Mexico - Where Peña de Bernal Comes Alive

Hello there!

After a short break and consolidating my first edition of my Travel Diaries, which included my travel posts to 14 different countries, here's kickstarting my second edition of Travel Diaries! For those who are keen to read my the first edition, you can find them here.

I am actually quite excited to start this new country and new series of posts, because it's something that I wanted to do for quite some time, but I needed some time to tidy up my photos and organise my storytelling and places. And this new country is Mexico!

Back in 2009, I had the opportunity to go for a summer exchange programme to spend 7 weeks studying in an university in Queretaro, a small city in Mexico and that was one of my more memorable parts of my life! Going halfway across the globe from Asia, I didn't know much about Mexico so I went there with my eyes wide open, and ready to embrace the different cultures and experiences.

A few months before the actual trip, if you are old enough to recall, there was the H1N1 virus which was quite prevalent in the world, including Mexico, and the trip was almost cancelled. Eventually, the programme was postponed, and the situation got better and travel restrictions were lifted. Even so, many participants of the programme decided not to go ahead for personal reasons. Because this trip was such a rare opportunity, I made the decision to go ahead.

So let the adventures begin!

Here's the series of Mexico posts so far:
Mexico - Flying Halfway Across The Globe
Mexico - A Journey Beneath The Vineyard

Moving on from the vineyard, we headed towards one of the tourist attractions in Queretaro, and that's Peña de Bernal! It literally translates to Rock of Bernal. Standing at 433 metres tall, it's one of the largest rock formations in the world!

This was taken on our way there. From far, it already looked so majestic!

Before we reached the Peña de Bernal itself, there was a little town nearby, where we stopped by to explore and grabbed some food and drinks.

This is the Palacio Municipal in the town Bernal. I really liked the colours and artwork in the architecture and it contrasted so well with the blue sky.

We also visited Museo de la Mascara, which should be Museum of Masks even if one didn't understand Spanish.

I believe this was a church in the town as well.

So we have seen the place and have rested enough, it's time to head up to Peña de Bernal.

We arrived!

There's even a fountain at the foot of the attraction! The rock looked really huge! There were actually people who hiked their way up there, but because I was with my host mum, and I wasn't familiar with the terrain and it was getting late, it's probably was not a good idea to hike up. So we enjoyed the scenery.

Because we were already somewhat uphill, even at that level, we could already enjoy the panoramic views. So beautiful and peaceful to soak in the moment.

And then we saw a stage set up and there were some cultural performances! I was not sure if this was coincidental or my host mum actually brought me here specially with the programme, but it was interesting for a foreigner like me to watch this.

And the fact that these performances and stage were set up beneath the rock, the background looked so nice.

As the evening progresses, the performances made way for a water performance! Wow! I mean I have seen such water shows at many places, but in the nature, and underneath such a majestic rock, that's definitely a first!

The water show wasn't just a short one. For people who stayed abroad, one would know the skies turn dark very late but very very quickly during summer, and before we knew it, the view had totally changed into another different dimension! The colours of the water show lights were more prominent and the rock turned dark and more mysterious but still as majestic as ever.

Finally, everything ended and I remembered there was a roaring applause, for the performers, for the show, for everything. And it was such a memorable night, as we made our journey back home. A final photo of the Peña de Bernal.

This was such an awesome day trip, with so many adventures packed into one. The nature, the scenery, cultural performance, water shows, the night sky, and many more! Even though it has been 17 years, I still remember vividly many details of this day.

And that's all I have today! Have you been to Queretaro or Mexico? Let me know in the comments below!

Finally, thanks for reading my post in the community under World Map Pin!