[ Santiago de Querétaro ]
Hola amigos y saludos de Querétaro. Today is Day 6 of an unplanned layover here in the capital city of Querétaro state—slightly over 200km north of Mexico City.
[Mis queridos amigos mexicanos: Gracias por su interés en mis fotos y mi viaje por su maravilloso país. Lamento que mi español no sea adecuado para publicar completamente en su idioma—¡pero estoy aprendiendo! Si disfrutan de mis fotos, dale “me gusta” y “sigue” mi página, y sigue compartiéndola con sus amigos. Si ven a sus amigos en una foto, ¡etiquétalos! Gracias de nuevo y hasta luego.]
I’m not gonna lie to you: the three days between Guanajuato and here were a beat-down. It started with a steep, relentless ride into the mountains surrounding that city using local mine roads. The altitude gain put us higher than Cristo el Rey from the approach, and the multi-mile descent was even worse than the ascent due to forest “roads” consisting of rutted stone, large rocks, and an occasional stretch of gravel or dirt (easy by comparison). By the time we reached the bottom of the descent both Sebastian and I were having problems with our brakes.
The second day took us through San Miguel de Allende—another beautiful colonial town with (I can scarcely believe it) even steeper roads than Guanajuato. Not only were they steep, they were full of bumper-to-bumper traffic, impatient drivers, and devoid of shoulders; not high on my list of fun combinations while riding. Sebastian stayed behind with brake problems and we eventually reconnected in a small village where we camped in a brickyard for the night.
The next morning, we finally parted ways. It’s been great having a riding companion, but Sebastian is trying to get home to Ecuador for the holidays and needed to move a lot faster than I can, or want to. (Good luck, Sebastian, it was a pleasure!)
I did manage almost seventy kilometers that day, but decided my body needed more rest than I was giving it. I took the detour to Querétaro City, found a hostel, and more or less passed out for three days! No photos, little exploration, nothing. I did manage to stay awake long enough for a Thanksgiving day Taco Feast, but that was about it until Sunday morning.
Yes, yes…I did end up wandering, exploring, and documenting my corner of the city, taking almost eight-hundred photos in one four-hour walk. Lots of them were of power lines and stickers and cracked paint. Almost none of them were of The Sights ™. After a whole day of culling and editing, a few of them made it here. Any further explanations are in the captions.
And with that, I’m off to eat at my favorite taco stand and hopefully to get some sleep so I can set out first thing tomorrow morning. The next stage is about 375km to the outskirts of Toluca (just after Mexico’s highest point, the volcano Nevado de Toluca, reaching ~4200m)—where I will stow my bicycle and take a bus back to Tejas for the holidays.
Ciao and hasta luego,
—jim
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