Xochimilco

Ok, part one of the long-delayed updates is on Xochimilco. Xochimilco is a canal area on the outskirts of the DF. Many Chilango families go there on the weekends, as do the tourists. The prime attraction are the canals themselves. They actually originate in Aztec times - the Aztecs constructed the canals to grow particular flowers and crops. Although the canals are mostly for pleasure boats now, some remnant of that agricultural use remains in the many flower shops lining the canal paths.

Mexican gondolas are different from (my possibly incorrect understanding of) Venician ones, in that they look like this:

It's a grey day, and my picture isn't the greatest, but all the gondolas are neon. They also have giant headboards painted like Aztec-styled mouths, which are interesting to climb into. You can choose from a variety of gondola trips, ranging from 30 minutes to 6 hours or more. We opted for an hour-long ride (as a sidenote: although it's true that Mexicans don't really engage in bargaining anymore, there are no posted prices for gondola rides, which means that if you repeatedly say the price you've been quoted is too expensive and actually begin to walk away from the embarcation point, you can take a substantial chunk off of the cost. In our case, we started at 450 pesos - about $45 US - and went down to 300).

Your gondola tour will be accompanied by floating mariachi bands as well as vendors selling meals and snacks. These are also priced for tourists and captive audiences, meaning that they are three times as expensive as the same meal would be in the city. However, there is something very satisfying about sharing tacos on the canals, while your husband quacks at the ducks.

Other than the canals, Xochimilco's main attraction is a truly massive market. There are easily hundreds of stands, some out front covered by tarps and others inside a huge building. For those who have been to Israel, this was extremely reminiscent of the shuq in the Old City. Although we wandered the market for a bit, we were completely out of money at that point and so didn't buy anything - which is a shame, because I haven't seen spice stands at a market before, and this one sold a powdered mole which would have been interesting to try.

From my perspective, one of the really nice things about Xochimilco is that it was easy to get there. We took the metro and then the light rail; it was about a 45-minute trip, and then an easy ten minute or so walk to the embarcaderos (the embarkation points).

On our way to the metro in the DF, we stopped at the Monumento a la Revolución:

The Monumento a la Revolución is actually the cupola of what was originally intended to be the presidential palace. It was started in the early 1900s,

but construction was halted by the revolution of 1917. Eventually the presidential palace was moved to a different area, but the cupola was left in place and has become a major rallying point for Mexican political events. At least twice since I've been here, political rallies have been held at the monument, and it's not unusual to see a large crowd there. During our trip, a few days before Independence Day, it was actually very quiet. By the way, those pillars out front have the names of Mexican towns and states carved into them.

When we went to check out the monument, we discovered that you could actually take a glass elevator all the way up to near the top of the cupola and wander around. The view was quite impressive:

You could see all the way to the mountains in the distance, something that is relatively rare in the central part of the DF both because it's very built up and because of the pollution. Sadly not shown in this picture are the buildings dressed up for Independence Day. Although Independence Day is September 16, the decorations are broken out starting September 1. All political and governmental buildings, as well as many hotels and businesses, are draped with huge red/white/green banners, and even little corner stores put up mock-ups of the Mexican seal. Cars and bikes also mount Mexican flags - some small, some full-size - wherever they can.
More on Independence Day in coming posts, but for now it's enough to say that Xochimilco and the Monumento de la Revolución were great fun!