See, I've been so busy that I didn't even have a chance to blog about my last few days in Mexico. We went back to downtown Querétaro and got to see that incredibly awesome aqueduct I wrote about in a previous blog entry. Here is its history, which Prisclla copied for me from a tourist brochure:
Queretaro is a beautiful colonial city that can be appreciated for many of its enchanting sites and buildings but the one building of Querétaro that inspires more than a sigh or two is the Aqueduct.A married engineer building an aqueduct to impress the nun he was in love with? Well, whatever works right? He did a great job, and the aqueduct is still an amazing, impressive sight. You can see the aqueduct behind me and Knut, stretching across the background of the city.
In the 1720s, the city of Querétaro was suffering from the lack of clean drinking water. With the river contaminated and the people dying, it was a very bleak place that seemed to have little hope in survival. The bleakness, however, did not touch the heart of one man by the name of Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana, Knight of the Order of Alcantara and a hydraulic engineer, also known as the Marquis de la Villa del Villar del Aguila).
Legend has it that Urrutia y Arana fell in love with a nun by the name of Sor Marcela, who was said to be beautiful and from a well-to-do family. Because of the vows she took on becoming a Capuchina nun, she could not have any sort of amorous relation with the love struck engineer, who, incidentally, was also married. Instead, she asked him for a show of his love by bringing clean drinking water to the city. In this manner, the construction of the Aqueduct began.
From 1726 to 1735, the Aqueduct construction went underway. It has 74 arches, made of rock, reaching a maximum height of over 75 feet and a length of nearly 4200 feet. The first part of the Aqueduct was constructed underground. The subsequent parts rise through the valley and the city for about 3 miles, ending in a cistern near the Convent of the Santa Cruz in a place called La Caja de Agua. It is said that the final arch of this Aqueduct brought water to the very convent where Sor Marcela lived and engraving a very romantic story into the history of Querétaro.
Next we went to Panteon de los Queretanos Ilustres, where there were graves and monuments for famous natives of Querétaro.
We even saw the final resting place of Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, La Corregidora, and got to pay our respects!
There are some more pictures of my last day in Querétaro IN THIS ALBUM. I had a lovely Mexican dinner that night and had to pack up to journey north to California. I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, but I had a nice surprise from Kelly, one of the dolls here.
You can see the whole story in my
FAREWELL ALBUM.
You know, I just realized something. Kelly and Eddie kind of look alike, don't they? Interesting!
Anyway, I'm really so excited to be here in California and am having an INCREDIBLE time. But I have to admit that I'm feeling a guilty about being here. You see, my best friend Kailey was pretty upset when she learned that I'd be visiting her native California. See what I mean IN THIS ALBUM? And now I've gone and, gulp, VISITED THE TIDE POOLS! I don't know what will happen when I get back.
Kailey, if you're reading this and are still speaking to me, I promise you I will take a hiatus from the Polar Bears Are Cool club and fighting global warming and will get on board with you about saving the tide pools!
What can I say...these are the challenges a traveling doll faces. Not everyone is cut out for this life. Ooooh, wait, I think I hear Eddie coming. These high maintenance brown-eyed, blonde dolls will be the death of me, I swear! Gotta run!!
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