A bit more Querétaro

I realised that my affection toward a town highly depends on the peoples I come across.
I really like Queretaro. People I meet are relaxed and kind and helpful and usually enthusiastic about communicating with me in Spanish.
I had a nice conversation with Ana, a Mexican lady, who is from Mexico DF but moved to Querétaro many-many years ago and now directs an organization that gives work for 16 disabled people, who bake delicious cakes.

Today I ate some tortilla-like thing that has blueish grey color, that seemed to be artificially coloured for me. But it turned out that the black corn causes this strange color. (If I had understood the explanation well.)
In Mexico they have 4 type / colour of corns: yellow, white, red and black. From the red one they make orange tortillas.

The public transportation (buses) represents both end of the scale from worn-out till super posh and modern. On the first class bus you have your own display with numerous movies to choose from (in Spanish, of course:)), headset, 2 toilets (one for men and one for women), air-conditioning and plush pad for your feet. But eg. some of the local buses (called 'taxibus') Queretaro or the 2nd (3rd, 4th?) class coaches are really worn out with several dents, sometimes stopping engines, dirty curtains rich in holes or the most simple blinders: The upper part of the windshield and the windows are sprayed black.

Ah, I have almost forgotten about the most thrilling experience of the day: Is it real or only my imagination that the music of the film in the 'Museo de la Casa de la Zacatecana' is an adaptation of a Hungarian folk song and contains parts like: 'Szakajt egyet róla' or 'Túrót eszik a cigány'? Hungarian speakers around, could you please confirm it or disappoint me?

You might noticed that this post is a bit longer than the former ones. It is because I am writing it on a bus toward Mexico DF, where I have time. I just realised that people here use them smartphones, tablets, notebooks or all the three in the same time (I really have seen such) without having feet of being robbed. Just to do as the locals do I have starts to follow the examples.

More photos

Peña de Bernal

Hummingbird, squirrel, cactuses, the third biggest monolit of the world with nice climbing routes (yummy), nice tiny town.

..Ok, the hummingbird (or some similar entity that is tiny, flies and has long beak) was yesterday.

More photos

Querétaro

Colorful houses (again), churches, ex-convent with an expressive aquaduct built as the only result of a true love.

Nice hostel with fine view from its roof terrace.

Just counted that I needed to wash my clothes only one more time, that was a clear sign that the end of my journey was approaching. :'(

More photos

Puebla

The downtown of Puebla is full of lavishly ornamented churches and colorful houses sometimes decorated with tiles.

I visited the Museo Amparo that is architecturally an exciting combination of the legacy and the modern. Its facade is a nice old building decorated by bricks and tiles but some part of the inside area is quite modern, full of glasses (or glass-like plastic) that provides a bit sterile atmosphere. The greatest feature is its roof-terasse that provides a fine view above the city.

The other museum I visited was the 'Casa de Alfeñique' that hosts a nice exhibition of the 16th century. The building with its gurgeous decoration with tiles and paintings is at least as interesting that the exhibition. Even the narrow gaps between the beams(?) are pained!

'El Parián' Craft Market

More photos

Cholula, Popocatépetl and the angels

I arrived to Puebla de los Angeles ie. 'the city of the angels'. I had an exciting conversation with Paty. In Spanish. Since than I have realised that her English is quite good so today we used much less Spanish than English.

Today I visited Cholula, a cozy, sleepy town with several nice churches, library of antique books and a chapel built on the top of a pyramid and thus provides a fine view of the town and the two beautiful fivethousender volcanoes: Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.

More photos

Monte Alban and the grasshoppers

Today we visited an other archeological place called Monte Alban.

After that we were strolling in the local market buying foods and trying things that we (er, me) had not tried before. Eg. fried grasshoppers. That was delicious:) though a bit spicy for me.

I just realised how big and diverse Mexico is. Not only the traditional costumes change almost city by city. Also the fauna differs. Here the landscape rather savanna-like with lots of types of cactuses as opposed to the lush rainforests that dominated before.

Tuc-tucs (a 3-wheeled vehicle with an engine in the front and seats for two passengers behind the driver) appeared as a kind of alternative of the tricycles that carried a big basket on them front wheels that is used for carrying different stuff even peoples.

More photos

Frozen waterfalls of boiling water

Yesterday we visited the 'Hierve el Agua' that means 'boiling water'. It is called boiling, because there are bubbles in the water come up from the stone and straps behind dams (mésztufagát) for a while forming pools to swim in, before fall down on giant and gorgeous stalactites. Because of the bright whiteness of the stone the cascades
seem to be frozen.

'Árbol de Tule'. Said to be the widest tree of the World.

Mitla, archeological place, built by Zapotecs.

Beautiful, colorful rugs in Theotitlán de Valle.

Trying the local 'pálinka' called 'mezcal' that is made of a cactus-like plant called 'agave'.

More photos