A big fat bloody (Spanish speaking) liar (in Queretaro)

A common complaint at the school was that when trying to converse in Spanish outside of the school, students were often met by locals intent on practising their English. (But in a more pleasant way than my encounter with the macho mesero in the cafe).

Angelica, and also Claudia and Marina, advised us to say that we were French, to force people to converse with us in Spanish. You know though, I just don't like lying.

My first glimpse of Queretaro.

Anyway, I arrived in Queretaro today. Enrique talked me into it! I actually asked him in our final class if he was being paid by the city for marketing. I'm glad... going straight to Mexico City felt almost too far, too quick! And this way I'm nicely racking up a blockbuster of Mexican states, ha.

Also, it's true, the city is very beautiful, with stunning colonial architecture. As Enrique put it, it's a working city, unlike San Miguel, which really does revolve around gringos. I think I've seen maybe 2 other gringos today, and as far as I can tell, there is only one other person in my 13 bed dorm. It's great!

However, as you know, I am myself, first and foremost a tourist. As ever, the first thing I did when I arrived was look at the Top Ten things to do on Trip Advisor, and number 5 was the tour of Queretaro myths and legends.

The second thing, was to go and have lunch. I'm back to travelling solo now, so I have to fend for myself again! It actually feels kind of weird to be back on the road alone - I guess that's just how settled I felt at Marina and Ernesto's.

After a tasty crepe and a much-needed frappucino, I took myself off for a walk around the city. I was walking in a bit of a snoozy haze, but I could still see why Enrique had raved about Queretaro, and also why it's worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage site designation. Huge churches and leafy plazas abound, as do cobbles and low slung buildings, which are neatly lined up and packed together, and painted in light pastel colours and off whites.

Here's where my little white lie comes in. I'd wandered to the heart of the historic city centre, by the Jardin Zenea, to try and find a place to buy tickets for the tour of myths and legends, and came across the taquilla. And here I followed Angelica and Claudia's advice, after the inevitable question of "de donde nos visitan usted?".

"From France". The thing is, for the lovely Jaime, this was just as exciting as me being from the UK. He tells all his colleagues "she's from France" and they all lament what a shame it is that their other colleague wasn't there as he can speak French, as he spent 2 years in France. And then we talk about my journey and where I learnt Spanish. And then as I ask about the price of the tour Jaime tells me that he's going to give me the student price for being so nice and friendly. And then I feel 100% horrendous for having told him I'm French. But of course, I take the discount - 110 pesos is a bargain!

The tour was lots of fun. I went for the 9pm departure, for enhanced spookiness! The group was actually pretty big, with about 50 or so people, and it would be a good test of my Spanish - amongst the visitors from Mexico, Peru and Colombia, I was the only non-latino in the group, and the tour isn't actually offered in English.

It takes you to a number of different locations within walking distance from la Plaza de las Armas. At each spot there was another actor to help tell the story, often jumping out to surprise us. I have to admit I didn't get everything from every story but the actors did a great job of building atmosphere and when someone jumps out from the shadows, it doesn't matter what language they're speaking, you still scream!