Peace Corps Foro in Querétaro

Last week I returned to Querétaro for some in-service training and a two-day Foro on Innovation and Technology Transfer put on by Peace Corps. We had done a Foro last year, but this year we had a much bigger and diverse audience--over 100 people attended! It was extremely well put together by the staff and received a lot of positive feedback. We had some amazing speakers cover topics about Myths of Innovation, what CONACYT is doing at a national level, FUMEC (a national-level technical agreement between the US and México), and panels on how industry currently works with academia and research centers.



In Querétaro I had the chance to eat dinner with my host family again, which was very cool. Their dog is a bit older and slightly better behaved!

Since it is the bicentennial and centennial of Mexican independence and the Revolution, respectively, the city of Querétaro is putting on a bunch of events (the city has played a huge role in Mexican history). Friday night I went to a concert at the beautiful Teatro de la Republica and listened to the Querétaro Philharmonic.

Site Visit

Last Saturday I had a 10-hour bus ride up to the state of Nuevo Leon with some other volunteers to see our future site and get to know the town--this is where we will be spending the next two years! The bus ride took all day, but the people from the office were very nice and picked us up at the bus station in Monterrey.

On Sunday we had the chance to tour downtown Monterrey. It is really nice, and I hope I can get out there in the future for social activities. They have a man-made riverwalk, similar to San Antonio. However, the one in Monterrey seemed longer and had a lot of artistic fountains to add a little flavor. We happened to catch some floating displays of children's stories, since April is Children's Month. Sounds like lots of activities for the kids plus a big fiesta on April 30th.



The Cerro de la Silla in Monterrey is the famous mountain in the city. It looks like a saddle, hence the name.



Tuesday night we left Monterrey on a nightbus and returned to Querétaro around 3:30 AM on Wednesday. The driver blasted movies until midnight, then finally turned them off. Nightbuses are the norm for traveling from Monterrey, so it is something I need to get used to since I want to travel a lot within México.

On Friday night a couple of us listened to a guitar concert at the Teatro de la Republica. I forgot my camera, but here is a picture of the Teatro from the outside. I always see it in the university graduation pictures here, so I think it is a pretty historic landmark in Querétaro. The inside is amazingly beautiful, and we listened to two guitarists. One was Eduardo Pascual Díez from Spain, and the other was Fabián Sánchez Morales from Querétaro, México. Both were good, but Fabián was the one who got the standing ovation. I can´t believe how fast they could play!



After class on Saturday, a couple of us went to watch another volunteer play rugby. Rugby isn´t a big sport in México, but there are a couple of traveling leagues in the area. Today the team from Guadalajara came to play, and the hometown Bulldogs eeked out a victory. It was my first rugby game, so it was pretty interesting. Bulldogs are in the white and dark blue jerseys, and actually our volunteer friend is the one that is being lifted up on the left (for the line-out).



Mañana, again I get to hop onto an autobus for another long ride up to Saltillo (about 9 hours), for a PC Volunteer visit. I get to see how real PC Volunteers work!