Little Did You Know...

There are a few things that I sometimes forget to tell "first-timers" to Queretaro about.  Yeah, everyone always tells the person traveling to Mexico, "Don't drink the water!!"  Actually, in Queretaro, most likely nothing will happen if you drink a glass of tap water.  (It's kind of like drinking river water in Oregon - you shouldn't do it, but we all know you didn't let that water boil when making your ramen noodles for dinner while camping, and seriously, who doesn't accidentally ingest like a liter of water while water skiing?  Maybe that's just me...)

But there are some things that have become so normal, I just quit thinking about them!

• Don't flush toilet paper in public restrooms.  There is a garbage can next to the toilet for that - public toilets get clogged up ridiculously easily.  Lots of people from the States are grossed out about this one.
  
• "Rinsing" lettuce doesn't cut it.  Lettuce, raw spinach, strawberries, grapes, and any other leafy or tiny vegetable or fruit needs to be disinfected with an iodine or bleach solution.  Smooth fruits and vegetables (apples, carrots, etc) should be washed with soap.  Ain't nobody wanna eat themselves some non-disinfected lettuce!
• Another bathroom one - many public restrooms don't have toilet paper (or soap, or paper towels, or toilet seats...). 
• AND, you generally have to pay to use a public restroom, like between 25 and 40 cents USD.  Some friends of our road-tripped down from San Diego to Queretaro several years ago, and I remember one guy said, "Dude, I've paid like 30 bucks on this trip so far just to pee!"
• About the water...  You can brush your teeth, wash dishes, take a shower, etc. in our tap water.  For regular drinking water there's the 5 gallon water-cooler-type jugs.
  
• Just go with the flow when it comes to riding in a car.  We had 4 adults and 5 (not very young) kids in a Honda Civic to go to lunch the other day.  If you need to use a taxi, the driver will not wait for you to install your un-expired car seat (what's with THAT? that's the craziest thing I ever heard of!) in the car.  Just get in, sit down, and... yeah.  heehee!
  
• If you are gluten-free, vegan, paleo, etc. well, have fun with that.  CHEESE is the way of life in Queretaro.  
• Sadly, our city is totally unequipped for people with physical disabilities.  It's irritating because it's not like there's no one here in a wheel chair or with a walker.  There are wheel chair/stroller ramps in some places, but half the time they are too narrow for a chair to go up/down, or they don't give enough space for the person to turn the chair at all after going up, orsomethinglikethat.  

It is always fun to have people visit us.  But flexibility is the name of the game.  My friend Apryl is great example of that - the first time she came to visit, I had to be at the church at like 8am for a few hours and there wouldn't have been anything for her to do, so she stayed at my house.  I called a taxi to go get her, and she handed the driver the address of the church (she doesn't speak Spanish) and he took her.  She had never been to the church before, and just kind of trusted that it would be around the corner from where the driver let her off at.  (It was, by the way!)  Apryl was also totally cool getting tamales for breakfast from a lady riding by on a bike who was selling them.  Our families were wary when we told them where the tamales had come from!  heehee!

Anyhow, after 9 years of living here, it's weird to go to Oregon and drink the (cold, non-chemical-tasting, yummiest ever) tap water.  I automatically look for the trash can to put my used tp into in bathrooms, and think going to the bathroom in a mall without paying for it - and you get FREE toilet paper too! - is awesome.  It' amazing to see people in wheel chairs driving and going everywhere independently in the US.  And yes, unless you have an actual food allergy, I WILL roll my eyes at your list of things you "can't" eat.  (The finger quotes are of utmost importance around "can't" in this situation).  But I love my home, and I love going home from my home whenever we get the chance!