Today involved braving the Mexico underground. We both have plenty of years practice of the London underground in the bag which clearly aided our challenge! Yeah sure we couldn't understand a word at the
tiny hole in the wall ticket style office, but hey these guys have the same alphabet and colours as us so we just followed the colours and place names and were home and dry.
First stop a spot of punting. Mexican style. As Mexico City’s urban sprawl connects otherwise unrelated towns throughout the Valley of Mexico, the area of Xochimilco is the last stop on the ‘Tren Ligera’, or Light Railway. After an easy-ish hour’s trip, we made our way to the canals with some guidance from random locals, for a ride on the colorful Trajineras along the canals of the former Lake Xochimilco.
Along its edge, the Aztecs, long before the Spanish came, dug a series of canals. They heaped the mud around the canals, these plots of land appeared like floating islands called chinampas - hence, their name
‘floating gardens’. If there was any fruit and veg being grown in these gardens not quite sure that we would be up for eating it. If we thought the Mekong Delta was merky this canal won the crown.
Next was our culture fix and the Anthoplology centre. This museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from the pre-Columbian heritage of Mexico, such as the Piedra del Sol (the Stone of the Sun, what has been incorrectly identified as the Aztec calendar) and the 16th-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli. This place was mega and we could have spent longer wandering around.
On route home we passed the legendary, huge, Azteca Stadium. The place were Mexican dreams are made and broken with the assistance of a small white leather ball. The underground was maxed out in rush hour. Personal space was crushed as we stood cheek to cheek with commutors.
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