Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Xochimilco

 The grand finale of our trip was the one that put everyone back into a cheerful mood and also incidentally the place that most everyone got loaded up with alcohol.  Xochimilco is another borough of the D.F. and is known for these boats.
 Everyone piles in and floats up and down the river being propelled by guys with big sticks like in Venice.  Although someone pointed out that the sticks are basically the only way it is like Venice.
While the boats meander along there are people in canoes that come up and sell things and there are even Mariachi bands that will serenade you along the way.
 They were selling everything from plants to souvenirs to grilled corn, and of course there was tequila and pulque which apparently is tequila in a more pure form mixed with fruit juice. 
 As you can imagine, a boat full of gringos attracted quite a lot of attention. 




 The cool water made everything feel refreshing and it was such a party atmosphere.
 Along the way there was a section with a bunch of scary dolls hanging in the trees.  The guy who used to live there put them up to keep the evil spirits away.  The legend is that the dolls eventually were the ones that rose up and killed him.  He's been dead for a few years now but they've kept the dolls up just to creep out the tourists.

And this concludes our trip the Mexico City.  After disembarking the boats and paying 40 pesos to use a disgusting bathroom we all got back on the bus.  Rejuvenated the students were all back to being best friends and spent the next hour or so singing songs together until the all passed out from exhaustion.  Now it will probably take us all the next week or so to recover.

2 comments:

Micha said...

This looks seriously amazing(except for those creepy dolls). I bet the girls loved those boats!

Jennifer Lovell said...

It's been so much fun to share a part of this with you. Thanks for all of the fun pictures and stories. Hopefully your girls will be able to remember some of the fun that was had while you were there : )!