Xochimilco Part I - the Canals

In the week (has it been a week?) since I was robbed there hasn’t been much to blog about.  My life in Mexico City has been reduced to waiting for my replacement bank card and driver’s license to arrive, while in the mornings I go to my Spanish class and in the afternoons I have a coffee and otherwise try not to spend too much of my limited money.

But yesterday I joined up with two American women at the hostel and we went to Xochimilco, where we took a boat ride on the canals and visited the Museo Dolores Olmedo.  The day was lovely, the company was fabulous, and it was great to get back to tourist fun.

Sarah (L) and Adrian (R)

I’d been curious about the canal boats, but it’s an expensive activity that requires a group.  That made Adrian and Sarah all the more valuable.  Adrian is retired in Tepoztlán after a career of lawyering and teaching, and was not only familiar with the canal boats—leading us unerringly from the light rail station to the wharf through the crowded warren of Xochimilco streets—but adept at negotiating for a good price once we were there.  Her friend Sarah, visiting from Vietnam where she teaches English, stood by with me on the dock and watched in awe as Adrian amiably and firmly haggled the man down to a 500-peso ride ($27, or $9 each).  And then we climbed aboard one of the big, brightly-colored trajineras (tray-like gondolas), and a young, smiling gondolier poled us out onto the water.

Xochimilco is on the southern edge of Mexico City and its canals are all that remain of the great lake in which Tenochtitlan once stood.  Since Aztec times the local residents have canalized the lake edge by piling up soil to create chinampas, or floating gardens; these are still in use today to produce flowers and food.  It’s an amazing sensation to step out of the noise and bustle of Mexico City into a world of quiet waterways overhung by trees, gliding with ducks and egrets past the brilliant colors of open-air flower shops.

Of course the big industry now is gondola rides, so the waterways aren’t all that quiet.  Maneuvering in and around the tourist boats comes a flotilla of vendor gondolas, pulling alongside to offer you everything from food to music.  We paid to be accompanied by “La Bamba” on, of all things, a floating wooden xylophone.

These xylophonists played “La Bamba” for us—they were really good!

We declined, however, to pay for the full-scale waterborne Mariachi bands, whom we saw at work close at hand.

So yes, it’s a thriving tourist scene, and that includes several setups along the shore where you’re invited to stop for flowers, drinks, food, or rest rooms.  The gondolas seat 12 in little wicker chairs, and are really meant for larger groups toting a lot of beer, which would make the rest room stops loom large.  Our staid little party of three was content to glide past these temptations, nibbling our pre-bought snacks and seeking tranquility.  And that was easy to find as well, especially once we got off the “main” canal onto some of the smaller ones.  Here we could simply sit back, chat with each other, and watch the hidden little water world drift by.

 All in all it was a great way to spend a couple of hours.  From the docks Adrian again led us unerringly through the narrow Xochimilco streets, this time to a good restaurant where we had lunch.  

And then it was on to the Museo Dolores Olmedo, two stops back toward Mexico City on the light rail.  For that part of the day, see Part II.