Day 2-Motion-sickness paid off

When Jake and I first arrived in Querétaro, the man who drove us from the airport to our hotel told us that the two most visited sites in the state are the towns Bernal and Tequisquiapan.

That was a great tip because we came with the hopes of discovering (and had such little time to plan anything beforehand.)

Knowing nothing about the towns and only a little about how to get there, Jake and I took a taxi to the bus station and miraculously arrived 4 minutes before the bus left for Bernal. Actually, without any doing on our part, we miraculously made it 5 minutes early to each bus station we needed for the rest of the day!

I get motion-sick. Thirty minutes standing on a hot bus as we traversed the central highlands... and I was starting to get a little queasy. So I squatted in the aisle and immediately a young man offered me his seat. Good thing, too, because we became fast friends and I didn't throw up.

After giving me his seat, Diego and his travel-mate Andrés, explored with Jake and I all day. We ate lunch together as soon as we got off the bus, we climbed La Peña in Bernal and somehow found our way through the rural country to Tequisquiapan.

(Pictured above are the aforementioned sunglasses. I really love this picture, I really love my Jake.)

Here is where I found my favorite Mexican candy! Dried mangoes with chili powder... mmmm.

The kind of place where the sky opens up and you can see how truly round the world is! It is absolutely dumbfounding to think that we can know the God who made the planets. That is a huge inspiration for my new year goal to know God more.

Oh, and I climbed this monolith in my favorite flats. I felt a little bad about the shoe abuse but they were so comfortable, save for a little slippery.

Diego just so happened to have a pair of climbing shoes that I changed into once we were at our peak. (We didn't go all the way for a lack of climbing ropes.) They were awesome and I wore them the rest of the day!

The shoes made a big difference and I wanted to make my sister Morgan proud so I took this picture for her:

The following photos are in Tequisquiapan, aka the belly-button of Mexico.

It was a great town!

Very antiquated and a little artsy, I would have loved to see it in the daylight.

The first thing the four of us happened upon was the town cemetery. It was fascinating to walk around, Mexicans are so spiritual about their dead. Then Andrés pointed out that you never see graves more than 100 years old--where do the old graves go?

One grave, more like a mausoleum, had stained glass windows. The glass made a picture of a painter's pallet and some writing below said "My brushes cry for me."

We found an art gallery and the woman who owned it served us coffee while she painted and talked about moving there from Mexico City.

Our second day in Mexico fulfilled all of my wanderlust and dreams to travel, see new things, meet new people and bring myself close to the earth.