Both me and Jonny had already checked out Xochimilco with the boats through the canals that had supplied both the old civilisation but also the modern, with water and plentiful of land to grow produce. We had also chatted with Antonio and his girlfriend a few days ago about visiting it, so since we used one day to visit two days of tourist places, it was the perfect day to visit Xochimilco.
After some coffee and breakfast (avocado toast for Jonny and eggs and toast for me) we travelled first by metro to the end station Tasqueña and then by railbus to endstation Xochimilco. In Tasqueña we had to buy CDXM (Cuidad de Mexico) bus cards to continue on, and then load them up with 3 pesos per person per trip. When trying to buy the card from the ticket teller, she held up a handwritten post-it note telling us to give money to someone with a card to get through to the railbus. We stood hand-fallen a short while until the security guard called on us and gave us his card. We then went to fill it up with 6 pesos so that we could pass the gates. After we got through the gates a young lady (yes, I call her a young lady, a pretty little thing with a ring on her left hand ring finger) came up to us and gave us a CDMX bus card to use. She was not the first one that had showed us kindness in Mexico, and hopefully not the last – all countries, all places will somehow, somewhen show you the best of her at some time.
Arriving at Xochimilco we were pretty much accosted directly by people wanting to lead us to their boats. I felt a bit strange in my tummy and I don’t like those types of persistent tourist gatherers, so we went left and right and not the way the “guide” wanted us and ended up at a restaurant. There we stayed for a cerveza and some soup (Jonny looked, talked and somehow chose). The owners were really likable even if they did not now a word of English (at least that’s what they said) and we did not understand much Spanish.
We walked on and after following the signs to Embaracadero de Touristo, we decided to check out Embaracadero Nativitas Zapaca instead (that we found on Google maps). It took a while to walk there, but it was nice and warm weather and we were not in any hurry. Entering the area, the second thing we say (the first being a big sign) was a pile of trash. Later we understood it was due to that the Sunday festivities in these areas are real popular for the natives.
Of course we got a salesperson trying us out right away, which actually talked English, and that we turned away after a short discussion. He told us that since it was not a Sunday (where we could have gotten on a boat with others for not that many pesos) we had to pay 500 pesos for an hour for one boat (or the double for two hours). We walked a bit for the sights and discussed the proposition, going along the canal and the stalls. After not finding any place selling beer, we got back to the boat area and our “guide” go to us once again. This was the third time and we told him that we had decided to skip the ride since we believed that is was too expensive. Suddenly the price was down to 350 pesos for an hour, which we accepted.
So for 30 minutes our boat handler staked us slowly forward on the canal. We saw restaurants, back yards and flower gardens on land, slowly moving water, tourist boats, boats with musicians and boats selling food, drinks and other stuff on the water. Then after 30 minutes we turned around and went back the same way.
We walked back towards the bus/railway station, but decided on checking out the places they had earlier tried to herd us to. I do think that we made the correct decision on skipping these, even if they would have cost us the same amount per hour. On the way back we passed by the local or public indoor market and decided to check it out. The public markets have everything in one place, clothes, fruits, meats, fish, spices, restaurants, all mixed together. Jonny was so tempted to try out one of the small restaurants so we stopped at one at random. Ordering by looking at what was on offer worked out fairly well. We also had some company for the meal, the owners kids and their friends who tried to speak to us in Spanish.
The food was ok and we tried out the non-alcoholic beverage Boing! After this we went back with railbus and metro but got off at a new station that we had not tried before, Revolución, and walked pass the Plaza de la Republica with a massive monument. The Mexicans really like monuments! On the way back to the hotel we also stopped for a couple of beers at HOP.