Aztec Venice, sort of.

What is now Mexico City used to be a huge lake, with a small island center. What I can only descibe as levees were constructed to connect the island city with the surrounding land. As the center grew with in-fill, the water in the lake was reduced to canals. Later those canals were turned into roads. There were still canals that connected the city to some outlying lakes where agricuture was featured. The canals built inside those outlying lakes were shouldered by berms made through planting of deep-rooting trees and soil movement, and the crops there were ferried back to the city for sale.

Nowadays, save for some vestegial boutique farming done for high-end CDMX restaurants, the canals have become a place for boat rides and relaxation. Vegetables have been replaced with Mexican families and drunken tourists. I booked a boat ride with AirBnB and really did not know what to expect.

The photo above is the information booth, and the meeting point for many groups. When I got there, I could not see any signs with the the name or time of the group but I did see a group of obvious tourists kind of milling about. I thought maybe this could be my group, so I approached the most touristy looking guy in the group and asked him in English if they were waiting for a tour. He look at me really apprehensively and then said, loudly and slowly, "NO THANK YOU. WE ALREADY HAVE A TOUR BOOKED." Haha, some of you will never know this joy, but it happens from time to time, like when I am doing sprinkler work IN MY OWN FRONT YARD, etc. I found my tour guide in short order.

The boats are called "Trajineras" and there are hundreds of them. 95% are human-powered by a gondolier, the others have a small outboard motor. The canals are in Lake Xochimilco, the only native habitat of the Axlotl.

We loaded up and pushed off. There was a group of 4 in for a wedding from Chicago, a couple from Toronto, and three women from Dallas. Everyone was in their 30s. Turns out, each and every one of them was in finance. How random. And how potentially unintersting. Thankfully, there was a cure for that!

What followed was a boat ride, with drinking and two features. First, a boatload of Mariachi sidled up to us like a coast guard inspection and we paid them for a couple of songs.

We stopped and had two things to see. The first was the Axolotl, in a too-small tank. There are fewer than 5,000 in the wild (all in this lake) and could be as few as 50. Extinction in the wild is almost guaranteed. They are kept as pets all over the world but that has been weakening their genetics. Cute little things, wish they could make it.

There is a legend that there was a local woman who fell in love with a Spaniard and had three children with him. The Spaniard ditched her and his family to marry a Spanish woman and have kids and a life with her. Despondant, she went to this lake and drowned her children. Realizing what she had done she screamed out for them and then killed herself. Now, sometimes, you can hear her screaming across the lake at night. Someone erected a monument of sorts to her

After that stop, it was time to go back to the marina/pier. Our trusty gondolier (sorry I forgot the word, it's something like Trajinero) powered us back. Notice the spent Michelada - I did not partake. I am not a fan.

If I do this again - and I would if time allowed on another trip - I would either bring a group of my own friend and/or family, or just bring some food and drinks and music and go by myself. I enjoyed being out on the water - it was relaxing.

Wrapping up Sunday, I went to this new and trendy tapas place but the seat they offered me was insane so I walked. My second choice was closed due to a water pipe being replaced, but the owner walked me around the corner to a taquieria he said was simple but delicious. He was right, best tacos so far. So the tabletop is chipped, if the plastic plate were 1mm thinner it would be disposable, and it was my third choice of a place to eat. Despite all that, this was some good Alambre de Pastor and I made myself tacos that did not disappoint! Imagine freshly sliced al pastor meat, mixed with bacon, onions, pineapple, green peppers, all chopped up and fried up. I have to look for this back home.