The past week

I arrived in Queretaro on Monday July 18th. An excited Mark met me at the airport where I arrived without a hitch with dog and 3 suitcases in tow. We settle dinto our house that Mark had already begun the cleaning and settling process. On Tuesday, he went to work and I continued the cleaning process. I successfully walked to the grocery store in the afternoon foar a few items. Wondersw never cease, I managed to purchase waht I needed, pack them into my back pack and walk back to our house without getting lost!! The backpack was quite heavy. I have learned to think about what I am packing into it now.

Heather arrived on Thursday. We were so excited to greet her at the airport, as we had not been sure, all day, that she would make it. From Rochester, she had to make a connection in Newark...which ended up being 2 hours late..so much for layover time! When she made it to Houston to catch her next plane, she had 15 minutes to deplane, get from one terminal at one end of the airport to another terminal at the far end, board and shut the door. She made it, only due to her resourcefulness. She managed to ask everyon in the rows of seats ahesad of her on the Newark - HOuston leg, if they would let her off the plane ahead of them when they landed. She also managed to get a handicap sky cab to give her a ride after she ran along side of it for a while. She went to bed soon after a tour as she was BEAT!

On Friday Heather helped set up many computer connections for me...like this page. We did a bit aoround the house, went to the grocery and enjoyed having each other's company. Mark came home from work and we all went to Old Centro Queretaro to show Heahter around and have a wonderful dinner on the square with music and fresh air. Heather ordered a Molcajete filled with wonderful taste treats including cactus, bacon wrapped cheese stuffed shrimp, chicken, veggies and sauce that was good, but spicey. She put these items into the wonderful tortillas that they served. Lovely evening.

On Saturday, we planned to go to Bernal, but the rains of the rainy season decided to begin. Climbing and hiking on rock in the rain on a steep slope fifn't seem to be the best idea for the day so we went to Tequisquiapan instead to shop for basketry and wine and cheese. Well, we found out that things don't open until after 11:00 am and it was 9:30. So we walked and looked int he rain at buildings. We canme across a basket museum that was open and decided it was a great idea to tour. It was interesting on many levels including translating spanish to english. We each made a napkin ring and went on our jolly way. By now things were open and we decide to shop. We found the most wonderful candy. Dulce de Leche candy. It came in a wide variety of flavors, Mark got coffee, of course, and Heather and I shared Lime. It was a milky sweet hunk of deliciousness. We then went to the artisan market to find the pecans that Heather had read about during a internet search of things to do int he area. The pecans were in the artisan market being cooked in a huge copper pot with sugar, honey , cinnamon and who knows what else. They were like little bites of pecan pie. A half pound disappeared in no time at all. Low and behold we did not find any baskets we wanted to buy in this town supposedly known for its baskets.. Oh well. We had lunch aoutside at a cafe listening to wonderful music played on something that resembled a marimba. Lovely. On our way home,we stopped at the Queso museum and ranch. There theyaide their own cattle to make their cheeses. Absolutely wonderful. They made a few cheeses that are ususally made of goat milk out of cow milk.. We love d it, we had a tasting of the cheeses out on the land of the ranch under a tree. Teh the rain began again and we went home. Such a lovely day!