Finding some magic in the area of Pueblos magicos

After three days in the desert sun, and not so sun,  it's time to move on.   We can now say that we've seen 4 more of the pueblo magicos of Mexico, driven to 2 more states that we've never been before, and been to the geographic center of the country of Mexico.  And we've adjusted to a bit of a disappointment and continued to make the most of our magic mystery trip.

Getting here to Queretaro was no easy journey.  We've always prided ourselves in taking the back roads and enjoying the sights along the way...but I think on Valentines' Day, the day we travelled here we both reached our limit of topes, bad food and sharing my front seat with Cori.  There is no easy route from Morelia to Tequisquiapan, so we wound our way through towns with names that evoke Mexico's indigenous roots.  One looked particulary familiar, and we realize that we've been through Acambaro Michoacan before enroute to the Monarch butterflies in Angangeuo 2 years ago.  This country is too big to pass through the same obscur place twice, but we have. 

Arriving in Queretaro state was a long climb up in to the high desert plateaus.  We managed to climb to 2700 meters in the cool, crisp air enroute through dry, cactus lined hills along the way.   I had booked our hotel once again on my always reliable Booking.com website which has served us well throughout Europe, the US and Canada...but I guess it's no surprise to more experienced travellers than me that you cannot always count on such good luck.   After winding our way through the narrow one way streets of El Centro,in Tequisquiapan, we arrived to an unwelcoming, fetid smelling hotel and were told that our car wouldn't be safe on the streets and they couldn't offer us parking...so we left..and were soon greeted by two pleasant young men on bicicycles offering to take us to a hotel that would take our pet....immediately my thoughts went to Chiapas and our arrival and imminent robbery...was this to be our fate again? 

But luck was with us, and the two men proceeded to take us to the charming Suites Paraiso where we were fortunate to find a clean, large spacious suite available for 1/2 the price of the other hotel.  So once located we went to see why this is such a special location, and quickly came to an initial impression that it is not our kind of place.  This town has been "artificially" created in what was once a natural location of hot springs that are no longer in abundance.   They allude to the "fountain of youth" found here, but just like the out of service "Pozo" or deep tub in our bungalow...there is no more fountain of youth..but instead steady streams of middle class Mexicans arriving for their weekend getaways.  It reminds me of the weekend crowds from Calgary heading to Canmore and Banff on the weekend, with no less than the similar array of tourist shops, cafes and guides ready to take your money. 

The town was largely empty when we arrived on  Thursday.  With the arrival of the weekend, the streets are now full of both vendors from the nearby Pueblos and tourists or vacation home owners from Mexico City and Queretaro.  And we've used the 3 days to drive to the other 3 pueblo magicos that are within 30 km. radius of this, the largest location.   I think that we chose correctly, as we have had a very comfortable hotel for Cori yet again, and have had the advantage of being in the center of the other 3 towns we wanted to see nearby.

We adored the small town of Huichipan in Hidalgo after a winding mountain road through open rock quarries.   We shivered in both awe and cold in Pena de Bernal, a mystical location with a monolith that is ranked 3rd in size in the world and atrracts people to it's magical powers.   I loved the streets of this high mountain town, but am indeed missing the warmth of Zihuatanejo.   Our final pueblo took us past the Freixnet Vineyard/Winery where we fully intended to stop for wine tastings, but it is indeed a popular activity on Saturday afternoons, and the gates had been closed due to the large number of people waiting inside for their tastings/tours.   Cadareyta didn't even inspire us to leave the car as it lacked anything of the charm for which the term pueblo magico is reserved.   But it's hard to find the charm in places where grey dust is circling with cold breezes.  These are primarily mining towns and the people who live here share the facial characteristics of all people who reside at high altitudes.  The women vendors in the square could easily be confused for working in the markets of the Andes.   Today I found some little treasures in the wool looms of Bernal and the very unappealing market of artisans wares that is located on the outskirsts of Tequisquiapan, along the windswept freeway held the treausre I've been searching for my dear neighbour in Zihuatanejo.  

Tomorrow we leave, we've celebrated Valentine's Day one day late with a fabulous Italian meal with live music yesterday.  Now we are ready to move on and hopefully see more of a colonial city splendors.  Oh, and I'd like to warm up a little too before we head back to the chill of the butterflies in Ziticuaro.  

p.s. I've forgotten to mention that we were possibly the only guests staying at our hotel in Morelia, but enjoyed the best of service including breakfasts delivered to our terrace.  Here, we are two of perhaps one half dozen non-Mexican tourists in this area.  The others are European and we feel very responsible telling everyone we deal with "Somos Canadienses"...we are Canadian (almost)