El Aqueducto

 I would think that just by accident Daisy would once in awhile put her sunglasses on right side up.  She is pretty insistent that they stay that way and when it comes down to stubbornness she wins every time.

The bird-sales on the street are always an item of interest for these girls. I'm not so keen on the chickens, but the little chickadees have won me over. 

 We went to tour the Templo de la Cruz.  Since we pass it all the time we figured that we had better take a tour of the old convent connected to the church.  Daisy was clearly thrilled with the prospect of taking another tour.

 The convent was really beautiful and had all kinds of interesting features.  At the time it was built it was extremely modern and used the water from the aqueduct for its own kind of indoor plumbing.  The water would even go through pipes in the kitchen and made a natural refrigeration system.   

It also, like everything else in this place has a revolutionary history.  It is where the revolutionaries kept their camp and it was also used to imprison Maximiliano until he was executed.
 A woman gave the girls these suckers because they are cute little güeritas.  I'm not sure if it helped or made things harder but they were certainly more cheerful...and more sticky. 

 After the tour we went into the ritzy part of town to get a closer view of the trademark of Querétaro, el Aqueducto.  I was surprised at how just a few streets over the city seemed to change.  All of a sudden everyone was wearing business attire, there weren't any people selling things or begging on the street and there was grass that you could actually play on...if you wanted to.

We had lured the girls there with the promise of a park.  They have been good little walkers throughout the trip but they are starting to get tired so we bribe them.

 The aqueduct took 12 years to build and was finished in 1738.  At that point the river that passed through the city had become so polluted that people were dying from lack of clean water so the new system literally saved the city.  It goes for about 3 miles and the water was collected at a cistern right by the convent we had just visited.  From there it was pumped to all the fountains throughout the city for people to collect and use.

 Of course it isn't used anymore, but it is really beautiful to see. 

 While we were over there we found some other less historical but also interesting things to see.  Brandon was excited about this movie poster.  Batman doesn't come out here until this weekend so it is still being highly anticipated.

 Also, underneath the arches in the grass there was an exhibit of sculptures that were made completely of water bottles.  They were super cool.

This one is Quetzalcoatl.

 This one is la Catrina but Rocky always calls her La Llorona.

 More proof that slug bugs are an important national treasure.

We had planned to eat at el Pollo Feliz because it seems like something that everyone should do if they go to Mexico, but it was already closed when we got there.  We have been having a little trouble with restaurants because they are usually either open early in the day or later at night.  It seems like when we are ready to eat it is always in the between time where the earlies are closing and the lates haven't opened yet.
We picked a random road to walk and hoped for something good.  While we haven't had great luck in the past we hit the jackpot this time.
This restaurant didn't seem to have a name, and to tell the truth wasn't anything but a garage filled with awesome food.  It seemed more like being at a potluck than a business.
They were making tortillas right there and when we first peeked in we weren't sure if they were just having a party.  They were super nice and invited us in.  I think they were a little curious about us, but just like any good Mexican cook she had the look of challenge in her eyes.  I could see that she really wanted us to try her food because she knew that we would love it.  Brandon ordered a little tentatively at first, but once we had sampled it we had to go back and re-order a second helping of everything.  She nodded with a knowing smile as if she had expected it all along.

 The girls were especially taken with the Christmas Winnie the Pooh tablecloths.

 We had sopes with mole verde and tacos with some kind of spicy chicken.  We also tried the chiles rellenos and gorditas.  It seemed funny to me that we set out to go to one of the biggest chain restaurants in the country and ended up at the complete opposite.  What could be more local than people who cook the food in their home and serve it from their garage?