“Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures.” M.F.K. Fisher

Querétaro day two…..Today’s itinerary is the Ruta de Queso 🧀 & Vino 🍷 but first a stop at Peña de Bernal in the Pueblo Mágico (“Magical Town”) of San Sebastián Bernal. The Magical Towns are selected for being localities that have magic, symbolic attributes, legends, history, or transcendental facts that contribute to its cultural identity. The designation also helps with an economic tourism boom.

Bernal is known for its enormous monolith of a single, massive rock, the Peña de Bernal, at 433m (1,421 ft) tall. It’s the third tallest in the world, following Gibraltar on the Iberian Peninsula and Sugarloaf in Brazil. The Rock is known to be a spiritual vortex (think Sedona) with inspirational vibes. Residents live long lives with 90+ years common. A few incredible stones will find their way home and with a little luck . . .

It was an easy climb to the base of the monolith, but Rosie, our tour guide, had another surprise for us … a 4-wheel drive up the side base with stops to explore petroglyphs, caves, and a plethora of metal fauna statues. Think of the jungle ride at Disneyland, except you are precariously driving along the side of a mountain on a well-maintained goat trail.

Afterward was a quick walk through the charming and colorful Bernal town center and a lunch of their famous gorditas (Mexican version of the pita bread). This dish is common to most of Mexico but their specialty is broken blue corn and a variety of guisados for your choice of stuffing…… mine were stuffed with rajas con crema and nopales 🌵 and eggs. Six gorditas, two Jamaica (hibiscus 🌺) drinks = 150mx (including tip). That’s $8.00, folks.

Our next stop was Bodegas De Cote Vineyards. What a wonderful experience as we toured their vineyards, fermentation room, and cellars 1 1/4 miles high in this booming wine area. De Cote production is small compared to other wineries, but their stress on quality is something that was mentioned several times during our tour. It was quite evident during our red & white wine tasting. After the complimentary two glasses, we wanted more, so with our new friends, we moved over to the restaurant for four selections of your choice……David’s included a sharp, clean Viognier … a few bottles found their way into our luggage. The wine tasting pours were extremely generous.

But our day was not over yet. It was now 🧀 time at Cava de Queso Bocanegra!Cheese tasting after a sparkling wine welcome…..a six-cheese course of fresh and aged cheeses ranging in flavor intensity; accompanied by bread, olives, apples, oranges, honey, and chocolate all served down in the dark cheese cave and explained by a knowledgeable young lady. Cheese, too found its way into our baggage.

All these places are within an hour’s drive of Querétaro, so I earned my well-deserved nap on our way back to the hotel.

Dinner ~ who’s hungry??!!