Boomer Away

Ahh… Saturday morning brunch

One of the delights of living in Queretaro is the abundance of restaurants that have an all-inclusive brunch on Saturday and/or Sunday. Most of them run about $8.28 US (150 pesos). We decided to try our first one today, and happened upon La Patio de la Abuela, “Grandma’s Patio”.

The chef’s station prepared eggs to your liking, enchiladas, and fresh bacon at our request, since the bacon in the steam tray wasn’t very crispy. One special treat was the huitlacoche and cheese: a mushroom-like fungus that grows on corn. Huitlacoche can’t be cultivated, it appears when it wants to. I haven’t seen it in the States, so this was a real treat. It was served with a roasted tomato and pepper sauce that nicely complemented the mushroomy goodness.

Huitlacoche, roasted tomato sauce and Oaxaca hot chocolate

The taxonomic classification for the cacao tree is theobroma cacao, or Elixir of the Gods. Hot chocolate here in Mexico is slightly more like the original theobroma that Moctezuma reportedly drank all day to preserve his god-like health (50 small golden cups of it, so they say.) It has less milk and more water than our American counterpart, and it is lightly sweetened. And oh, the aroma and taste! I asked the waiter how it is made, and he explained: water, milk, and Oaxaca chocolate. I asked if I could see this, and he smiled and just brought me another cup.

We sampled all of the Mexican foods on the hot trays: costilla (short ribs) with cactus strips; potatoes with rajas (pepper strips) and house-made cheese; shredded chicken in a light red sauce; and a number of other dishes. As the morning wore on the patio started to lose its morning coolness, and the Spanish love songs and the food coma took effect. Time to go out into the day and enjoy.

Street opera

It seems that every walk in this town provides a new delight. This guy has a fantastic voice, and it echoes off the old edifices like a concert hall. I stopped to listen to him for quite a while, entranced. Free opera concert, no tickets required.

Restoring the healthy body

Image courtesy of tiverylucky at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Part of this journey is working on my intent to restore a healthy, flexible, pain-free body. I knew our host here in Queretaro is a Feldenkrais practitioner. I was curious to learn more, so with her help I’ve been undergoing 50 minute guided stretching exercises specifically to improve the health of the back and core. The stretches are very gentle and require no special equipment. Intuitively I think this will be helpful, but time will tell.

One of the many exercises I’ve been doing is shown in this Youtube video. If you’re short on time, jump to the 1 minute mark and watch for 30 seconds or so to get the gist of it.

For more information check out:

What is Feldenkrais

I’m combining this with a series of home yoga practices that was devised for me by my friend and yoga instructor Jessica. Her Psoas exercise band is working on my hip issues. She also made me aware of how I press my tongue to the roof of my mouth when I’m stressed, even when I’m trying to fall asleep. Now I’m relaxing my face muscles, and it feels quite different.

I’m also devoting time to racking up 10,000 steps a day, which is a good challenge in this hilly city at 6,500 feet above sea level. And lastly, I’m getting the sleep and stress reduction that I’ve been craving for years.

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing.com is a community and website we’ve belonged to a few years. Couchsurfers can seek out each other for a cup of coffee, a party, or a place to sleep for a couple of nights. Last night we met up with our first couchsurfing host here in Queretaro, and what a treat it was! Salvador is a history buff, an all-around interesting guy, and as an added bonus he is an industrial engineer like me. He gave us a tour of a site full of statues at the top of the aqueduct, and a better understanding of the rich history of Mexico.

We started up by the aqueduct at Panteón de los Queretanos Ilustres, a historical site with statues commemorating critical persons in Querétaro’s past.

the great artist, Panteón de los Queretanos Ilustres

I love the fact that not all of the statues and paintings were for people who fought wars. Painters and authors and benefactors are worthy of remembrance, too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Vergara, patroness of the people

Ignacio Perez, the Paul Revere of Mexico

Onward to see more sites!

Salvador, Matt and Deb at La Selva Taurina

During our tour Salvador treated us to a shot of mezcal at La Selva Taurina, formerly a dive bar but now a bit trendy. The bull heads on the walls are from valiant losers in the local bullfights. (Yes you can still go to bullfights here, if you’re inclined to do that.) The mezcal jar had a dead resident in it. Don’t worry, he’s been there for a long time. Pickled, pretty much.

Waiter there's a snake in my mezcal — Waiter there’s a snake in my mezcal

Salvador is a great guy, and he reminds me so much of a couple of my dear friends from Querétaro who have taken good care of us over these past few years of visits. People who take an interest in outsiders, and reach out to become friends. That’s a part of what I love about this place and its people.

Celebrations at Templo de la Cruz

On the weekends we can sometimes hear loud booms that ricochet off the buildings of the Centro area. Curious, we walked up to the Temple and Convent de la Cruz, and saw the religious faithful blasting off these rockets. You can see a number of them on one man’s shoulders, while another sets one off.

Firing rockets in front of Templo de la Cruz, Queretaro

As the action intensifies, the rocketeers rapidly toss the rockets from one man to another and fire them off as fast as they can, creating the sensation of being bombarded; and the likelihood that you will in fact get hit by falling debris. I know I did. Kids then pick up the 5 foot long sticks and whack each other with them.

The rockets will continue intermittently into the evening, with the last one I noted at 10:30 PM, and another single rocket at 6 AM.

Buses full of devout Catholics disembark in the area, with traffic jams ensuing, and buses honking and backing up and waving of drivers’ arms and shouting. This traffic mess is exacerbated by the fact that many of these devout ones, mostly men, will then hoist up a heavy pallet with a statue of Jesus or Mary, and circle the area on foot, followed by that bus.

On the plazas and streets nearby you can buy any variety of Christian religious articles, up to a 6 foot Archangel Michael statue. You can also get some tasty Mexican food, and/or a ringside seat with a glass of wine and an artisanal pizza. If you’re lucky, a wandering musician might be playing some really good saxophone nearby.