Querétaro

One of the benefits to living in Guanajuato is that we live near the geographic center of Mexico.  There are 5 states that border the state of Guanajuato.  We recently visited a new state for us, Querétaro, to the east of Guanajuato.  We stayed for three nights in the capitol city of the same name.

Some facts about the city of Querétaro, from Wikipedia:

• In 1996, the historic center of Querétaro was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.
• The city is the fastest growing in the country, basing its economy on IT and data centers, logistics services, aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, call centers, the automotive and machinery industries, and the production of chemicals and food products
• Major international corporations in the aerospace, electronics, automotive, chemical, food, and financial areas have their Mexican headquarters in Querétaro.
• Querétaro metropolitan area has the 2nd highest GDP per capita among Mexico’s metropolitan areas after Monterrey
• The region of Querétaro has a rapidly growing vineyards agriculture and hosts the famous wine producer from Spain Freixenet. Wine production in Querétaro is now the second largest in Mexico after that of the Baja California region.

Querétaro is a relatively short 2 ½ hours by bus from Guanajuato.  We were checked in to our Airbnb by late afternoon with plenty of time to find somewhere nearby to eat dinner.  We chose a Spanish restaurant, El Caserío.  It was a short walk, it had good food, and it was quiet during an early evening on a Monday night, the perfect start to our trip.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day walking around looking at various interesting buildings and parks and doing a little shopping:

We had lunch at El Meson de Chucho El Roto on the Plaza de Armas:

Dinner was at Tikua Sur-Este, a restaurant focusing on food from the southern and eastern states of Mexico (Yucatan, Chiapas, Campeche, and Oaxaca).  The food was interesting.  We tried chapulines – edible grasshoppers – for the first time, as a topping for guacamole.  They tasted like grass, I guess not surprising since that is what they eat!  Many of the salsas were a bit too spicy for us; we can handle some spice but not a lot (less and less as we age).

On Wednesday Kevin wasn’t feeling well, so I was on my own most of the day.  I visited the Museo de Regional Querétaro (Querétaro Regional Museum), covering the history of the area:  pre-hispanic times, Spanish rule, and the role of Querétaro in Mexican history.

I had lunch at Restaurante 1810, in the same square as our lunch on Tuesday.

Kevin felt better in the evening, so we went to a local brewery/restaurant, Brewer Gastro Pub.  That was the culinary highlight of the trip.  Good local beverages – beer brewed on site and wine from Querétaro.  And high quality “pub grub” – pizza for Kevin, a veggie burger with lots of toppings (basically a salad) and great fries for me.  That type of food is very common in the US and Canada, but unusual in Mexico and often not done well if attempted.  This was high-quality and like what we would expect in a similar restaurant in the US.  The perfect end to our short trip.

Thursday morning, we headed back home on the bus.