Rock-Awn 4.0

I know it’s surprising that I have any vacation time left, but I actually have more than I need right now. What better way to spend a few days than heading to Central Mexico with RockyB.  We landed in the city of Queretaro and hit the ground running. We wandered the colonial city in the daytime and under the glow of their Christmas decorations in the evening. 

Kind of looks like dog??

We really liked the aqueduct, until an Uber driver showed us a video of someone committing suicide off of it.  It was awful.

We were surprised to see an ice rink. I don’t know how they keep it cool when it was still 15 degrees in the evening.

On the morning of day 2 we took a tour to a nearby pyramid called El Cerrito. It was interesting to hear the history from a local and then see how it ties in with a Virgin Mary statue in a nearby church.

We followed a great local tip and visited a craft brewery, then worked off the cervezas with a rousing ping pong match. On the walk home we happened upon a colourful local parade.

This morning we took a series of local buses to a neighbouring town of Tequisquiapan, which has a monument in the geographical centre of the country.

Our reason for coming here was a Temezcal that I found online. Basically this is an Aztec sauna that uses more than 50 herbs and spices for purification.  I know it sounds pretty sketchy to take a local bus to a Mexican backyard, but it was worth it.

It started with us sitting inside the sauna (wearing swimsuits) with herbs all over the ground and a clay jug filled with water, cinnamon, and lemon leaves. They added red hot rocks until the water was boiling, then added a natural Mexican sugar. We drank this throughout the rest of the process. Then they added hot rocks to the sauna. We had water with a variety of herbs that we would splash onto the rocks to intensify the heat. We had fresh aloe Vera leaves to rub all over our bodies and hair.  Every 15 minutes we would climb out and they would pour cold water over us (the first time was a pretty rude shock). After a couple of rounds we were given different herbs to smell.  At one point when I was feeling a little woozy I got an extra surprise douse of cold water and he was pressing on a spot on my wrist. Maybe the hope was that the pain would distract me?!  When we were finished we changed and were served fresh fruits, yogurt, and granola.  I felt pretty relaxed and cleansed.

Otherwise we’ve been getting our fill of Mexican food and I’m killing it with my Spanish in this relatively tourist free area.

So far it’s been another fab chapter in the Rock-Awn travels. Can’t wait for some of the stuff we have planned in the next few days.