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.
For a tiny town, Bernal–less than an hour from Querétaro–has a lot going for it, including Peña de Bernal (Bernal’s Boulder or Bernal Peak) which is, according to some estimates, the second largest monolith in the world after Mt. Augustus in Western Australia. At 350 meters (1150 ft) tall it’s also the fourth tallest (or third tallest, again, depending on who you ask) monolith in the world after Mount Augustus, the Rock of Gilbraltar and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio.
As you can imagine, a pedigree like that attracts a lot of rock climbers. The rest of the scant visitors to Bernal come for the town’s own unique brand of peace and quiet.
Peña de Bernal, seen from the porch of our room at the Parador Vernal, is one of the largest monoliths in the world.
Bernal was designated a Pueblo Magico by the Mexican government in 2005 so it delivers a pleasantly stuck-in-time look and feel with simple buildings, festive colors and a central square dominated by a lively church. Old men sit around and do what old men do while younger men gallop down the cobbled streets. Every once in a while a woman pokes her head out of the shop or restaurant she’s running. It is altogether nap inspiring.
While in Bernal we stayed at the Parador Vernal about a 10 minute walk above town itself. The hotel’s mediocre and poorly translated web site doesn’t do its quirks and charms justice. The lobby is largely populated by big colorful birds in even bigger ornate cages. Our room, #8, had one wall that was painted entirely electric green and featured a huge loosely looped wool area rug that felt like walking on a sheep. The bed was comfortable and the view of Peña de Bernal couldn’t be beat. Some of the hotel’s other rooms (there are 13 in total), however, seemed a bit small and dark so ask for room 7 or 8 if you plan to stay the night. Or just pop up for a bite or a drink in the dining room or outdoor bar with an unobstructed view of the monolith.
Peña de Bernal rises above the tiny town of Bernal.
A wedding at the church of St. Sebastian in Bernal.
Throughout Mexico it seems like we rarely see beer on tap, so we were surprised and delighted when we walked past a pretty cafe with outdoor seating and cerveza de baril on the menu. And that’s not the only beverage surprise the area had in store for us…
Peña de Bernal features a hypnotic light show every Saturday that goes on for more than an hour.
If you don't have a horse you can flag down the Asian-style tuk-tuk that plies the streets of Bernal.
About 30 minutes from Bernal in the town of Ezequiel Montes is the Cavas Freixenet winery complete with tours and wine sales and a kind of manic crowd on weekends that seems intent on downing as much of their newly purchased wine and sparkling wine right then and there at tables and chairs set up in an open-air courtyard.
We missed the last tour of the day so we just wandered around trying not to get between the Mexican couples and families and their wine. Weirdly, there wasn’t a single black bottle of too-sweet Cordon Negro sparkling wine that we associate with the Freixenet brand in the U.S. In fact, none of the wine for sale even had Freixenet on the label–the sparkling wine was called Petillant and turned out to be just as sweet as Cordon Negro.
There's more to drink in Mexico than just cerveza and tequila.
Near the tail end (get it) of the whole hysterical and (in our opinion) unfounded swine flu mess in Mexico where it all began, we found ourselves walking down Calle 5 de Mayo in Queretaro. As we passed an ultra-hip clothing store the window display caught our eye. There, next to dangerously low-riding jeans and pricey canvas handbags, was a t-shirt with an adorable pig on the front (shades of Charolette’s Web) captioned with the words “el cerdo es innocente,” the pig is innocent.
We balked at the roughly $15 price tag, then we saw the model number:
Virus H1N1.
Priceless.
The Pig Is Innocent! Eric's new favorite t-shirt shot in front of the main cathedral in Zacatecas from the balcony of awesome room 404 at the Santa Rita Hotel.
You’ve probably heard of ice wine–a dessert wine made from grapes that have been frozen on the vine which concentrates their sugars. But Wine Ice? It was news to us too but anything that has wine in it is worth a try and a few pesos so when we were tipped off to a local concoction of homemade lemon ice drowned in red wine at an ice-cream shop called Nieveria Italy in Querétaro, Mexico we went full steam ahead.
Nieveria Italy in Querétaro, Mexico has been in business since 1940 and is the home of Nieve de Limon con Vino Tino.
We were skeptical. The whole thing sounded like a slushy version of the neon pink wine coolers the cheerleaders used to drink through straws in high school. We became even more skeptical as we watched the guy plop a scoop of pale lemon ice in the bottom of a plastic cup then fill the cup from a jug of cheap Mexican red wine sitting by the cash register.
But then we tasted it, and, yum! The lemon ice gives a summertime pop to the solid red wine that lightens and brightens the whole thing up but not in a bubble-gummy (or cheerleadery) way. Somehow, the combination improves both ingredients and melds them into a drink so tasty we got brain freeze from sipping it so fast and very nearly turned back for seconds.
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.
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 San Francisco.
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