Querétaro is the city where Mexico was twice made, once by the Spanish and once by its own lawmakers. In the old centre, the streets run from one small square to the next, each with a baroque church, a fountain and a few trees, and the pace is calmer than in the big cities. The city was founded as an Otomí settlement and became a Spanish colonial town in the sixteenth century, and the historic centre was added to the World Heritage list in 1996 for its mix of baroque architecture and its unusual layout, which blends the regular Spanish grid with the winding lanes of the indigenous quarter.
History is everywhere. In 1810 a plot against Spanish rule was hatched here, and the conspirators included the mayor's wife, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, whose warning to the rebels set off the war of independence. In 1867 the Emperor Maximilian was executed on the Cerro de las Campanas just outside the city, which ended the French adventure in Mexico, and in 1917 the present constitution was signed in the city's theatre. The grand aqueduct, completed in the 1730s, strides across the east of the city on seventy-four tall arches, and it was built to bring spring water to the convent and the city, financed in part by a local marquis.
For riders, Querétaro is a gateway, with good highways in every direction. The old centre is busy, with narrow cobbled streets, one-way lanes and pedestrian zones, so park outside it, in a garage, and walk. Toll roads, called cuotas, are quick and expensive, and the free roads, libres, are slower and have more traffic and speed bumps, called topes, which are often poorly marked and can be savage. Fuel is easy in a city of more than six hundred thousand people. The best months are October to April, with warm days and cool nights, and summer afternoons bring heavy rain.
From here the road to Guanajuato runs west across the Bajio, a fertile plain of maize, sorghum and vegetables, with silver mountains rising beyond. The cuisine includes enchiladas queretanas, tamales and local cheeses and wines, and a stroll through the Plaza de Armas at night is a good way to end the day.