09 May 2022

Queretaro, Mexico

The day before EMYO and I were supposed to fly out for our little work away trip in Mexico, we were notified that our flights had been changed due to a crazy winter storm that was supposed to hit. Our rescheduled flights made NO sense though because they had us flying out later AND north through Chicago instead of south through Dallas. Basically a sure recipe to get stuck in Chicago in the middle of the storm. It turns out that there was an alternative option to fly out a whole 24 hours early to completely avoid the storm. So we both spent a whirlwind evening wrapping up deadlines, finding extra childcare & packing before meeting at the airport the next morning. Turns out we were one of the last flights out of Memphis before the ice storm hit and shuttered the city!


There are two ways to get to San Miguel- you can either fly into Mexico City or Queretaro and then rent a car, hire an Uber or hop on a bus. We chose to fly through Queretaro since it was closer and the hour and fifteen minute Uber drive only cost $45!


Queretaro is lovely in it’s own right and is truly a much bigger city than I realized it would be! The population is 1.05 million making it about as large as Dallas, TX. We stayed in the historic part of the city which was very walkable and full of colorful little bodegas, restaurants, churches & homes. We were pleasantly surprised to find very few gringos as we explored and the people were very welcoming. 


I’ll touch on this more in the San Miguel posts but the style of architecture in the historic areas is very unassuming and unless you look beyond the open doors, you will easily miss many amazing courtyards, restaurants and other beautiful spaces. 

Our first evening in Mexico, we found the rooftop restaurant at Casa Santiago Boutique Hotel and ate a lovely multi-course meal with cocktails for less than $50USD. We kept double & triple checking our exchange rate math because we couldn’t believe how affordable it was!

The little hotel we stayed in was so inviting and we would highly recommend staying there! I’ll link to one of their airbnb listings HERE. Between hole in the wall Gorditas & Tortas shops, a churro shop & a cafe with delicious breakfast/pastries, we were well fed during our overnight stay!


Having access to Uber made things much simpler than figuring out taxis and having to keep cash on hand for rides but we did have a few small hiccups and it wasn’t completely smooth sailing so leave more time than you think you need when requesting one. After loading our bags into one Uber only for the driver to tell us they don’t drive to San Miguel, we settled in with a kind man who got us to our destination safely.


Up next: San Miguel Part I!

 

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