To Queretaro I Go

A few weeks back I had a quick business trip to Mexico (not like my friend Taryn's All Inclusive). We have a facility there that I work with on a regular basis. It was my first trip to Mexico and my first time in the facility. The flight in was very nice. I took the corporate shuttle and flew three hours direct from Greenville to Queretaro (beat that Taryn). This part of Mexico is not the touristy, beachy part of Mexico. Rather it is in the mountains 200km north of Mexico City. The city is large but nothing compared to Mexico City. There are about 750,000 inhabitants. The hotel we were in was a Holiday Inn but had quite a bit to offer. There were a couple of bars with saddles on posts for bar stools. The restaurant was huge and served an incredible buffet for breakfast. The pool was outdoors and the gym very modern. Here is a picture of the courtyard outside my room. There were lots of activities including soccer and a tennis court. The food there was good but not as spicy as I was let to believe. There was lots to chose from including the typical tacos and burritos of all flavors. There were also some more exotic things like nopal and escamoles. I didn't have any escamoles or the stuffed grasshoppers but I was assured they were both a local delicacy and very much in season. Maybe next time. The nopal on the other hand was sweet and tender. Apparently it's all in how its prepared. It was served both in the salads I had a work and on the enchiladas I had at the restaurant. (The picture was taken at the restaurant and shows the view from the deck. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to really tour the city as we had a late day in the plant.) In the picture are my friend Ricardo's daughter, his wife, and his in-laws. Ricardo was visiting home after being in Greenville for a few weeks and showed me around a little. The restautraunt was called El Mesón de Chucho El Roto or the house of Chucho el Roto. Apparently he was the Mexican Robin Hood. In the end was I surprised at how inexpensive the food was. The meal was less than 400 pesos. At a rate of 13 to 1 that was only about 30 dollars for three of us. The city has a rich history and was the place where the Mexican independence movement started. It also served as the capital of Mexico on several occasions and was also where the Mexican constitution was signed. The city also has some amazing sights (although I only saw a few of them, in the dark.) There is a huge 74 arched aqueduct that runs through the middle of town. It was built by Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana for a convent to bring water from a local spring. At the site of the convent there is a huge cistern with a wall of spilling water. Below a quick shot taken from our shuttle to the airport. As you can see it is much like other North American cities form the highway. Another thing that was interesting was how quickly we went from town to absolute barren countryside. The outskirts of town were desolate and very poor. The climate was interesting there as well. The altitude is about 6000 ft above sea level. That means cold winters but also warm summers. When we were there we had beautiful days with almost no humidity. The maximum temperature was around 90F and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Below is a picture of the countryside flying northeast towards the Gulf of Mexico on the way home. Apparently Queretaro has the largest single rock in Latin America. Really! Here is a shot of it from the air. Finally, on the way home we flew right over my work. It's not much but I did get a good picture of it. It's the set of buildings at the top and to the right. As you can see it's on the edge of an industrial park. The airport below is in the middle of the park but is mainly used for military aircraft that come in for service.