The first day that I got there I didn't really do much, because I arrived so late in the afternoon. However, the second day I ventured out to explore and ended up meeting a girl my age from England. We ended up bumming around together for the rest of my stay and had some pretty fun experiences!! The first place we went was the mummy museum. I believe that I read somewhere that this museum houses the largest collection of mummys in the western hemisphere! It was very interesting and relatively cheap to see. There were hundreds of preserved mummys with weird facial expressions, wounds, and even (what I thought) were creepy baby mummys. After that we went to many other smaller museums like the Don Quixote museum and the Diego Rivera museum. These were not quite as interesting, but still fun to visit. We also ended up going out in the mountains to visit the "Cristo Rey" which is a massive bronze statue of Jesus that sits on the top of a 3,000 foot mountain. The getting there was kinda rough and took much longer than expected (about 1 and 1/2 hours each way) but the result was well worth it. The view from the top of this mountain was awe-inspiring. You could literally see for miles around you and we got to witness a rain storm off in the distance which was absolutely beautiful at that altitude. The trip out to the Cristo Rey was wonderful, but seeing how we didn't realize it was that far of a trip, my friend accidentally missed her bus back to Toluca and had to reschedule it for the next day. No real harm was done though and we ended up going out that night and had a lot of fun at a karaoke bar!
After returning here to Querétaro, she ended up sending me a message saying she was on her way here to visit me and see what Querétaro had to offer. Here starts the beginning of another great adventure. We ended up going out a few times, once to an Irish pool bar, and then to another karaoke club. I tell you what that girl can belt it, and we had so much fun we ended up staying until the bar closed. After a few days in Querétaro we decided to head out to San Miguel de Allende, which is one of the most popular and touristy places to visit in México. It's only around a 50 minute bus ride from Querétaro, but the 2 places are worlds apart in difference. San Miguel was CRAWLING with expats and retirees. I felt like I was back in the U.S. again. Everywhere I went people were trying to talk to us in English instead of Spanish, and pretty much everywhere you went you were bound to bump into some "gringos". Don't get me wrong it's very nice to know that you're not so alone in México, and that you can find other Americans if need be, but it kinda takes the fun and the cultural experience out of it when everything is custom-fitted to foreigners. So all in all we did the touristy things like normal, seeing all the landmarks, churches, museums, and eating at the tour-guide recommended restaurants. It was a great time, but like I said I would much prefer Guanajuato to anywhere else I've visited.
As of right now I'm back in Querétaro once again. I've been finishing up the plans for my dad and my's Oaxacan adventure when he comes to visit in about 2 weeks. Planning is almost done and I'm now considering taking a few day trip to Morelia, another city here in México. Who knows! I'll try to write back soon and tell you all about any other adventures I've had! ¡Hasta luego!
