Learning a new language is hard. If you don’t know what we’re talking about then you never learned a second language OR you’re one of those freaks who love to conjugate verbs, gobble up new grammar like it’s gummy bears, can’t wait to wade through new vocabulary and says things like “Next, I think I’ll learn Swahili…”. Yeah, we’re talking about YOU Megan.

Anyway, we’ve just completed five weeks of Spanish language immersion classes at a school in Guadalajara called IMAC. With the help of our teacher Saray (pitcure a 23 year old Spanish-speaking Julie McCoy after a few double espressos), we learned four new tenses, a ton of new vocabulary and more grammar rules then we remember ever learning in English.  Right now it’s all a muddle of Spanglish in our heads.

Why did we choose to torture ourselves at IMAC as opposed to any of the other language school options in Guadalajara like CEPE or the Harvest Language Center? Well, after fairly exhaustive comparative research, it became clear that most language schools are essentially the same and you’re just  not going to know which one works  best for you until you’re sitting there in class. Also, IMAC was offering a two-for-one special.

Conicidentally, near the end of our course, the “Travel with Val” program on NY1, a local news station in our hometown of New York City, aired a segment on IMAC.

So, did we learn how to comprehend, read, write and speak Spanish? This post is in English, isn’t it? Seriously, we know a LOT more about speaking, reading, writing and understanding Spanish then we did five weeks ago–and certainly more than we did after graduating from our weak high school Spanish classes. Karen’s two big take-aways from two years of high school Spanish are that she knows all of the words to Cielito Lindo and she can remember that her “Spanish” name was Ramona. Thanks, public school.

However, it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than five weeks to get us speaking with confidence, but we’re on our way. Our skills are WAY better than this guy’s…

We have to say, we came up with what must rank as the best gracias por todo gift a Spanish language student ever gave their 23-year-old female teacher: access to the set where Alejandro Fernández–a singer almost inconceiveably huge in Latin America–was shooting his latest music video. Many thanks, also, to our friend Pepe Homs, an executive producer at  Cedro Films and co-owner of the awesome Casa del Atrio in the city of Queretaro, for making dreams come true. Again.

Trust us when we tell you that Alejandro Fernández is hotter (and more universally appealing) than a cross between Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Barry White. Oh, and he’s about to embark on an eight city, month-long tour of the US in the spring so check your local listings.

Where are we headed next? Don’t you know not to ask us that by now? All we can tell you with any certainty is that wherever we go, they’ll speak Spanish when we get there.

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How you can support the Trans-Americas Journey:

If you are interested in learning Spanish, check out our Amazon store for our personally recomended Spanish language learning products and resources.

Listen to and buy Alejandro Fernández’s new Album, Dos Mundos (Two Worlds) – Two albums produced and released at the same time. One is a pop album (Evolución), the other contains traditional ranchera and mariachi music (Tradición).

Or, Shop at the iTunes Music Store.

Note: If you purchase any of these products from the Amazon or iTunes links above, you help fund on our Journey just a little bit, without paying a penny more. As they say, muchas gracias.

We love Querétaro in Mexico. First of all, it’s fun to say. Then there’s the history, the chic shops, the even-chicer refugees from Mexico City and the wine ice. So it was with particular pleasure that we quite literally stumbled upon a lovely B&B in downtown Queretaro called Casa del Atrio. It wasn’t even quite open when the proud owners showed us around but even then it was clear that this was/is a special place to stay in a special city to visit.

The cradle of Mexican Independence is now the country’s hottest place to live. Querétaro’s awesome standard of living (good wages, booming infrastructure, high degree of safety, high level of education, etc), hip shops, hotels (including the Dona Urraca and the opening-soon Casa del Atrio), bars and restaurants and proximity to major Mexican cities (it’s just over two hours from Mexico City) have attracted so many new residents that Querétaro (no one calls it by its full name, Santiago de Querétaro) is currently Mexico’s fastest growing city, filling up with hip urban refugees faster than you can pronounce the name of the damn place.

But Querétaro’s most famous influx of people didn’t come looking for a chic wine bar or a cool hotel. Nope. In 1810 Josepha Ortiz de Dominguez, also known as La Corregidora, and her compatriots came to  Querétaro to plot a revolution. Though their plan was eventually discovered, the Querétaro conspirators captured and their co-conspirators in neighboring areas narrowly warned, this is considered one of the earliest actions by the Mexican Independence movement.

San Francisco de Querétaro, the city's main cathedral, from the Jardin Zenea which is one of the city's many lively plazas.

In 1847 Querétaro was made capital of the Republic when the U.S. invaded during the Mexican American War. On May 30 1848, the two countries ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in Querétaro, which called for Mexico to give half of its territory to the United States including vast areas encompassing what’s now California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, parts of Colorado and New Mexico.

A sculpture of an Aztec below the dome of San Francisco de Querétaro, the city's main cathedral.

Querétaro became the capital of the Republic again on February 5, 1917, when the Proclamation of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was established by President Venustiano Carranza at the Constitutional Congress in the city’s Teatro de la República. The Constitution remains in force to this day.

The historic center of Querétaro is filled with colorful colonial buildings all protected by its World Heritage Site status.

More recently, UNESCO named the Historic Monuments Zone of Santiago de Querétaro a World Heritage Site, which has protected and preserved it’s colonial look and feel. Happily, Querétaro is also in the process of burying downton power lines which will elminate the ugly overhead tangle of wires.

Though not the most spectacular theater we've seen in Mexico, the Teatro de la Republica may be the most important. It's where the Mexican Constitution was signed in 1917 and where the PRI, Mexico's ruling party for most of the country's modern history, was organized. It's also where Emperor Maximillian was sentenced to death.

The beautiful Convento de la Santa Cruz, founded in 1654, was one of the most important missionary colleges in New Spain and many friars set off from here to found important missions throughout the Americas, including Junípero Serra who walked to Alta California and founded the missions of California. Antonio Margil, who founded the missions of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, also left from this convent.

Following the Spanish conquest the Querétaro area, strategically on the way as you connect the mining areas of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas with Mexico City, became a kind of base camp for Catholicism with many convents springing up to house and educate monks and, to a lesser degree, nuns who then fanned out from Querétaro to conquer the north of the country and convert local people to the Catholic faith. One extreme example is Catholic missionary Junípero Serra who left Querétaro for Alta California ON FOOT and ultimately founded many of the major cities in what became California, including the city of San Francisco. This role in the northward spread of Catholicism explains why downtown Querétaro has so many religious sites.

Querétaro's Aqueducto is almost a mile long, more than 80 feet tall and has 74 arches. At one time it fed 60 public fountains and many private ones.

During our time in Querétaro  we couldn’t shake the feeling that we were in Rome. Okay, not literealy but Querétaro, like Rome, was built and populated thanks to an elaborate aqueduct system which, at one time, fed 60 public fountains and many private one. You can still see working fountains around town. There are also statues all over the place and the peole who live here have a real fondness for snacking in open air cafes–just replace the ubiquitous Italian panini with a gordita, a local specialty that’s essentially a fried corn batter pita pocket stuffed with whatever you like, and you’ve got it. In Querétaro they gorditas are even served with oregano.

There’s also an ice cream shop called Italy (more on that in our next post).

This church's domes and towers are covered in red, green and white tiles in homage to the colors of the Mexican flag. Some tourists, however, see the colors and think it's in reference to Italy.