. We relaxed for a bit and then we went out to dinner to La Opera.

La Opera Restaurante

bullet hole left by Pancho Villa

La Opera is an authentic cantina that even has a bullet hole on the ceiling left by no other than Pancho Villa. They also had a little band that would come and play at your table for a fee of course. We stayed and chatted for a while but it was getting late so we decided to start walking back to the hotel. When we got back some of us were not ready to call it a night just yet, so we made our way to little place to dance and have a few beers. We didn’t stay to long because I think we were all looking forward to those comfy beds back in our rooms and we had an early start the next day.

our hotel room.

Splashy Weekend Part II

Sunday morning we got an early start, we had a great traditional breakfast that included beans, scramble eggs with ham, fresh orange juice, and tortillas. Still a little sleepy we made our way back to the bus and headed towards La Cascada El Meco, which is in El Naranjo, still part of Huasteca Potosina.

La Cascada El Meco was just breathtaking, and to be honest if the first waterfall I have ever seen so it was so amazing to see the force and magnitude
of this waterfall. We had time to sit in the observatory, take pictures and enjoy the site. Back on the bus!!



We drove for a bit to our next waterfall destination, Cascada de Minas Viejas and in this one we could swim. We made our way through the muddy road to get to the water, but it was well worth it. We got on our life-vests on, walked down this rock wall and splash!! Into the water. I was just in awe to be swimming right next to this enormous waterfall, many were jumping off small cliff but I must admit I was to chicken to do it. We must have been there for at least an hour and then guess what? Back on the bus!!


by April Sears


By this time we are all starving from all the swimming and sitting on the bus on our wet swimsuits, so we stopped for a well earned lunch. We stopped at D’ Picón Restaurante, also in El Naranjo, were they had set up our tables in the patio right by the river. We got served once again this very testy food, we had meatloaf, steak, rice, Mac' n cheese, vegetables soup and jamaica juice. I eat everything!





Once again back on the bus towards our final destination, Rio Verde. This drive was a little longer so I had time to read a little bit of my Harry Potter book in Spanish of curse, and take a nap. We arrived at Rio Verde and we made our way down this really steep road and the whole time I was thinking "we have to climb this thing back up." We got our life-vest back on and got to swim in this little natural pool, we all looked like sitting ducks or a harem of seals, all these little blue vest people just floating. One of those people decided to go explorer a cave that was at the end of the swimming hole and was greeted by a snake that was hiding in the cave, I have never seen someone swim so fast in my life.


By April Sears
After a while we started to make our way out of the snake-blue-vested waterhole and had to face the reality of climbing that hill back up. All the girls got in my bus and we decided to change into dry cloth, well the bus driver couldn’t on the bus to turn on the AC so we were like chicken in a pen, all scrambling to get dress and out.


The drive back to Queretaro was not as bad as the way up there; we made it home around 1 a.m. safe and sound. I have little pictures from this day since I had a water proof camera and I have not gotten it developed yet, but soon.

I wanted to thank Ecorioexpediciones for their outstanding job in all the excursions we did over the weekend. They took care of the foods, the hotels and all these places we visited, they went above and beyond to make sure we had a great and safe trip. Please visit their website:

Splashy Weekend part I

I am now back in Queretaro after spending the weekend in Huasteca Potosina.

We left Queretaro on Friday at midnight and made the six hour drive to la Huasteca, I slept most of the trip until we began ascending this mountain so our bus was making this very tight curbs on this narrow road, I looked through my window and even though it was dark I could see the edge of the road and the cliff we were driving on.

We arrived at Xilitla at 6:23 a.m., the buses parked and we headed off to an early breakfast, but I guess they really wanted us to be hungry because we had to climb this steep street that seems to go on forever in order to get to the restaurant, which was called Cayos, I guess that's what you ended up on your feet after climbing that street. The food was great, and the view was just breathtaking.

Balcony of Cayo Restaurante.
With full tummies we got back on the bus, and headed towards Castillo Surrealista de Sir Edward James. The Castillo was like something out of the jungle book, it was built by Edward James between 1949 y 1984 and is approximately 35 acres of forest, and this was his house! We spent all morning there and it was still not enough. The only bad thing is that we were so many that we had little time to really enjoy the place, I am mostly sad that I didn’t get to climb the "escaleras sin fin" but I will next time! (I am planning to return and bring Jeremy with me). Within the Castillo there is a private river with a small waterfall, I stayed and watch as the others swim. I really didn't feel like swimming but I put my feet in the water.

For lunch ,we had to walk that horrible mountain-like street to clim to get to the plaza of Xilitla. We walked around the little town's plaza, visited the church and there were holding mass so we stayed and I said my prayers. There was really not much to do and had little time until lunch. Lunch was at Cayos Restaurant and once again the food was fantastic! even homemade cheesecake. If you ever go to Xilitla that is the place to eat.

Back on the bus! Destination Aquismon to visit el Sótano de las Golondrinas. When we arrived we got in the back of these rather beaten up trucks and made the one hour drive up the mountain. The drive was fun and a really good way to see how people live everyday in this small town. On our way up, it started to rain but we were hoping that it would stop or that at least not follow us, we were not that lucky. We had a short hike to get to the gigantic cave, which made you feel insignificant compared to its magnitude. From this cave there were thousands of Golondrinas, green parrots flying all around us. The guides would tie this rope to you and you can look down the cave, I was next in line when out of nowhere it began to pour down on us. As most people were freaking out trying to run from the rain, which let’s face it is not only dangerous up there but also impossible since there was no place to hide, I instead stood there letting the rain drops hit my face, and enjoyed the moment. After a slippery hike back and being absolutely soaked it was back to our trucks,and headed to our hotel.

traveling with style.

Sótano de las Golondrinas

Our hotel was Quinta Mar, and it was a really nice hotel. Our room had this terrace type entrance facing the pool. We had another great and filling dinner at the hotel and enjoyed some dancers that preformed native dances. The best part where the comfy beds, it was very hard to get up in the morning.

view from our room.

Sótano de las Golondrinas video.

gone to Huasteca Potosina

We are leaving at midnight to La Huasteca Potosina. I will return on Sunday with tons of pictures and stories..

http://www.angelfire.com/ok/huasteca/

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rain on me

So it’s been a few days since I have posted anything new on my blog, mainly because nothing new has really happened until the weekend. So here comes the recap.

On Friday night we went out with a group of friends to this place call Bunka for a welcome party for student at the Tec, it was really fun but not much different than the clubs in the state.
Most of the fun stuff happened on Sunday. Me and Jess got up early, well 10 a.m., and went to the flea market; we meet up with Emily and Allie at their house and walk from there. The place was packed with people and cars and chickens and food! The market was more like a whole neighborhood with little stand on the sidewalks. You could literary find anything you needed or wanted in this place from cardinals, pottery, to a single screw. There were so many different types of foods, fruits and flowers that you really didn’t know which things to look at first. There was so much to see but unfortunately Emily was feeling sick so we were practically running behind her, so we are going back soon to really appreciate the craziness of this place. i wanted to buy them all.

fesh straberries

flesh roses at the market

After the market we were starving, I think it was all the fresh chicken and fruits that seemed to fill the streets. We walk downtown to our new favorite restaurant called, Las Comidas de Panchita, this is the same restaurant that we visited earlier in the week that had the awesome menu of the day, but this time they were serving breakfast. I adventure to have the enchiladas de la casa, I was really expecting them to be very hot but they were delicious. We also enjoyed café and fresh squeezed orange juice.

After brunch, Emily and Allie decided to head back home and rest but Jess and I were not ready to leave, so we started to walk around the plaza and as it started to sprinkle (I was going to say drizzle, but Jess says that is only when it involves ice), so we diced to go to the Museum and the museum is free on Sundays, and for 330 pesos ($3.30 USD) you can take all the pictures you want even inside the museum. Our timing was perfect since as soon as we walked in it started raining very hard. The museum used to be an old monastery and it was filled with Queretaro’s history. We must of spent at least two hours walking around and enjoying the place.

overlooking the city from the Museum. entrance to the Museum.

After the museum, and once it had stop raining we decided to go check out this little place that sells sweets made by hand, we are so going back there to buy stuff to take back. I also found a sport store where I found a great pair of tennis shoes. It was starting to get late so we called for a safe taxi to pick us up. We got to the plaza were they were having a mini concert so we were entertained, until we started to fell drops of rain, we got underneath this tree but after a several minutes and no taxi on site we decided to run across the street to get away from the pour down.
Finally our cab arrives and took us back home, we had to run to the Residencias but we made it safe.

So that was our weekend. This weekend we are going to the Huasteca Potocina and is going to be a blast, I can’t wait!!

This is the video of us waiting in the rain for our taxi.

well be back shortly

I know I haven't posted anything new is this last few days. I will post the weekend updates this afternoon..

I love this place

I got a nice surprise when I got back to my room this afternoon, a TV! They had offered me one and I didn't really think I was going to get one, but I got lucky. I am so happy I have something to watch besides YouTube. I guessed it help me bringing the security guard some sweet bread the other day. =).


This week has been great so far. I started playing Tennis I still can’t really believe that I am doing it and liking it. Today the sun killed us, we were so hot and red but it was worth the practice.

I love my class, Literatura Latinoamericana, with maestra Lourdes Gallego Martin del Campo she is so passionate about literature and really cares about her student understanding and teaches to really love reading, I really needed a teacher like this who will inspire me to read more, especially literature in Spanish.

Today after tennis me and Jess when to Sorianas, yet again, to get stuff for dinner and while we were there we thought it would be cool to take pictures of all the wonderful sweet breads and desserts they have at La Panaderia, so I took my camera out and began taking pictures, I had only taken two pictures when I was approached by one of the store workers and he told me "No puede sacar fotos" while he explained to me why I could not take pictures, I pointed my camera toward the desert and took a few more. I apologized and went to pay for the breads we had gotten. I am starting to think that they are going to have my picture up on the store with a warning label " Precaución, esta persona se lleva prestado los carros y toma fotos de los panes, favor presidir con cuidado." (Warning, this person likes to borrow carts and take pictures of our breads, proceed with caution.)


Jess and I made tuna helper without butter because we don’t have any, but it turned out OK. Now I am just relaxing in my room enjoying my new TV, I am going to finish reading my class stuff since I am trying to get ahead so I can tutor the other student in my class who may need some help understanding the readings.
That is all for now.

First day of class

Today is the first day of class. I am really looking forward to being completely immersed in my language again, I can honestly say I am tired of speaking English plus I get tired going back and forth all day.
My class begins at 11 a.m. throughout 1 p.m. and after that I am running to Sorianas to get a pair of shorts for Tennis, yes I am going to take tennis lessons. I am excited but really nervous at the same time since I am not a very athletic person, I guess I have to take my inhaler, I am such a nerd! It seems that this school has a great tennis program they even have five courts and there is always someone practicing in them, as a matter of fact there is a group and their couch training now, so I know I am going to learn a lot and maybe even get in shape.
Now I have to get going, I have to stop at the library to return a movie before heading to my class. I will write more tonight.
Chao!

My weekend.

Well it’s been a few days since I have posted anything new, that is because I have been busy running around town seeing the sites and having fun. So this posting will be a bit lengthy.

Let’s recap the last few days. On Friday the Tec had this nice party for all of us, it was very nice to meet some new people, most of them being from Nebraska. I can honestly say I have never seen that many blond-blue-eye people in one room in my life! During the party they had a group of dancer come and dance Tango, and later a group of mariachis. Dinner was very good, a traditional beans, rice and carne guisada plate. After the party, Sara, Ben, Emily and I went out.

Our group when to this little bar in downtown called, Backstagebar. The bar was packed and there were a few of the other students of this trip there. We made some Mexican friends that were very amusing and interested in my poor blond friend Emily. After being at the bar for a few hours, we decided to call our Taxi Seguro (a safe taxi), so I called them and tell the taxi people where we are and to come and get us, this was at 12:45 a.m. We said our goodbyes to our new friends and walked to the corner where we were going to be picked up in “cinco minutos”, like the dispatcher said, well two call to the taxi and 45 minutes later we were still sitting on the curve waiting for this taxi to get there. The good thing is that we were in a group and the streets and bars were full, also keeping in mind that Queretaro is a very safe city, but nevertheless we were ready to go home. Finally our taxi arrives and the first thing our driver said to us is “Me di la vuelta por aquí como dos veces y no me vieron” (I drove by twice and you guys didn’t see me). Just our luck… that was our Friday night adventure.




Now, Saturday Sara, Jess, and I headed downtown we walked around the beautiful plazas, one of which had a fountain with dogs “vomiting” water, I don’t know how else to describe it, It was very unusual to see a fountain with statue dogs in them. We walked around the streets, which were full of street shops, until our friend Ben arrived to meet us for lunch. Once he arrived we found this great little place to eat. They had the “menú del día” that included the entrée, a soup, and a main course of your choice, desert and a drink. It was so good and cheap! All my food cost me $500 pesos, which is $5.00, you can beat that, we all agreed that we are coming back to that place for sure.


After our late lunch we headed back to the main plaza looking for a cool place to have a beer, and we found it. This bar/restaurant was very cool, it had this wooden umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, and the tables were made of wood and some with funky chairs. We sat there with a bucket of ice cold Coronas, talked and watch the afternoon go by. Our friends Emily and Allie joined us there later. It was such a perfect day and we did not want it to end. So we made plans to go out that night. ( I regrettably did not write the name down of this places knowing that I will be coming back to them so next time I will have them.)

Jess, Ben and I went back to downtown that same night, we meet our friends at this pub called La Tasca, which will be another place we will retuned to. It has this great relaxed atmosphere, the drinks are cheap and the service was great, and they also have a Dj until their live band takes the stage. At the end of the night we knew we had to call our “fast” cab (saying this very sarcastically), and wouldn’t you know it, again it took 45 minutes to get there. I think we have learned that we must call our taxi way in advance to make sure it gets there when we are ready.

That was the last two days for me. I am really looking forward to starting classes on Tuesday and taking Tennis as my elective. I will also be tutoring for Spanish for those who need it. I am also looking forward to the weekend trips they have prepared for us to places like Tequisquiapan, San Miguel, the Pyramids and more.