We took advantage of renting a boat and punted through the canals. I remembered footage that I possess of my great grandfather who did the exactly same thing eighty yars ago, in the 1930s! The irony was that I used some of my inheritance from him to pay for the same activity with my own family! It was wonderful, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, if there weren't so many other places to go, see, experience, and learn in a heartbeat as well! These canals are what's left of the great lake that the city had been built upon, so it was fantastic to see what the area might have looked like "pre-European" (before Cortez, 1519).

The name is misleading but it has stuck in everybody´s mind, the gardens are not floating at all.

Chinampas. This is the proper name of the parcels where people grow from vegetables to flowers all year round (the area is extremely productive, with as much as 3 crops a year).
The word comes from the Nahuatl word chinamitl, meaning "square made of canes." A chinampa is an artificial patch of soil, a man made island, it starts with a wooden barge that is steadily filled with soil until it slowly sinks to the bottom of the lake, in the sinking process the "walls" of the parcel are kept above the level of the water by adding more canes on top and more soil. The lake was never too deep so it´s not a difficult process. The idea was to make some landfill without killing the lake at the same time, and also having a very fertile parcel with full access to a year-round supply of water.

The trip. You go to one of the several docks embarcadero available and agree with the driver a price per hour (last time I was there it was 140 Mexican pesos (2005) for one hour, in a 12 passenger boat (blue roof). The boats are called trajineras and are driven like the gondolas in Venice by a guy pushing on a large pole.

During your trip you have a view of the parcels and some greenhouses, in the touristic area is mostly flowers or plants to sell, you normally don´t go to the orchards unless you specifically ask for that. In the main channel which is very wide you will find musicians (mariachis, trios, duos) to sing for you (it was 50 mxp per song in 2005) they may travel in their own trajinera, boat or just transfer from boat to boat. The trajineras are all roofed and decorated with fake flowers and each has a woman's name, if you are lucky you may find the one you like. Inside the trajinera there are benches alongside all the boat and tables in the middle for you to throw a party or enjoy a picnic, you can bring your own food or buy at the many trajineras that sell all kind of food from corn on the cob, quesadillas, tacos to pollo con mole and arroz. Beers are easily available.

To arrive you have many options, the cheapest is to take the subway and transfer in Taxqueña station to the "A" line which uses trams on rails to get to Xochimilco, ask which station is more convenient to get to the dock you choose. It may take you an hour or 1:20 min. to get there from Polanco or Downtown. By bus, take any going directly to Xochimilco (ask the concierge at your hotel) or if Periferico is near, take the one heading south and transfer in Villa Coapa. By taxi, don´t worry on the way back, there are many safe taxi hubs.

On Friday evening, we headed to Xochimilco, a small town (pop. still about 300.000 though) about an hour from Mexico. Xochimilco, especially its floating gardens are known by people from the city as a lovely place for an escapade. It means " the place where flowers grow in the Aztec language, the Nahuatl, Pre-Hispanic civilizations brought vegetation and lake mud to make gardens so the lake of Xochimilco became a circuit of canals, the floating gardens. Families come here on Sunday to share a picnic and youngsters on Friday or Saturday night to party over a good few drinks aboard the Trajineras (or embarcaderos you can hire for variable price depending on the size of the boat, it was about 200 pesos an hour for over 20 people, just go to the main deck and there the Trajineras wait for you), bring your food and drinks, you can rent a CD player as well, you really should stay more than hour to get a chance to relax and get the party going, on Sundays it gets very crowded, you will probably enjoy Mariachis music. The best is probably to go with a Mexican or in a taxi (would be about 15 to DL) as it is pretty easy to get lost in the town itself or not to find your way to the main deck!

The 'Floating Gardens' have long been one of Mexico City's most noted attractions. The gardens have fallen in and out of favor over the years, with the canals suffering from a lack of attention during the out-of-favor periods. The gardens, at one point, were even known as the 'Floating Garbage of Xochimilco'. The gardens are back in favor, and the canals have been cleaned recently. Popular with Mexican families, weekends in the gardens can be boat bumper-to-boat bumper traffic jams. The gardens date back to the time of Moctezuma. Mexico City, at the time, was a marsh with a sophisticated series of canals. These canals are a remaining portion of that original system of canals. Your day will start with negotiating a rate for one of the pole-propelled boats. The boats vary in size, depending upon the size of your party. You can even rent several boats, and 'raft' them together. Allow about two to three hours for the tour. Take a picnic lunch, put your feet up, and enjoy the gently rocking motion of the boat as your float among the islands and gardens.