Xochimilco

As we floated down the canal with the other 40 or so people in our long, covered boat, we had our choice of paying for a boat of mariachis to sing to us, buying a variety of plants, eating elote (corn on the cob slathered in mayonnaise and chile) or drinking any number of drinks from the vendors who floated beside our boat in attempts to earn a few pesos.

If I compared it to Venice, you would have the entirely wrong mental image of the ambience. The supposed “floating gardens” of Xochimilco, south of the city reached by the light train, are more properly described as floating parties on a crowded canal. In the days of the Aztecs, the fertile gardens, made by piled up vegetation mud in the shallow waters of Lake Xochimilco, became an economic base. As the gardens proliferated, the lake became a series of canals. Today, the main canal is a traffic jam of colorful boats, some transporting 20 plus people in festive moods, made more so by the free-flowing alcohol, and others hosting a couple or handful of tourists enjoying the spectacle.

I was thoroughly entertained by the two older men sitting across from us testing out their English and trying to find a deal on the micheladas (beer with chile and lime), the couples swaying to the notes of the mariachis and the boat vendors who quickly had to change directions at the hint of a sale. Given the amount of boat traffic, I was surprised that your boat, guided by a man standing on the roof with a long pole, only rear-ended another boat once while navigating the canal thoroughfare.