We traveled to Mexico City, Mexico for my nephew’s wedding. I have to admit, originally, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this trip. Work, home and school life with the kids had been super busy. After purchasing our flights to Ciudad de Mexico| Mexico City (CDMX),  that’s when we were told that the hotel that was hosting the wedding was about  2 hours North of Mexico City in Querétaro. So to say the least, as a single mom traveling with two children, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed about this trip.

I originally planned to rent a car in Mexico City and drive to the wedding site. However, my family called and urged me to take the bus to the hotel because driving to Querétaro was a bit crazy and the roads weren’t the greatest. Well, I cancelled my car rental and took a public charter bus instead. This turned out to be a good idea for a few reasons. First of all, it wasn’t that the roads were bad in Mexico, however driving was a bit insane, like some road rules were ignored (but that’s story for another time). We took the Primera Plus bus line which was better than any public bus I have ever taken in the U.S.

 

This bus had hardwood floors, cushy comfortable seats, a tv screen for each seat with a host of movies, tv shows and concerts to watch (in Spanish, of course) and they give you a snack which included a ham & cheese sandwich, a fruit grain bar and your choice of beverage… all for a whopping $413 pesos ($20 US). The seats had a foot rest and a USB port to charge up. BEST 3-HOUR BUS RIDE EVER!!! Oh, and yes, the bathrooms were super clean and smelled unusually fresh.

 

And so we arrived at The Fiesta Americana Hacienda Galindo which ended up being such a wonderful hotel destination. It’s situated in the town of San Juan del Rio, just outside of  the city of Querétaro.  The pictures of the hotel on the website just don’t do justice for the beauty of this 16th century property.

Despite the hotel being an old property, the rooms has been modernized and were quite spacious.

 

 

The property had plenty of different scenic garden areas that were perfect for lounging or for a fabulous photo shoot.

 

The property also proved to be great for entertaining the little ones. They have a play area for the kiddies, several tennis courts, a farm and for a small fee, they offered horseback riding. My kids were in heaven.

 

After the wedding, we headed back to Mexico City. We didn’t plan anything major since we were exhausted from all of the wedding activities. So we just spent time sort of walking around the city doing basic sightseeing. One odd thing I noticed in Mexico City was that people stared at us everywhere we went. I don’t mean a casual glance, I mean stop everything you are doing, stop mid-sentence and just stare. It felt really odd and creepy at first because EVERYONE was staring. Then I remembered that most people that I know that had traveled to Mexico had always gone to Southern Mexico with beaches and resorts or on a cruise. I don’t know anyone that had decided to visit Mexico City.  After a while, I figured we were faces that the locals didn’t normally see roaming through their city everyday. I will say that despite the staring, no one was ever rude to us. My Uber driver insisted that people in Mexico City weren’t racist… they were extremely accepting of everyone. The staring was simply because we looked very different from the locals with our natural hair styles and Mexico City just wasn’t a destination that African Americans frequented.

With only 2 days in Mexico City, we realized that we didn’t have nearly enough time to see all that this city had to offer. So I guess that means, we have to add it to our list of places to revisit.

 

Did I mention the food? Oooooh, the food… I will just let you take a quick peek. We can save the salivating over yummy Mexican food for another post.

 

I did begin this post by saying that I was in Mexico City for a wedding, didn’t I? It was such a beautiful wedding, a beautiful venue, and even more, a wonderful group of people that came together to celebrate. We now have an amazing Mexican connection added to our family and some new friends from Australia. Cheers to Alex and Daniela!

 

If you leave it to the U.S. news, you probably have a head full of bad thoughts when it comes to Mexico. However, the Mexico that we experienced was vastly different from the Mexico portrayed in the news.