Queretaro, Mexico - Day 1

December 5th, 2025

Asheville -> Dallas -> Queretaro

I arrived at the Queretaro airport and had to wait for my checked bag. I took my phone out and was told off by a security person. No phone usage allowed in baggage claim. It's a tiny airport - I think with only one baggage claim belt. Someone brought out a drug sniffing dog to inspect our luggage. This was so fascinating. I wish I had snuck in a video for my dog training friends, despite being told off for my phone usage. After all, when the security guy walked away, I saw other people pull out their phones. Being a foreigner, I didn't want to risk the potential consequences. Anyways, back to the dog. It was a Belgian Malinois. You could tell this dog lived to go to work every day. Extremely high energy. It would race down the baggage claim belt. Full speed. It got rewarded with play from its handler. When the luggage started coming out, the dog would run across the belt, run on top of the luggage (sometimes with drool flying), just getting the quickest of sniffs in. Run, run, run. The handler would plant a scented cotton ball on someone's luggage - hidden so the dog wouldn't see him do it and wouldn't see the cotton ball. He'd send the dog running down the belt again, and the dog would find the scent and mark it with a sit. This would be rewarded by a vigorous game of tug. I wondered - once the cotton ball was removed, would the dog give a false positive alert? Nope. The dog was very curious about one suitcase which didn't have a cotton ball plant. He'd spend a few seconds sniffing it but not marking it. The handler ignored it. Eventually on around the 5th time around, the dog marked the suitcase. Just as the owner was coming up to claim it. They took the owner and the suitcase to an inspection area. Then the dog got to come back to work. No one looked excited about the dog. Most people were frowning. Me though - I was so excited!

Well, I was excited until I found the ATM's. I tried to get $ out and couldn't figure out how to get them to work. One said chip read error. The other one - no clue how to get it to work. I tried asking someone who worked at the airport, but they didn't speak any English. Oh boy. This is what I found during my vacation. Unlike Europe, very few people speak any English here. Luckily, I could just get an Uber to my hotel. In the evening, I found an ATM, and it worked. I wanted $400. So, I requested $400. Turns out that the sign for pesos is also $. So, I had only received about $23 of pesos. I then requested around $4,000 of pesos. Later on, I learned that the calculator app on the iPhone has a conversion setting, so you can see how much money you are spending. I got sticker shock looking at prices at first - dinner for $140. What????? But $140 in pesos is less than $8 USD! I ate at an Indian restaurant my first night. The waiter knew enough English and I knew enough Spanish that we made it work. Way too much food for me, and unfortunately, my hotel didn't have a refrigerator. Downtown Queretaro is all dressed up for the holidays.

Something I learned.
In many places in Mexico, toilet paper must be thrown in the trash,
not flushed down the toilet.