A few days ago, Lori and I finally took the leap and made our way down to Xochimilco Floating Gardens—one of Mexico City’s most loved (AND hated) attractions.
It comes at the tail-end of a ten-day stay in CDMX (let’s just say we were dragging our feet a bit on this one).
In light of the dozens of mixed reviews we’ve heard and read regarding the “Venice of Mexico”, we weren’t sure if a day trip to the far southern reaches of this huge city was warranted. In the end, we were very happy we took the plunge.
Located just 10 miles from the center of the largest city in North America (as the crow flies), Xochimilco (pronunced: shoat-shee-MEEL-coh) feels like a place yanked from an entirely different time (and hemisphere).
But Xochimilco’s always been a bit different.
The residents of Xochimilco were plying these waters long before the arrival of the Spanish some 500 years ago. In fact, they created the canals themselves by building up shallow areas of what was then Lake Xochimilco for cultivation.
This laid the groundwork for the chinampas or artificial islands that the boats navigate to this very day. The “Floating Gardens” moniker refers to these lush artificial islands, which have also been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Getting to Xochimilco from central CDMX on our own was straightforward enough.
Sure, we could have taken a package tour, or even an Uber (which will run you about MX$250-$400 each way depending on time of day). But, we prefer trying to do these sorts of these on the cheap and at our own pace.
The hardest part was knowing where in CDMX we were headed to. There are several embarcaderos offering Xochimilco tours. The official tourism website says to head to the Nuevo Nativitas Xochimilco embarcaderos, so that’s what we did.
On a side note, you can image my surprise when I learned that the Nativitas Metro stop has nothing to do with the Xochimilco Nativitas, which even has a little gondola picture on the Metro map fool you. Not confusing at all.
First, we made sure to get ourselves to the Blue Metro Line (No. 2)—which are actually the orange metro trains…don’t ask me why—headed south toward the direction of Tasqueña. This leg of the journey from the Zócalo to Tasqueña takes about 20 minutes.
Once we reached Tasqueña station, we changed to the Tren Ligero (Light Rail) for Xochimilco, which took another 40 minutes. From the station in Xochimilco, it took us about 30 minutes to walk to the boats. We could have taken a local bus for part of the way, but it still would have taken 15 minutes to get to it, so we skipped that option.
The local buses in Xochimilco are pretty cool and unique, though.
So, why did we go to all this trouble just for a boat ride? Well, there are lots of reasons—the first being, well, look at these things!
Today, many locals carry on the tradition of piloting the brightly colored gondola-style boats known as trajineras that ferry tourists around the area. And Many more area residents still use this mode of transport for their own purposes—from taking their kids to and from school to moving produce to market.
But the cultural experience doesn’t end there. Perhaps just as interesting as taking in the area’s centuries-old canals and unique way of life is observing (and even taking part in) the modern day ritual of touring the canals Mexican-style. But we’ll get to that later.
As is often the case with ancient human-made canals, these waterways are pretty darn narrow at times, and things get busy on the water.
As you might expect, there was a bit of jostling as our skilled captain maneuvered our bus-sized gondola between the narrowest of spaces with nothing but a long wooden pole.
Even here on a Tuesday in the middle of rainy season, we had at least a dozen boats surrounding us at any given time. On weekends in the dry months, we hear it gets much more hectic.
We had fun seeing which goods and services were on offer from neighboring boats—such as flowers, food and alcoholic beverages, and of course, Mariachi.
For Mariachi, it seemed that all you had to do is look for one of several small trajineras loaded down with a Mariachi band in full regalia to cozy up alongside for an impromptu concert.
For the full meal deal, it appears you could even ask a group to board your vessel to entertain you (and anyone else in earshot) for the length of your canal cruise.
Heck, even if you weren’t personally planning on hiring a Mariachi boat band, don’t worry! Chances are close to 100% that you’ll get the full Mariachi experience at some point in your journey, thanks to passengers on a nearby boat who sprung for the service.
If you like Micheladas, don’t know what they are, or simply want to do what the locals do on a Xochimilco canal tour, you’re in for a treat.
If a liter of sweet-and-sour beer doesn’t tickle your fancy, but you still want to try some of the local hooch, then a cup of Pulque (the ancient Aztec fermented drink of the gods) might be for you!
I’ll be honest, the Xochimilco take on the Michelada wasn’t exactly what I’m used to. Here, it’s a one-liter domestic beer of your choice, salt, lime juice, and a ridiculous helping of chamoy slathered on the rim of an even more ridiculous size cup—no Clamato or picante sauce, at least not in ours.
Thankfully, Lori was here to help me, because, spoiler alert: no toilets onboard these trajineras. But…if nature does call, there are a couple of stops along the way where you can hop off.
If you’re into mysterious islands with a chilling past involving an eccentric doll collector, a young girl that may or may not have existed, and a lifelong obsession, well then, make sure to spend some time on La Isla de las Muñecas. Or, like us, you can snap a few pictures and call it good.
Sadly, we learned a few days after our boat ride that the Island of Dead Dolls on the traditional Xochimilco boat tours route is actually a copycat.
The real Isla de las Muñecas is much harder to get to.
Is Xochimilco terribly kitschy and touristy? Heck yes! But it was a ton of fun and we’d recommend it to others, even if you tend to shy away from “tourist traps”.
There’s a lot of history on these waterways and it’s an experience you can’t have anywhere else but here.
Plus, it’s an overwhelmingly domestic (Mexican) tourism activity, which makes it a more worthwhile activity in our minds than a lot of other things you can do in CDMX geared towards Gringos.
Back walking around our adoptive CDMX neighborhood after a long day.
I always wondered if this restaurant name was already taken. Now I know.
Ten days in Mexico City has flown by and now its time to head back to Tepotzotlan to see how Winnie’s doing.
Looks like no worse for the wear. Everything appears to be dry and in tip top shape, despite the heavy rains we’ve had this past week. The boys enjoyed their time in the Big City, but we could tell they were very happy to be home.
In a few days, we’ll pack up the rig, once again, and roll on. We’ve been parked here in Tepotzotlan for over month, so it’s time.
