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Xochimilco's Floating Gardens: Mexico City's PlaygroundBy Habeeb SalloumSome two decades ago, my daughter and I, on a January day, were sailing a gondola making our way through the waterways in Venice - Italy’s city of canals. As we were propelled, forward by the gondola oarsman, I could feel the biting cold stab deep in my bones. “What are we doing here? I’m frozen!” my daughter mumbled between her chattering teeth. Even though living in Canada all our lives, we never felt the cold like that day on a Venetian canal.
In pre-Hispanic Mexico, in the valley where Mexico City stands was a lake called Lago Texcoco, which now has long been drained. The Aztecs, on its edge, long before the Spanish came, dug a series of canals, whose mud they heaped on the earth around the canals or on anchored reeds atop the water. These plots of land, appeared like floating islands called chinampas - hence, their name ‘floating gardens’.
Today, this area, once on the edge of Mexico City, has been engulfed by that gigantic metropolis. There are miles of these canals of which only 14 km (8.7 mi), lined with farm homes and trees, dominated by the ahuejote, are navigable. The Gardens, besides still producing flowers, fruits and vegetables, have become a favourite spot where both locals and tourists come for a few hours to relax in the canals and enjoy their market culture.
Every boat in the canal was brightly painted with flower designs in every colour imaginable and carried Mexicans in a holiday mood or glided through the canals with tourists enjoying the outing. In the past, the boats were decorated with real flowers, but today, due to cost and the fast pace of modern life, only paint is used. However, the panorama of colours of these boats cruising the canals creates an image of beauty with a fairyland atmosphere.
As we sipped on our drink and surveyed the colourful scene on the canal, I awoke from my dreams by the sound of both Marimba and Mariachi music. Soon, a boat with an entire Mariachi band was moving beside us. They asked for a small fee, which one our group willingly gave and, for a few minutes, they serenaded us with a feast of their music then moved on to find other customers.
The canals and their gardens also draw the youth. On Saturday nights, the affluent young arrive in Xochimilco with their drinks and loud music. They rent the larger boats, which take either 20 or 40 passengers. They then play their ear-piercing music and dance, while they enjoy their drinks, turning the boats into floating nightclubs. The floating market chalupas, selling food and drink keep the partygoers well fed and watered all through the night. In the morning, the boat operators clean their trajineras ready for the family-outing rush on Sunday afternoon. It’s round the clock business on the canals. Back in our hotel, after driving through a good part of Mexico City, with its 24 million or more people - the largest city on earth - I lay down to reminisce about our exploration of the floating gardens. It was a picture full of history, excitement and romance. As my colleague explained on our way back to the hotel, “We lived for awhile in the world of the Aztecs, yet, enjoyed their gardens in the aura of the 21st century.” IF YOU GO Facts About Mexico City:
While in Mexico City - Some of the Sites Not be Missed: Travellers to Mexico City should not miss seeing: Mexico City's huge Plaza de la Constitution or the Zócalo, the ancient heart of town; National Museum of Anthropology, featuring 5,000 years of Mexican history, it is considered one of the finest of its kind anywhere on the globe; Chapultepec Park, housing an unparalleled collection of world-class museums amid acres of woods and gardens; Zona Rosa, an elegant neighborhood of boutiques, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and cafes; Palace of Fine Arts, a marble palace which is the home of the world-famous Ballet Folklorico; and House of Tiles, one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in Mexico. Where to Stay in Mexico City: Mexico City has hundreds hotels to satisfy all tastes.
One of the best hotels to make your abode is the Sheraton Maria Isabel.
Located in the heart of the financial and shopping district, edging the Zona
Rosa, it is a luxury hotel with 755 rooms, which include luxurious suites
and penthouses as well as other types of rooms. For Further Information, Contact: In Canada contact the Mexican Tourism Board |
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Now some quarter century later, I found myself sailing
on a trajinera, a type of gondola, cruising the canals of Xochimilco
(pronounced, sochi-milko - in Aztec meaning ‘place of the flowers’) - to
many, known as the ‘Floating Gardens’. It was a serene spring day and, as
the warm breezes caressed my body, the poler gently pushed us forward.
I had a feeling of serenity and contentment, especially when my mind went
back to the cold wind blowing across the canals of Venice. It was a world of
contrast and I was happy that I was now in this comfortable Mexican world,
located in the southern part of Mexico City.
To maintain soil fertility, farmers annually scraped
muck from the canal bottom and applied decaying aquatic vegetation to the
islands to prepare seed beds. The gardens became one of the most productive
farming systems ever developed. By the time the Conquistadors came, the area
of Xochimilco had become a rich agricultural district where many of the
city's flowers, fruits and vegetables were grown.
Our trajinera (flat boat), like the 2,000 others that
daily ply these canals for both work and pleasure, glided over the water
with ease. Smaller trajineras, called chalupas (some call them ‘decorated
canoes’) came up alongside and continuously harangued us, offering drinks,
food, handicrafts, and much more - seemingly everything under the sun was
for sale on these floating markets. Some were virtually floating kitchens,
which offered a complete hot meal. It seemed to me that the ingenuity
of these floating vendors were endless.
Six of us had hired the trajinera at the cost of $14.
per-hour and as we sat down in our boat called ‘Lololita’ - every one of the
colourful trajineras carries a woman’s name - our poler came aboard with a
bucket of soft drinks on ice. Now as we lazily moved along, he began to sell
us the drinks at $1. each . Business was brisk. The warm sun and the
feeling of peace of mind only needed a cool drink to complete the scene.
On the banks of the canals, life apparently was going
on as usual for the locals and foreign tourists on their trajineras. We
could glimpse farmhouses, shops, markets, plant nurseries and a plethora of
other cottage industries as we glided by. In places, local children were
diving into the canals from the edge of a bank, as their friends watched
while at other spots old men just sat, staring into space. It was a serene
pastoral scene, enhanced by the activities on the canals.
Generations of Mexican families have through the
centuries flocked, on weekends, to these ‘floating gardens’. They head down
to Xochimilco for boating picnics, usually staying a whole afternoon to
fully explore and relax in the soothing water environment. Now all around
us, other trajineras, mostly filled with families, floated by. To escape the
traffic and noise of the city, they come here to take a boat cruise along
the peaceful canals. Everyone appeared happy as they ate, drank and sang,
offering us drinks when their boat passed alongside.