8. Querétaro
Day 21 I wasn’t exactly springing out of the town today. No need, I have only 160 km to cover. Nice breakfast with a city view with a good, strong coffee. I hauled my stuff down 5 stories 3 times and I was ready to ride. No need for a gym … The departure from the city was far less dramatic then getting lost in the tunnels yesterday. A nice climb above already high city. Beautiful views so I had to stop to take few more pics. It seems that I picked a nice road, again, away from almost all the traffic. A nice twisty road with perfect tarmac. The highest point was over 2,600m. I had nowhere to be fast so I was really enjoining the ride. Perfect weather as well. Temp in the city last night went down to 13˚C and when I finally got on the way it was around 20˚. It was nice not to be sweating in my gear right from the get go.
I’ve realized that the route that you can see in the “ROUTE” section is the route that Google pics. Which is not always the same road I took. It connects two cities where I stayed. I am trying to work it out but meantime, here is the exact route I took today. Maybe I’ll have to do this every day 🙄.
My GPS decided to give me a city tour in little town of San Miguel del Allende. I didn’t mind as it was really nice place. Narrow cobble stone streets with colourful houses on steep slopes. Tons of gringos ( I am talking like I am not one of them). Traffic was moving at turtle’s pace, but at least it wasn’t boiling hot. I quite like this town, I have to stop here on the way up.
Then it was off to my destination for the day, city of Querétaro. A big city with population of 1.6M. It is a centre of wine production with wineries everywhere. It is a huge sprawling metropolis with huge amount of traffic. Descending to the city, I wasn’t looking forward navigating the streets there. My hotel is right in the historical center. Dodging crazy Mexican traffic is not my favourite past time. And I wasn’t disappointed. Doing 120 kmh on the street approaching city, my head was on a swivel. But that came to screeching halt soon enough. There is a massive construction of the main freeway going through the city. It was stop & go for miles. More stops then goes. But I have already switched to my Mexican driving attitude and I can ride with the best local delivery moto drivers. Splitting lanes between semis, no problem. Riding on the sidewalk, piece a cake. I only have to be aware of my bike’s size. I am riding a wide-body so I can’t squeeze everywhere. But almost .. Anyway, it sort of fun in some perverse way. Except I couldn’t turn left bc of the construction so I have go rogue. My GPS just keep repeating: recalculating, recalculating, recalculating, recalculating. I was getting FURTHER away from my hotel. Well at the end and some crazy innovative driving I’ve found my hotel right in the middle of the town. BTW, the city is designated is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Hotel had my room ready, bonus. But the parking is few blocks away! I had to unload my stuff in the hotel, park my bike and walk back to the hotel. In the morning it’ll be in reverse. Nobody says that exploring the world is easy. And after I hauled my stuff all the way to the 3rd floor I have discovered they have an elevator!
And same ops, clean up, go to the city, take pics, have a diner, back to hotel to work on the pics I just took and update the website. And that’s my day …
Note, I have an info that city is very safe. The reason (allegedly) is that many cartels’ families live here so the city is off limits. Good to know.
I have route and hotel ready for tomorrow already. I need to cover over 300km. Time for bed. It is 17˚C outside at 10 pm.