A weekend in Tequis

Have breakfast at the Mercado Guadalupano, on Ezequiel Montes street: fruit, antojitos and regional food from nine o’clock. From there it’s a short walk to Plaza Miguel Hidalgo, with its stone arcades, the bandstand and the sabino trees.

The parish church of Santa María de la Asunción presides over the plaza. It is built of cantera stone, went up in stages between the 16th and 19th centuries, and its clock dates from 1897. A few streets away, at Niños Héroes 17, the pendulum commemorates the 1916 decree that made Tequis the geographic center of the country.

Then head down to La Pila, the town’s water reservoir since 1567, and to the Callejón del Piojo, where the public washhouses used to be.

Time for basketry. The Telésforo Trejo market, near the plaza, has more than 60 stalls on two floors: willow switch, sabino root, opal and textiles from Bernal. The Tequesquicalli, on Independencia, is the oldest crafts market. And the Parador Artesanal, next to the bus terminal, is open only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

For lunch in the center, try Querétaro food: ayocotadas, enmoladas and mole de olla. If you don’t want to walk any more, the tourist trolley takes an hour to an hour and a half to tour the town; it runs Friday to Sunday, leaving between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

On Saturdays there is something going on in the plaza after dinner. The Noches de Leyendas walk the streets with actors who tell stories of the town; they start from one side of the parish church. On the first Saturday of every month there is a callejoneada, a street procession with a student band, and some nights a video mapping show is projected on the church facade.

If you are flying in a balloon the next day, eat dinner early: the alarm goes off before dawn.

The balloons take off at first light, when the air is calmest. The flight lasts between 45 minutes and an hour, and the whole experience about two and a half hours. The operator gives you the exact meeting time; expect to get up around four.

The pilot cancels if there is wind, rain or fog, and in that case the flight is rescheduled. That’s why it’s better to plan it for Sunday and not for the last moment of your trip.

A local fact: Tequis has its own balloon factory, which has been running since 1982 and describes itself as the only one in Mexico certified by the aviation authority.

After the balloon, take the highway to Ezequiel Montes. There, half an hour from the center, are the big wineries: Freixenet, with its cellar 25 meters underground, and Viñedos Azteca, right across the road, whose winery can only be visited on weekends. Tours leave every hour and sell out on weekends: buy your ticket ahead of time.

For cheese, the Cava Bocanegra, on state highway 200, offers visits to its underground cellar every hour until four. All of this is in the wineries and cheese guide.

Any weekend works, but some change the mood. In May and June, the Festival Internacional del Arte, Queso y Vino (International Art, Cheese and Wine Festival) fills Parque La Pila and the plaza, with free admission. July to September is harvest season. In late October and November, Tejedores de Luz fills the town with wicker figures for Day of the Dead, and December brings the Villa Navideña and the Fiesta en el Aire, with balloons.

Those dates are also when hotels fill up: book early. The events calendar and the travel tips cover the rest.