Colonial cities - Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

 (text in ENG)

  My parents-in-law came for the holidays, so we spent the Christmas and New Year`s with traveling around Mexico. For Christmas, we went north to visit 3 colonial cities: Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.
  Queretaro is around 2.5-3 hours from Mexico City. On the way, we visited the Pena de Bernal, the 3rd tallest monolith in the world with its elevation of 350 meters. (The 1st is the Rock of Gibraltar (elevation 426m) and the 2nd is the Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil (396m).) The rock is huge and old - it is thought that it was formed about 100 million years ago, in the Jurassic era, when it was about 3 times higher. Today it is the paradise of rock climbers.

In front of Pena Bernal, the 3rd tallest rock in the world

  As our final destination on this day was San Miguel de Allende, our "agenda" was tight, so we just took some pictures and headed to Queretaro. Queretaro is the capital city of the Queretaro state with approx. 800,000 habitants. The historical center was declared as a World Heritage in 1996. The city center is indeed nice, it was worth to take a tourist bus around it. However, the most famous part of the city must be the aqueduct - this nicely renovated and maintained aqueduct gives a spectacular view as it towers 3 meters high and stretches over a kilometer long in the middle of the avenue.


A cool object on the Plaza de Armas



Christmas feeling in San Miguel de Allende



  After this short sightseeing in Queretaro, we headed to San Miguel de Allende, our main destination. For me and my husband it was our second time in this charming city, but it was not boring at all. First of all, it was Christmas time, and the atmosphere was very nice - charming, colorful houses, the lit-up churches and streets gave a real Christmas feeling, not to mention the huge Christmas tree in front of the San Francisco Church at the main square.

San Miguel de Allende is a favorite spot for American citizens to settle down after retirement, probably because the weather is nice all year long (although the mornings were very cold in December (you need a stove and a warm jacket for outside, the temperature rises up to 20-25 degrees during the day, making the colorful houses more charming in the sparkling sunshine and the blue sky in the background) or because it is considered to be the city of arts - many artists (many sculptors, painters, designers, craftsmen) are living in the city. For this reason, the city is full with small souvenir shops, but most of these don`t sell the souvenirs you can buy at every market, but rather they sell unique and individual Mexican things, which turns even the window-shopping into an event. The other thing I like in this city are the small details you can have fun only by strolling around - there are bronze knockers on the doors in every shapes, from a mermaid to a horseshoe; or you can find small fountains almost in every street in different styles. All these little details added to the cobble streets, the colorful colonial style houses, the churches and green parks makes this city my most favorite in Mexico.

The little details I like: a spur shaped knocker

Zorro enjoying one of the many fountains in the city

  We stayed 2 days in San Miguel, and headed to another charming little city, Guanajuato. To me this city is my 2nd favorite - Guanajuato has its own charm with its subterranean streets and the amazing view from the nearby hillside. What I like Guanajuato is that as the city was built in a valley, it is small enough to walk around the city center without a rush. This was the 2nd time for us to visit Guanajuato as well, but again, we enjoyed it. This time we climbed up to the hillside where there is a big statue (and a lot of souvenir shops, of course), but the view is the one that is really worth to see.

Beautiful view to the city from the hilltop

  The churches, the university and the colorful houses in the valley give a beautiful, really Mexican view. I have to mention that there is a cable car to the hill (turns out it starts from the back of the Juarez Theater), but while looking for it, we finally climbed up to the top. However, took the cablecar to the way down - it is very very very steep! Dogs are not allowed, but for us they permitted it (if we took it in our arms), and our dog was so afraid of this cablecar! (I guess, it was the height...) I understood, why dogs are not allowed. Anyway, it only took a few minutes, so even a dog with acrophobia can survive it.) :)

The steep rail of the cable car

  The main highlight in these colonial cities are the hotels. You cannot find big chain business hotels, but the hotels are mainly family-run here. Most of these hotels are big houses renovated and changed into hotels. You can enjoy the Mexican hospitality, familiarness, colonial style decorations and design here. In all of these hotels we have stayed, I never felt like I was in a hotel, rather it felt like home. This time as we were with a dog, we didn´t have much option, but were lucky to find an exclusive, beautiful hotel where pets were as well welcomed. The hotel/house is located outside Guanajuato city, close to the Valenciana mine on the hillside, so the view was beautiful! Unfortunately, as we arrived we had problems with our booking (the online booking did not reach the hotel), but the staff was very nice and offered us (I guess) the best room in the hotel in a very good price. Actually, it was not a room, it was a full apartment with kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a big living room. It was a pity that we only stayed here one night! Zorro, our dog could enjoy the place as well as there was a small garden where he could play freely. So, the staff was very nice, the beds were comfortable, and we just couldn´t stop enjoying the many plates, vases, pictures and other objects on the walls and shelves collected from all around Mexico.


The hotel from outside



Zorro enjoying the garden

In the morning we had a very nice, big Mexican breakfast (freshly squeezed juice, fruits with joghurt and cereals and finally omelets (we were offered enchiladas, but we were already full).)

  After saying goodbye to this beautiful, charming hotel, on the way home we visited the church and the silver mine of Valenciana (actually the chuch was about 5 minutes by car from the hotel). As it was the 25th, we were the only visitors in the mine, so our guide (a former miner as turned out later) kindly spoke wery slowly and easily so I could translate mainly everything to my parents-in-law. The Valenciana mine was opened in the 1700´s and still functioning! Of course, the 400 people today are working differently as in the old days, when the daily mined 1 ton of stone were carried on a 60 meters long stairs in bags to the daylight where the women seperated the rock and usable stones by small hammers. These people were literally slaves as they didn´t get salary, they only worked for their food and clothes. Today 400 people works in this mine, but descending on a vertical elevation instead of the stairs. They also use wagons to carry the rocks and even trains between long distances. This is because in the surroundings, there are 4 other mines and all are connected in the lowest level. Silver, gold, copper and zinc can be still found in these mines which are separated chemically today. Did you know that 15% of the world´s silver production is done in Mexico? As "byproduct" different stones in every color of the rainbow comes from the rocks - even opal! Next to Australia (which produces 97% of the world´s opal supply) Mexico is the next most famous place of the opal industry. As the blue is the most famous in the Australian opal, the Mexican opal is the orange or red "fire opal". Opals and other stones and minerals (as itselves or cut into shapes, accessaries) can be found in the nearby shops at the exit of the mine. As you can really find any color you want, it is fun even only to look around in these shops.


Zorro, the miner dog - he didn´t mind the 60ms long stairs...

 For more pictures, click on the links below!
Queretaro
San Miguel de Allende
Guanajuato