This is the start of a (hopefully semi) regular feature here: a tour of my city through maps and photos, so you can see where I live and where I go and the things I see. Today is simple. Only a map of the centre and a general orientation of the city.
Ok, so let’s start with the main streets. In purple, we have 5 de Febrero, a large highway. This is the main highway that goes north out of the city. The street in red is another huge divided highway called Bernardo Quintana. The northern part of B Quintana has a bunch of big box stores and shopping malls. The highway on the bottom in green is called the Autopista. It’s the main road east and west out of the city. The road in yellow is Zaragoza, but east towards where it meets B Quintana it becomes Los Arcos, so called because that’s where the famous aqueduct is. The road (unhighlighted) between Zaragoza and the Autopista is Constituyentes. Zaragoza and Constituyentes are large streets, but only four or six lanes at most and with crosswalks (5 de Febrero and B Quintana only have pedestrian bridges overhead; it would be impossible to use a crosswalk on these highways). The blue line is a small highway (four lanes at most) called Universidad. It runs along the Queretaro River.
The whole area bounded by the highlighted streets is older Queretaro. The city is much much bigger than this, but has only grown so big in the last twenty years or so. In the 70s, this area was the city.
The area in between the purple, blue, yellow, and red is the historical center, a UNESCO world heritage site. This is where I live. In fact, I’ve marked my apartment with a big green dot. My work (also marked with a big green dot) is directly off the big highway Bernardo Quintana, but luckily there’s a pedestrian bridge located right in front of it which takes me from my side of the highway to the east side. To give you a sense of distance, it takes me 35 minutes to walk from my house to work and about an hour to walk from my house to the intersection of 5 de Febrero and Universidad (purple and blue).
Okay, so there’s a brief overview of my city. Next installment, I’ll have some pictures to show you some of the major features. Also, please let me know if this is totally incomprehensible or if you’re able to understand the directions. Hopefully, all these streets and things will have more meaning when I have time to add pictures.
I’m very happy to be orientated in Queretaro, but I wonder where the Rio Queretaro goes. I see the name on the right, but I can’t make out the path of the river. Are you near it? Maybe in a future update you can try to highlight the river. I’m looking forward to seeing your photos. I’ll bet the world heritage site is picturesque,
The river is a very small, dirty, smelly river with very little water in it. There is a large concrete bed that it “runs” through, although really it just sits and stagnates.
The blue line just north of my house is the path of the river through town. The river is the median between the two directions of the Avenida Universidad. You can make out the path from where it says Rio Queretaro by following the slightly winding line to where I’ve marked out the blue line.
I’m only a couple of blocks from the river. I’ll try to get some pictures of it soon.
Totally comprehensible. My travel plans for Mexico are confirmed as of this morning. Will keep you posted on when I plan to drop in for an in-person tour!