Xochimilco

Yesterday morning, Edith dropped us off at the nearby Metro station and we took the subway to it's end stop on the line. Then, we took a light rail train further south to the borough of Xochimilco.

The area is most famous for it's leftover system of canals that used to be used to transport goods. But it also has one of the best markets in Mexico City and that's where we stopped first.

This market has the freshest looking fruits and vegetables, and among the best prices we have seen. We bought 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of strawberries for 10 pesos (80 cents)!

We were hungry and we stopped at the food court to have "huaraches con huevos" for a late breakfast. This dish originated in Mexico City so it's popular here. Forgot to take a picture of the finished product!

Then we went to the plaza and sat and people watched for a while. After, we walked around looking at the various embarcaderos (boat launch areas) where the canals are now used for tourist boats. You can rent a boat similar to a gondola with a driver to push you around. We had heard this was worthwhile, but we were disappointed. First of all, it is only on weekends and fiesta days where they do collectivo boats at a price of 15 pesos ($1.20) per person. During the week, you have to rent a complete boat that seats between 8-12 people at a cost of 200 pesos ($16.00) per hour. So unless you can find someone to share with you, it's fairly expensive. But, we bit the bullet and went for it.

The majority of our hour boat ride was spent saying "no, gracias" to the various other boats that approach you trying to sell you anything from tourist trinkets to food, and even boats that had musicians trying to get you to give them a few pesos to play a tune. It was annoying. Then, the ride was only 50 minutes (I timed it) but I didn't complain because I had had enough anyhow. Not worth it, in our opinion.

The colorful boats for rent. The canal system runs about 170 kms, but I expect it is quite busy on the weekends!

Our boatsman, Jose.

One of the trinket boats trying to sell useless crap.

Finished our boat ride and went back to the plaza and sat for a while again watching the people. Then back to the market to buy a pineapple and some strawberries. Then hopped on the train and the metro to get back to Edith's house. Walking from the subway back to the house, we came across a baseball game being played by 16 or 17 year old boys and we stopped and watched a few innings. They were quite good, about the same level of play that our son was involved in when he was that age.

Today we are off to downtown again to finish seeing things we didn't see on Sunday!