How a cracked tooth and a doll led us to Querétaro.
- lindafescalera
- May 15
- 6 min read
In late 2024, I started watching videos about moving to Mexico. Videos about the process. Videos about what to expect. Videos about why people - mainly Americans - move to Mexico … and then return to the States. Videos called “Where to retire in Mexico” - even though I wasn’t retiring. “The most beautiful cities in Mexico.” “ The most affordable cities in Mexico”. Several videos mentioned an interesting city with a fun name. It never quite made the list of possible places because I couldn’t remember the name.
In the spring of 2025, I started looking at airfare and realized it’s expensive to travel to and from Mexico, but it is affordable to travel around Mexico. Suddenly our plan changed to finding a “homebase” and spending a couple of weeks at a time in the places we want to check out. We thought as we narrowed the list down, we’d go back to those places for a month or so. I figured we would take a year traveling before choosing a place. After several weeks of trying, I wasn’t able to get an appointment at the Mexican consulate in Raleigh. That left Atlanta and Washington, DC as the closest places. Richmond, VA is my adopted hometown, so I decided to head to DC. On May 1, I walked out of the consulate with my permanent residency visa attached affixed inside my passport.
I texted a picture to John and then drove home. When I got back to North Carolina, there was a Mexican flag flying outside the house. I walked in the house, and John’s first words were, “Have you heard of Querétaro?” He had friends whose grandfather had lived in Querétaro when they visited they thought it was cool. He had watched several videos on Querétaro, and it looked interesting.
Then I cracked my tooth. My dentist said it needed to be pulled and have an implant put in its place. It was not something that had to be done immediately, but soon. When I mentioned Mexico, he suggested looking into having the dental work done there - it would be much cheaper.
Because it would take several visits to the same place to complete the dental work, it made sense to just find our home base. And it meant we needed to move the search for a home base sooner than planned.
Because Querétaro was the first place John had mentioned, I thought it might give him more “ownership” of the move. So I started researching Querétaro with the eye of living there.
We bought planes tickets and in August 2025, we headed to Querétaro with the agreement that unless we HATED it, this would be as good as place as any for a home base. It is centrally located with an international airport and only 2 1/2 hours to Mexico City where we easily get to anywhere in the world.
I worked harder on relearning Spanish. I bought the "Mexico Relocating Guide” which is online meaning any resources listed are more current. To learn more about the city and what it would be like to live there, I contacted a Relocation Specialist from the Guide - My Place in Querétaro. More on Romy and Liz in an upcoming blog/video. They are amazing and definitely who you should call if you are considering a move to Querétaro. We talked with them about what we were looking for in terms of a neighborhood and a house - and I asked about a dentist. Turns out for the same price as an extraction and implant in the US, I could fly to Mexico 3 times, stay in Airbnb’s for 2 weeks each time and have the dental work done. No brainer.
This was John’s first trip to Mexico. He immediately fell in love with the country and the people. More on that trip in a later blog/video.
We arrived at the airport and cleared customs. My passport was stamped for canje (using your residency visa to get your residency card) within 30 days. It was not properly entered in to the computer - that will matter later. We grabbed an Uber. Our first experience with driving in Querétaro was during Rush Hour. And it was a wild ride.
We knew nothing about housing in Centro Histórico so we were shocked when the Uber driver stopped on a busy street of what looked like a business district and put our suitcases on the sidewalk. I asked him to wait because I was certain we were in the wrong place. He smiled and said “No, no" and something about policia. Clearly I needed to double my efforts to learn Spanish. (We later learned that on many streets there is no parking. You can stop long enough to pick up or discharge passengers but that’s it. The Uber driver simply didn’t want to get a ticket.)
I consulted the instructions in the Airbnb app. Yes, we were in the right place. And next to an big metal door with no sign, we found a keypad. It took several tries to get the lock box to open - we still weren’t 100% sure we were in the right place. Finally it opened, the key fit the lock and with a little apprehension we opened the door. We were in a vestibule.
Except for a sewing shop in what would have been a garage, it was clearly residential. The apartment was on the third floor. Querétaro is at 6000 ft, and the last flight of uneven stairs felt like summiting a mountain on a good hike. We jokingly referred to the last flight as Mt Everest for the rest of the trip.
But that wasn’t the highest point of our apartment.
One of the selling points for me was the terrace with a view of the city. I had no idea it was up ANOTHER flight - a narrow, steep circular staircase. It was a little sketchy and with John’s fear of heights, I think he made it up there once. I needed both hands so I put bottled drinks and my laptop in my computer bag, tossed it over my shoulder and ascended. The view was worth the climb.
The bedrooms were air-conditioned, the main room just had a fan. It was fine for me, but John struggled getting used to the altitude, and the air conditioning helped. Keep that in mind - it will be important in a later story.
On our first walk through the city, we noticed was how clean it was. And how safe it felt. Because John needed to rest more than me, I wandered around the city. Alone. At night. The cultural heritage symbol of Querétaro is a doll called Lele.
It is the Otomi (the indigenous people of Querétaro) word for baby. You may recognize her as a “Mexican” doll but her birthplace is Querétaro. I love Lele. It was like something inside me recognized her, connected to her. Her bright colors and happy face resonated with me.
One night as I was wandering around Centro, I stopped at a crosswalk. The no-crossing sign was a red Lele. While I waited for the light to change, I closed my eyes and soaked up the smell of tacos, music from the park, laughter, rapid Spanish and a gentle breeze. It was perfect. When I opened my eyes, the light changed, Lele turned from red to green … and started walking.
As I crossed the street, it hit me, this was my town. I can’t explain it any further than that. It was full of history. It was real Mexico not a tourist town. And Lele had just told me to come. I was home.
I wasn’t sure how John would feel about my decision. He hadn’t even been able to explore the city like I had. But the next day on a walk John said, “I love it here. I don’t want this to be home base. I want this to be home.”
And just like that it was. That’s when the planning began in earnest.
We took a Colonia tour to see the different parts of the city. When arrived in Querétaro, we were both convinced we wanted to live in Centro - were all the history was. But the other areas - Milenio 3, El Mirador, El Refugio - had newer homes with modern conveniences. You didn’t walk out your front door on a busy street. Clearly one of the “suburbs” was where we would end up. John only stayed a week. But before he left, we had already starting making friends - Raul, from Como La Flor cafe and Adam, Alexis and Michael from El Encuentro restaurant. (Sadly, now closed.) I stayed an extra week - in part to meet the dentist, in part to explore more but mostly to do the second part of establishing my residency. Turns out I needed every single day of the extra time. I had only booked our Airbnb for the first week thinking I would move to another area we were interested in living in. But instead I moved to another part of Centro. I loved “vacationing” there. But visiting a place and living in a place were two totally different things. I wanted as much of Centro as I could get.
Sign up for notifications and hear the highlights of my 2nd week - including going to church where I learned about horas de Mexico, navigating the immigration system and making even more friends. Every day was a step further at creating a home. Every day I found signs Querétaro was the right place. Everyday I become a little more Mexican.
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