TURISMO

On Saturday we went on a tour with Mimi and Alain and:

Graciela from Tijuana.  After spending some time in the US, she started working in an electronics maquiladora in 1973 and worked her way up the ranks until she retired with a nice pension that allows her to live comfortably and travel.  This was the first time I had ever heard anything positive about maquiladoras;

and the Rabadán family, Lourdes, Laura and. . .we forget Papa Rabadán's first name.  Graciela commented that they had an unusual last name and Papa said it was arabe.

First stop was the town of Bernal, the main attraction of which is the Peña de Bernal, which you see here.  On Monday,  21 March,  hordes of people dressed in white will celebrate the Equinox by coming here to be purified, or something.  It's a New Age hot spot.  There were some already there on Saturday.  According to the guide, the San Andreas Fault is responsible for this formation.  We didn't climb up.

In the town of Cadereyta, we visited a cactus preserve.  Cacti have an amazing number of uses--cosmetic, culinary, medicinal, etc.  The guide criticized Queretaro for planting non-native species and then having to water them instead of planting varieties of cacti.  I bought a baby agave.

Outside of Ezequiel Montes we visited a winery, Orlandi, where we sampled some too sweet tinto.  More interesting than the wine was the busload of cowboys/vaqueros/rancheros that drove in while we were sampling.  Cowboys are a special breed, so to speak.  You know them by their hats, belt buckles, boots and outgoing personalities.   We once shared a plane in Argentina with a herd of gauchos and were amazed by their boisterousness.  I asked these guys if I could take a photo when they emerged from the men's room.  They not only gave permission, they smiled and put their arms around each other.  I think Willie Nelson has a song about it.  Too bad I missed the boots.

The last stop was Tequisquiapan where we were supposed to shop until we dropped.  El sr J and I were already about to drop, so we spent an hour in the park listening to the birds.