It being St Valentine’s day, Querétaro was in party mood. There was a wedding going on in the first church we passed and all the restaurants were full, most with live music. We found a recital in the Lutiers’ School, consisting of three pieces for piano by Brahms followed by Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” cycle (poems by Heine).
The city dates back to 1539 and has lots of churches and other historic buildings.
It was also at the heart of three of Mexico’s C19th historical high points. On 15 Sept 1810 (3 days before Chile!), Independence was declared here by a priest, Miguel Hidalgo. Followed 11 years of war before independence was finally achieved… In 1847, USA invaded on a flimsy excuse and took Mexico City – holding it for 10 months; the government fled to Querétaro where a peace was negotiated in 1848 under which Mexico “ceded” nearly half its territory (Texas, California etc.) Then in 1863 Maximillian von Habsburg, the Emperor imposed by France, was besieged here and finally defeated. He and his two principal generals were tried and shot by firing squad outside the town.
We walked round the next day – the old centre is quite small but the city has expanded enormously in recent years and new buildings stretch far into the distance.
In the afternoon we took a bus to San Miguel de Allende where we spent a couple of hours. We had a drink in a bar where Magda was overjoyed to find a piglet!
It is smaller than Querétaro and also full of historic buildings,
but absolutely overrun with tourists, mainly from the US, so we were glad to return to Querétaro where at least most of the tourists are Mexican and it seems more real!
On Sunday afternoon we set off back to Mexico City where we took a flight down to Huatulco on the south coast of Oaxaca for 4 days bird-watching…
It was also at the heart of three of Mexico’s C19th historical high points. On 15 Sept 1810 (3 days before Chile!), Independence was declared here by a priest, Miguel Hidalgo. Followed 11 years of war before independence was finally achieved… In 1847, USA invaded on a flimsy excuse and took Mexico City – holding it for 10 months; the government fled to Querétaro where a peace was negotiated in 1848 under which Mexico “ceded” nearly half its territory (Texas, California etc.) Then in 1863 Maximillian von Habsburg, the Emperor imposed by France, was besieged here and finally defeated. He and his two principal generals were tried and shot by firing squad outside the town.
We walked round the next day – the old centre is quite small but the city has expanded enormously in recent years and new buildings stretch far into the distance.
In the afternoon we took a bus to San Miguel de Allende where we spent a couple of hours. We had a drink in a bar where Magda was overjoyed to find a piglet!
It is smaller than Querétaro and also full of historic buildings,
but absolutely overrun with tourists, mainly from the US, so we were glad to return to Querétaro where at least most of the tourists are Mexican and it seems more real!
On Sunday afternoon we set off back to Mexico City where we took a flight down to Huatulco on the south coast of Oaxaca for 4 days bird-watching…
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