Grandad's Visit 2/10-2/16, 2011

Grandad arrived on Thursday evening giving him and me free time on Friday for exploring. After a leisurely morning, we took a taxi down to Queretaro Centro, the old section of the city. We first went for a trolley ride for 2 hours to see the sights of the city. The tour was givne in spanish with some English translation squished in so as to not leave us totally clueless. We saw many staues, many buildings, gardens, squares, walked up many steps, saw a gorgoeous view of the city and Aquaduct, rang the rock at the Hill of the Bells,saw many spots where Maxamillion was either captured or held prisoner, or laid claim to use him name somehow, learned many historical facts and had an enjoyable ride.

After the trolley ride, we went for a short tour in the Regional museum which is where this photo was taken. We read and translated many signs, saw a Linotype machine, why, we do not know, but it was there. We never made it to the area with all the old artifacts as we were running short on time and wanted to make sure we made it to the Convent of Santa Cruz. I, however, did not take any photos there. We had a wonderful tour there with a kind (healthy now, Anne) and knowledgable tour guide. After our tour we took a taxi to the restaurant we were to meet Mark and and had an enjoyable dinner and evening stroll afterwards.

Enough taking it easy! On Saturday,we took a 'Jeep' Ride around La Pena de Bernal rather than have Grandad climb it! Strap those helmets on you are in for the ride of your life...haha, not really, It was a four wheeler pulling a wagon of seats!! But fun none the less. Lynda got the choice seat of the back seat of the four wheeler!!

A side view of La Pena

Here are the three adventurous muskateers

Mark is pointing out a sign from when the indigenous spent time in this area.

On Sunday we drove to San Miguell de Allende. We toured the Hidalgo Museum, which was neat. He is like the Paul Revere of Mexico, I think, I suffer a bit from CRS right now!! We ended up at our favorite restaurant Los Miligros, check it out at this website to see it. http://www.restaurantlosmilagros.com.mx/index.eng.html . Put your cursor over the space above this sentence and the link will lightup. After a few margaritas and a full belly, we made our way back home for a relaxing evening.
For in the morning, we drove to near Mexico City to see the pyramids of Teotihuacan. They are an amazing sight every time we see them. Lynda needed exercise for the day so she just about ran up the pyramid of the sun, touched the top, and came down again. I took a video fromthe top and a video of going down all the steps, but am having trouble uploading them, they must be too big of a file. Any ways, Mark and Grandad walked around the base and read all the intersting facts and took in the awesomeness of the site.

We walked toward the pyramid of the moon and Grandad just had to climb up some of it.

He really enjoyed the view from his seat on the steps, and we marvelled in the fact that he's still

"Got It'!

'

After that 'climb' and photo op, we went to the museum that is on the site. they had some wonderful plants and cacti that I just couldn't resisit a picture of. There were many arifacts and interesting objects in the museum. Check out al the photos at my Kodak Gallery link I hopefully mailed to you. (If I didn't, let me know)

This is a view of the back of the pyramid of the sun from inside of the museum.

After our day of taking in the history of Teotihuacan we relaxed at this unique restaurant called La Gruta. It is built in a cave. Allthe tables, chairs and table cloths were very brightly colored and beautiful set off by the drab colred rock of thecave. We were even serenaded and Grandad enjoyed siging along. Ahh, songs of youth.

There is a stage in the restaurant for entertainment that supposed' occurs daily', just not the day we were there I guess.

Grandad's last day was spent touring a lighing manufacturing plant that our landlord and his brother own. He was impressed by how well the fixtures were made as wella s the cleanlimess of the plant. He had a lot in common with Enrique to speak about lighting and the like. They treated him so kind and even called in their nephew who knew of a new type of lighting that Grandad was speaking about so he could talk with him. It was very nice of them to give us a treat. After our two hours of touring, we me Mark for a real Mexican lunch at Los Loreles, a former Hacienda.After a wonderful bottle of wine, margaritas, and super food, Canitas too of course, we made our way backto the house where we watched Jeopardy featuring the computer contestant Watson.

A great week was had by all.

Guadalajara 2/4-2/7/2011

We took a weekend trip to Guadalajara for two nights. Our purpose was to go on the tequila train and to do a little sight seeing in Guadalajara. We drove in a caravan from our Newcomers club so that if we got lost, we were all lost together. The drive was very uneventful and there wasn't much to see until we came across this plateau. I remember learning about them in school, but am not sure I ever saw one before.

We also came across these cowboys out in a field playing around with their horses. It is hard to see in the picture, but they were making the horses go around in a circle, like on a dime. You never know what you'll see along the highway inMexico!

We arrived at the outskirts of the the city faster than we had ever expected, It helps to get places quickly when the head car travels areound 100mph!

As we were entering the outskirts of the city, we went to a smaller town called Tlaquepaque. It is known for wonderful hand work, artists, etc. This is the park in the center of town with a church.

In the park there was also this bandstand.

This is the church from the opposite side. This statue was erected for Pope John Paul whenever it was that he visited ..

I loved this shop..the artwork was all done with these rolly polly people. They were miriachis, children, people riding bikes, etc. I did not come home with one, eventhough I really thought about it, but they were EXPENSIVE!!

This is a whole miriachi band outside of another shop.

Then it was onto our hotel, well, sort of. Everyone was checking in, but the hotel could not find our reservations. We had made them and paid for them back around Christmas time, but we were inthe states when we made them. Problemo! They were totally booked for the night and did not have space for us so they sent us to another hotel that was supposedly equal...'supposedly' was the word. As the bellboy was taking us to the other hotel, the streets started to look nowhere near as nice and there was a lot of writing on the walls and buildings. I asked if it was safe to go out for a walk after we settled and the bell man said only in one direction from the hotel. Needless to say, Mark and I stayed in our hotel room for the night, which was decorated a lot like Motel 6 or Knights Inn back in the 60's. Dang, I just deleted two pictures! And it is too difficult to post them. I may just stick them in the next post. Anyways, we were safe for the night and went back to the hotel where we were supposed to be staying at to meet everyone else for breakfast and to move our belongings back to the original hotel as they had space for us the second night.

This is our room for the second night back in the original hotel. Absolutely no comparison to our Motel 6 room!

This is the view from the center courtyard of the hotel by the fountain looking up

This is a church in the center of the city in walking distance from the hotel

Another view of the church from the front side.

This is inside of the church by the dome.

Another view of the inside.

A view from the backside of the church

A closer view of the dome.

We also walked through the market in Guadalajara on Sunday morning. It is about 5 stories high and has anything you would ever need. Fruits, veggies, meat, fish , poultry..the whole sheep, pig, or whatever, skinned with head on, of course. It probably had 50 places selling shoes, all basically the same, clothing, CD's & DVD's, pirated of course.

Very interesting. And fun was had by all. The post following this one is of our tequila train experience

Guadalajara and the Tequila Train 2/5/2011

We boarded the Tequila Express train in Guadalajara at 9:30 am, yes in the morning, and were greeted by margaritas, or anything else we wanted with tequila. the train was bound ofr Herdurra Hacienda for us to learn about the tequila maaking process, have a wonderful lunch, entertainment, and drink, and drink, and drink tequila. Some did that more than others! until the train returned back at 5pm

At the train station and aboard the train we were entertained by a

miriachi band. It was loud, but fun!

At the hacienda, they showed us how they harvest the agave in the fields. It is still done this way by hand. It takes about 8 years for a plant to mature. they keep out the very center to replant(kind of like a pineapple). Then they cut off the exterior 'leaves' and use the inner core that resembles a pineapple. Those cores then get roasted squished and juiced for fermentation. We tasted the roasted agave, ithad yellowed, gotten soft, like ripe pineapple, and taseted really sweet! A nice treat!

Smile for the camera!

It is not tequila yet, it must go through the fermetation process. These are the three stages and have very differnt alcohol and sugar content. The names of the stages translate into death, ordinary and white tequila. The difference in the different types of tequila, blanco,reposada, anejo, is the length of time it ages....in Kentucky oak barrels! White is aged 2 days, reposada is a few months and anejo is a year or more, I think

After out tour we were fed a huge 'comida' That is lunch around 2 or 3 pm, that really is the size of dinner. We had every kind of typical mexican food, and of course te tequila was flowing well. While enjoying our food and for a couple hours after we were entertained by miriachi, dancers, lasso ropers, and singers. It was then back to the train..tequila flowing of course, and we arrived back to our hotel around 5 or 6pm!!
A great time was had by all! Click on the next picture to watch a video of our entertainment! It was

Opal Mines 1/29/2011

Today we took a trip with our Newcomer's group to the Opal Mines. The opals that are available in this area are very unique to the location. Queretaro is the only place where you can find orange colored opals. There are many of the other colors available too.

Our adventure began with a caravan of 13 vehicles attempting to follow each other to the mines. No, we did not have any directions, only the first car knew where we were going. Just think about this for a minute....you know, crazy Mexican drivers, u-turns (like Michigan lefts), 500 feet for merging on or off a 'ramp', stoplights, and just plain driving in Mexico, while attempting to all stay in a lin.e Mark smartly made sure he was never more than third or fourth in line. We stuck like glue to the light blue Odessy van in front of us. It was a hair raising ride and I thought we were going to eat that Odessy's bumper several times. After an hour or so of this we arrived at a dirt road that seemed to get worse and we climbed the hillside. We passed cows just grazing in the open, no fences, and small little homes. We arrived our destination to board int he back of a pick up truck. You see, unless you had a high riding SUV or 4 wheel or all wheel drive, you were not going to make the rest of the climb. The ride in the bed of the small truck was intersting to say the least. It was quite bumpy, narrow, rocky and everythign in between, though we had some wonderful views of the countryside from our perch. We finally arrived at the peak and bailed out of our ride with bruided behinds. The views were breathtaking.

We were given a quick talk about the opals, which rocks might contain some, and basic information as to how to find them. We were then sent on our way to dig through the rubble taken out of the mines. We cracked open rocks and looked carefully at the ground. You would pick up a rock and sometimes see a piece of opal. We then went into the mine, which was not very deep, but the interesting part was taking a picture. When we used a flash our picture had bad spots due to reflections caused by the opals in the rock. '
Mark was walking and talking with the guide outside of the mine and was lead to a good spot to look around. He found some great rocks with Quueretaro orange opals and some others. I then went back to his spot with him and found a large mild opal the size of a walnut!
After our hunt we had to ride back down the crazy trail. It looked even steeper going down than up. We then went out for a Mexican lunch and a neaby Hacienda. A great time was had by all.

tamales

Thease are the best!!






Mix ingredients, then add water and beat with kitchenaid until very light a fluffy









dough is ready when a plop floats

Dough should be fluffy and on the wet side, like soft biscuit dough

place dough, cheese, roasted poblano

pepper in water soaked husk

wrap and fold

Tie tamales with a piece of husk

Place tamales in tight circular rings starting with outside

Fill excess space with husks and cover with husks

Place heavy objects on top of pots and steam for an hour or so

Hot Tamales - 1/26/11

Today I took a cooking class to learn how to make tamales. They are like a coarse corn meal mush with roasted poblano pepper, mild tomato sauce, oaxaca cheese wrapped, folded, and tied in corn husks and steamed. They take a lot of time to make, but are definitely worth it! That messy glob in the middle of the open husk is what you eat. Is is very light ad fluffy and moist.


Traditionally, tamales are made totally by hand and the corn mixture has to be mixed for at least an hour to and hour and a half to beat enough air into the mixture, but we used a kitchenaid mixture for that part. The men in the family usually get up around 4 am and make and beat that mixture, then wake the women up to do the rest. The tamales steam in a rapidly boiling pot for well over an hour or more


It is tradition that when you make tamales, nobody can be in a bad mood, angry, frustrated, etc or they will not cme out right. Also you cnanot make them if you are pregnant or they won't work either! They are usually made by a gorup of women , either fmaily or friends. There are many different kinds of tamales, even chocolate ones!

More pictures of the process to come!

Jan 25, 2011

Not much is new, I just didn't want you to think I forgot about this. I have been busy cutting out mittens waiting for my sewing machine to b repaired.
Tomorrow I will take a cooking class for making Tamales. As I understand Feb.2 is a big celebration day, for what, I do not know, but I do knwo they eat tamales then. Whover got the prize in the Three Kings Cake on the 6th of January is supposed to make them for their whole family. You are supposed to be in good humor and no squabbling or the tamales will not turn out or taste good, I guess they fall or collapse or something. I will find out more about this and tell you.
I found out there is a chef from a local restaurant who lives down the street from me who is going to be offering cooking classes. 6 weks, one day per week, 3 hours per day, and it will all be Mexican cooking. I am excited to learn!
This weekend we will go to the Opal Mines!! I am very excited about that. And they have jewelry made there with them.
Must get going. Will post after the weekend!