Day 1 at Mexico City: Xochimilco

Means a place where flowers grow. It was a romantic boat ride , just the two of us in a 14 seater and we were wooed by the mariachis though I didn’t hire one for Raji, we heard lots of it in the canals. When we reached the canals it was devoid of all the holiday tourists so we were forced to take a boat tour for an hour for 150 pesos. It was worth it!!!

If you go on a holiday or on a Sunday evening you can share the boat with others and it costs much lesser. Our boatman took us in a beautifully decorated boat, it had chairs and a central table. We saw many families hire the same, they got food and drinks and had a party!! There were also many shops floating by the boats. They were selling corn,drinks,food,bonsai,flowers, mariachis…just about everything.The colorful boats are called Trajineras.

Some interesting trivia:
a) These canals were used for the rowing events for mexican olympics
b) The boats are usually named after women whom the boatman wants to pleaseJ

How to reach Xochimilco from Mexico City
a) We took the metro from Bellas Artes to Tasquena ( see the Metro map from the earlier posts). 2 Pesos per ticket
b) Just outside the metro station of Tasquena there is a light rail station. Take the light rail from there to Embaracadero, which is the last stop of the train. 1.5 Pesos per ticket
c)From Embaracaedro it’s a short walk to the canals. Look out for the boards which say “Embaracadero” once you get down from the light rail. Its very easy to locate, just walk in the direction where the crowd walks and from there you can follow the boards. The total commute time from the city took us about an hour.

We had lunch at Sanfrancisco hotel, since we didn’t have too much time. Pretty good food. Dinner was at an exclusive vegetarian place called “Restaurante vegetarino”, they had some great bread.