A hike up the monolith

What I have learned so far about the indigenous people here in the province of Querétaro is that they were and are mostly part of the Otomi people who speak the language Otomi. One very famous Otomi man was Conin, his name apparently meaning noise in their language. There is a big statue of him by the highway when you get into the city from the airport and it was the first statue  I saw here. I think it's because of him a new curiosity for statues awoke. I'm normally more into stones carved by mother nature.

Conin became an ally with the Spanish people in order to win over the Aztecs also living in the area in the 1500s. A lot of the Otomi people converted to Catholicism and therefore the history might seem a little less bloody from that point of view. A big part of them later died of deceases brought by the Spanish and that is how the power shifted.  

On my husband's first day off, we decided to take a 40 minute drive to see a huge rock carved by mother nature,  called Peña de Bernal.
  

Peña de Bernal is the third highest monolith in the world, I learned, so it consists of only one big rock and is impressively old. We loved the energy coming from this massive stone and enjoyed a steep and fun hike up. 

The part that was less fun, was the other humans as there was a lot of them. People would stop where ever without caring if they were in the way and causing danger for others. I wanted to say something not so nice to these people but my husband didn't want to teach me anything bad. Just say; "con permiso". They will understand. If you absolutely want to swear at them do it in Swedish, so they don't understand. I guess that's smart advice to stay out of trouble... con permiso själviska skitstövlar! 

We made it safely up...

... and back down while we enjoyed absolutely splendid views and great exercise. I got to enjoy a little vertigo on top of it. Back in the village, we decided on something refreshing and local and I tasted the weird combo called vino tinto con nieve de limón, in other words red wine with lime-snow.

   
It was really delicious. On the way up I saw the advertisement for the drink and I said to my husband; "who would drink such a thing" and on the way down I was like "I think I want some of that lime-snow now". The mood swings so nicely in the heat and the sunshine.
The village that surrounds this rock is called San Sebastián Bernal and is really cute and charming.  We had another adventure to head to this day but we decided we would absolutely come back and have a closer look at this historical village and hike up the monolith earlier in the morning with less people around.

Up on a hill stands a man

Last Saturday was a sunny day and I thought it was time to head downtown to see if I could discover a little bit more about the city of Querétaro. I asked my husband to drop me off somewhere closer to town. When we reached University Street and the traffic started looking bad, I just got out and wished him a good day, so he wouldn't be too late for work. I wasn't sure of were I was or where I wanted to go. Just wanted to see if I could gather some more information about the city and its history. I have learned with age that the less I plan my day, the better it gets, this is why I hadn't looked up anything beforehand. Less expectations, less disappointment...  
I just knew that it would be warm and sunny, so a museum could be a good idea. We are here for quite some time, so it's good to respect the power of the sun and not abuse of it. I looked around and started walking when I suddenly saw a head of a big statue up on a hill, so I decided to go and figure it out. 
After a good 20 minute walk I finally reached a fenced area  and wondered how I could get in.

I patiently walked around it until I reached the entrance. There was a small entrance fee to be paid and it was stated that one could buy tickets to the museum at the same place. Bingo! "Dos pajaros de un tiro" as the saying goes. I prefer the Swedish version however. "Två flugor i en smäll".

(if you have to kill two things in one shot, make it flies...not birds)

I learned that I had entered what is called Cerro de Las Capanas (Hill of the Bells). An important spot in the war of Independence, as it was here the emperor got defeated and sentenced to death in 1867.  

The chapel was a gift from Austria, of all countries. 
And the statue that I had seen from the distance, was this one...

It is of the president Benito Juarez. His parents were indigenous, who died when he was only a young boy. He was raised by his uncle and turned himself into a well-educated lawyer and politician. He became president of Mexico in 1857 and stayed in office until his death in 1872. He is a symbol of Mexican nationalism and his birthday that is coming up in exactly a month (21st of March) is a public holiday. He is the most honored Mexicans of all times. 

My walk in the park was nice and peaceful and I made it to the museum where I got to learn a bit more about the history of the city. It was good practice for my Spanish as there was nothing written in English. I'm finally getting some use of all the efforts put down at McGill University learning this beautiful language. I learned a lot from my visit but I think I walked out with more questions than I came in. That is the thing with history, there is often more than one side to its story. What I found funny was 3 noisy teenage boys. There was a spot where you could dress up and play the role of the 3 main characters during the conspiracy that lead to the war of Independence, one of them being the lady I wrote about in my other blog post, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez. The boys were playing the roles dressed up, laughing and yelling and having a great time. I thought it was such a wonderful thing to see anybody but especially teenagers have that much fun in a museum.   

It certainly spiced up my visit. As for what I learned about the role of the indigenous people and how it all went down when the Spanish came here ... well let me take in some more information, digest it and translate it in my head. It's not good to jump to any hasty conclusions. 

  

and then came the aqueduct

The statue of the man surrounded by the dogs in my last blog post, is Juan Antonio de Urrutia. He is the man behind the most spectacular landmark of Querétaro. It's an enormous aqueduct with seventy four arcs, over a 1,2 km long and up to 28 m high. A really beautiful and impressive sight in real life. I had seen pictures and videos of it, before coming but I was really impressed to finally get to see it live. Unfortunately for the picture, it wasn't a sunny day. 

It was nuns who requested the Marquis Juan Antonio to build the aqueduct in order to bring clean water to the residents of the city as the old canal and pipes that supplied the city water back in the 1700s led to dirty and unhealthy water. The work was finalized on October 1738 after 12 years of work with a total cost of $125 000 of which the Marquis donated $88 000, a sum that came from the wealth of his wife. I thought that was an interesting little detail. I like the role women have played in the city's history. That gives me more enthusiasm to read more.
During my walk on this cloudy day, I was looking around at the buildings and the people. It's winter here so locals walk around with winter boots and winter jackets. On a cloudy day it actually feels a little cool but a light blazer and sneakers is in my opinion enough as the temperature still is a good 19°c. Evenings are close to 10°c but I can't still understand the need for winter boots. This is summer for us in the Nordic countries. This would be considered a good summer, because most days the sun does show up and takes the temperature up to 25°c. 

I really like the old part of Querétaro. It's Cosy and artsy but clean and safe.  

I'm trying to get a better feel of the role of the indigenous people here as I keep bumping into the subject. You see them on the bills, statues  and then I happen to walk right into a traditional dance festival of some sort. I was sitting on a bench in one of the many parks you have here, reading a book by Richard Wagamese: a first nation writer from Canada. He is, or more so was a splendid writer that opens a magical window to the life of indigenous people of Canada. Often very sad and touching stories. I was swept away in one of his stories when I heard weird noice and decided to follow it. It started with what sounded like shooting of fireworks or something. It was noon so I couldn't understand why somebody would be shooting fireworks at this time. When I came closer, I started hearing the drums...

It was really spectacular to see so many people dressed up, dancing and playing. I have tried to find out their story, why this event, how often these events happen etc but without luck so far. 

The only thing to do is to go back and figure out more. I will have to go and visit this statue again and see if he can clarify some things for me...

a stroll amongst statues

A few days ago we completed our first full week in Querétaro, Mexico with my husband. Since the last time I wrote, lots have happened. Among other wonderful things, we got married. Now we are in Mexico thanks to his work and slowly but surely adapting to new altitudes in a wonderful city called Santiago de Querétaro.

When one lands in a new environment it seems that the mind or the brain or both wants to find similarity in previously visited places. When we drive or walk around with my husband, we often tend to utter aloud; "this looks just like this and this place"... sometimes we agree... sometimes not. I wonder if it's not a human trick to feel safe in a new location. To feel that we somehow belong. I don't know but I enjoy the feeling. During our first stroll in the old part of Querétaro City, we found statues bringing us back both to Helsinki and Montreal. This time we agreed on them when we saw them. Now looking at the pictures from each place, I'm not so sure others will agree.

Here we have a fountain statue called the Havis Amanda in Helsinki.

A mermaid surrounded by sea lions. She is very much one of the landmarks of Helsinki and center of attention every year at Vappu, the time of the year we Finns celebrate education in a very festive way. 

Then a fountain statue in Querétaro. We thought she had the same mermaid feel to her, no sea lions however and her story is still unknown to us... however I later figured out that there is no story to her... as it is a he.

Then we have a statue with a really impressive story to it. 

"La Corregidora"

La Corregidora is the nickname for the great and brave woman named Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez. She is a heroine of the Mexican War of independence. She was born in Mexico by Spanish parents, a criollo as they were called. She loved the indigenous people and she wanted independence for her country. She married the mayor of the city, had 14 children and later on started organizing secret meetings gathering revolutionaries to plan the Revolution in 1810. The date for the revolution was set for December 8 but they were betrayed and the war of Independence started on September 13 and it was Josefa Ortiz de Domiguez who gave the signal that started the war here in Querétaro. She got arrested but later on in life she continued her work in politics (on the radical side of it) and was given several rewards for her work, all of which she refused. In her opinion she was just doing her duties as a patriot. There is a lot more to her story. Fascinating indeed, so I will for sure try to read more about this fabulous woman. 

The statue it reminded us of on our Sunday stroll was this one we have in Montreal.

The "angel statue" (George-Étienne Cartier statue) in the park of Mount-Royal. It has a lot of symbolism but far less impressive story, so I will not compere these two any further. Just curious to how the mind works and links things together.

I'm so far very impressed by what I have seen and heard about Querétaro. It is high up on the list of the safest cities in Mexico and with the best quality of life. They seem to have a beautiful respect for their indigenous heritage. This is however just a first impression, based on very few facts, so I would have to look into the matter a bit further. 
People are really friendly with you face to face. They don't switch over to English and make comments on your poor Spanish. Or how the french speakers do it in Quebec; "I hear you have an accent, would you prefer English?" A question I tend to answer; "No, unless you have a problem with understanding me, I speak five languages and that tends to come with an accent". 
 Back to the friendly Mexicans... to the Quebecers defense, they have horrible ice rain and weather conditions that make even the best ones cranky. I know, I've seen and felt it and therefore really happy to get a break from it. 
It is easier to remain friendly when the sun is shining and the temperature is a nice 25 degrees celsius. 
People are however really unfriendly in traffic here at least if you look at it from the pedestrian's point of view. They must not value other human lives much until they have them face to face. I don't know. I find it peculiar. 
This is a thing I have noticed when traveling in general. We in the Nordic countries have a built in respect for each other, even for complete strangers. You feel it especially when in traffic. We help each other out, particularly the "weaker" or more fragile ones. Like pedestrian vs person in a car. It's just common sense to us. 
Here there is no such thing, at least not if you decide to walk home from downtown to the area of Jurica, a 10 km walk along a highway. I did that on my second stroll down town, alone this time.

If the police wouldn't have stopped the traffic and let me pass, I think I would still stand there. They could have made a statue of the crazy Finn who tried to walk home. I would just have dried in spot out of all the pollution. I wish they would surround me with dogs, like they did to this man.

Another statue we found in the old part of Querétaro, in the historical center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and very pleasant part to walk around in. On Sunday evenings,  they close the streets for cars and the pedestrians become empowered. Something that should be done in more cities in general, I think. Really enjoyed this concept that gives a  nice and relaxed ambiance to the city. Look forward making it a Sunday habit.