Wow! What a truly incredible day!

But first, I have to start with a very interesting night!  Which it certainly was!  I went to bed about 9, as I was tired.  R stayed up and re-watched (for the umpteenth time…) an episode from Season 1 or 2 of Midsomer Murders … and went to bed about 11:30 pm.  However, we were very rudely awakened about 12:04 am by a VERY loud siren that went off for about 10 seconds!  We couldn’t tell if it was outside or in the building, but it was “alarming” nevertheless!  But then it stopped!  We didn’t know what it was for, but figured if it was a fire alarm, that it wouldn’t have stopped.  We could see people rushing on the first floor of one of the other towers, but there didn’t appear to be any activity at all on our floor from what we could see/hear!  I got on the computer as R was getting dressed to go down and see what was up – his Spanish is much better than mine!  But as he left the apartment building, we both noticed alerts (in Spanish) on our cell phones, so he came back.  We used Google to translate and it turned out there was a 4.1 earthquake in San Marcos Quo.  Well, having absolutely NO idea where San Marcos Quo. is or might be, I had to Google it – thank goodness for computers!  It turned out, it’s San Marcos, Guerrero, about 30 km from Acapulco – which is about 5 hours drive from Mexico City!  And this was just an “alert” that there had been an earthquake!  At this point, we heard from our landlord, Gonzalo, asking if we were “okay” – I asked if we should/or should have exited the building, and he reassured us that we were right to stay put – but it was harrowing, nonetheless.  At any rate, the quake wasn’t felt in Mexico City as far as we could judge, and we finally calmed down enough to go back to bed … hope that doesn’t happen often here, but who knows?!  Let the day begin!

We did sleep later than usual this morning and got up about 6:15 am.  We needed to get moving, though, as we wanted to be in an Uber to Xochimilco by 8.  We decided that Starbucks next to the Hilton would be fine for coffee/hot chocolate and croissant/pain au chocolat to get us going, and were ready for our Uber on time.  Morning traffic was pretty bad, and it took just about an hour to get south to Xochimilco and meet up with today’s host, Roberto.  Turns out that our driver couldn’t find the exact location, but -fortunately - Roberto found us, which was great, as we were on a dusty road next to Lake Xochimilco in the absolute middle of nowhere!  (Although there were crews sculling on lanes marked out in the lake, which was interesting to watch!)

 

Yes, Virginia, there are Starbucks everywhere...

 

Roberto escorted us to a small wooden barge-like boat on one of the canals and introduced us to Erica, and we set off on the canal for our tour.  To say that today was truly a highlight is really an understatement.  First of all, Erica “drove” – that is to say, she “poled” the boat along, which looks to me like a very difficult job!  Rather like the gondoliers in Venice, only these boats are larger and flatter.  As we drifted along, Roberto talked about the history of Xochimilco and the specific construction of the chinampas – what Robert wrote about last night.  These are small individual “floating” gardens that were made by the original Xochimilco settlers in the area from the mud in the lake.  The word Xochimilco apparently means “floating island” and they did used to float – so if you didn’t like your neighbor, you could float your land somewhere else!  Interesting concept!  At any rate, once you found a spot you were happy with, you could plant some trees, and their roots would thereby “anchor” your property to the bottom of the river/canal permanently.  But there is still a canal around each plot of land, and this is the only original plot of Mexico City where this is the case – all other areas have been completely filled in.  But as most of Mexico City was built on a swamp or lake area, that’s why the Metropolitan Cathedral, for instance, is leaning, as it’s not really on solid ground! 

 

Saw many stunning egrets along the way!

Beautiful canals!

Roberto, our guide!

Erica, who poled!

We saw lots of lovely birds, many close up – egrets, Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, ibis, pelicans, cardinals, coots and ducks, and it was truly so incredibly peaceful just floating along – we could have drifted like that all day, honestly!  The sun was shining, and there was a nice breeze.  Oh, it was wonderful!  We would occasionally pass by other small boats, mostly poled as ours was, but occasionally with a small outboard motor. 

 

Beautiful flowers

Great Blue Heron and Egret

Okay Bob, which heron??

 

We had visited Xochimilco on our last visit to Mexico City, and gone out on a “party boat” which was interesting, but as neither of us drink Tequila or Mezcal, and can’t tell the difference between good and bad, that wasn’t of much interest to us!  We just wanted to be on the canals, which is what made today so very special! 

 

Xochimilco original corn!

Artichokes

Roberto among some chilis

More flowers along the chinampas river bank

We learned so much about the people of the area as well as the animals and bird life.  About lunch time, we pulled on to a chinampas that was set up as a farm/shelter, where Erica set up lunch, while Roberto took us through the farm.  He is quite the naturalist and showed us all sorts of native vegetation that is eaten here for meals.  The farm we were visiting is certified 100% organic and caters to some of the finest restaurants in town.  We smelled and tasted so many interesting things – herbs, purple carrots, orange tomatoes (which were absolutely delicious!) – all sorts of things, as well as the flowers that were growing in winter!  It turns out that flowers grow year-round here in Mexico City, and the winter flowers were in full bloom!  They were beautiful!  It appears that nobody lives on the actual chinampas anymore, as they have neither running water or electricity, but they are still owned by the original Xochimilco families who run them as generational farms. 

 

The farmer turned up this Toltec piece while plowing!

 Roberto says it gets quite rowdy on weekends when both local people as well as tourists come for the “party boats” and fir drinking, but I have say that it was so incredibly peaceful on this Friday morning/afternoon, it was incredible!

 Our lunch consisted of an excellent salad made of local greens, onions and we’re not sure what else, which tasted delicious, as well as two empanadas – one savory and one sweet, served with chimichurri sauce (which R says I have to learn how to make!)  This was washed down with chocolate “water” – which even R loved – and he’s not a big chocolate fan!  It was amazing!!  At any rate, we enjoyed it very, very much!

 

Excellent salad and empanadas!

From there, we went to have a look at the Axoloti!  These amazing creatures are a species of salamander, who mature without ever reaching full “salamander” status – in that they remain fully aquatic with obvious external gills in addition to having lungs.  They are critically endangered now, and their habitat is limited to Lake Xochimilco.  There is a whole Xochimilco Indian legend about their creation which involves the snake and is really too long to go into, but I think they’re really cute!  They do have one bad habit – the females tend to eat their eggs, as well as their smaller brothers and sisters, so it’s important to separate them fairly quickly in order to preserve the species.  But, we all have bad habits, right?!

 

Hard to photograph the Axoloti, as they're underwater!

Our luncheon area!

Ibis on the shore!

From the chinampas, we unfortunately had to head back to civilization and the end of our really beautiful day on the water, which we so thoroughly enjoyed!  We would truly recommend this tour to anyone who is interested in something out-of-the-norm as a great opportunity to experience a small part of Mexico as it used to be!

Fortunately for us, Roberto had an appointment in Mexico City, so he was more than happy to drop us off at a convenient location about half-way back to our apartment!  From there, it was only a minute to wait for our next Uber and, while it did take a bit to get back, we enjoyed the drive on a nice afternoon!

 In for a bit of a rest – R napping now, in fact! Before heading out for dinner – El Cardenal, I think, next door at the Hilton!  One of Mexico’s stop restaurants, and I remember having great food there on our last trip!  So!  More later!

m

xxx

 Double Wow!

 Just back from dinner – again, which wasn’t far, just across the street, which is nice and convenient!  El Cardenal is one of the best restaurants in Mexico City as rated by TripAdvisor, and we definitely know why!  It is fabulous!  We discovered it on our first trip here, as we were staying at the Hilton La Reforma, in which it is located … but it is totally independent, and I think there are two other El Cardenal’s throughout the city.

We were seated at a very nice table and (sad but true…) were asked if we wanted menus in English, which we did.  So … lots of good choices, including several Moles, which I absolutely love!  To start, I ordered their tortilla soup.  It came with lots of things to put in it!  Not sure what they all were, but some included chilis, onions, cheese and sour cream!  R ordered what he thought was their vermicelli soup – turns out it was vermicelli, but it wasn’t soup, although it was warm!  It was basically vermicelli cooked in a spicy tomato broth and then molded into a circle form, with some raw vermicelli on top!  It was excellent, albeit very unusual! 

 

White cheese and avocado for tacos!

R's vericelli dish

My tortilla soup

 

Things to go into my Tortilla soup!

About the same time we got our soup, we were presented with a bowl with several slices of fresh avocado, as well as several slices of Mexican cheese, as well as a container of fresh corn tortillas – along with some wonderful spicy, green salsa.  This, we were told, was to make tacos – which we did!  Pretty messy, but really tasty!

And then came our meals!  I ordered their chicken breast in Pueblan mole – John Spiller and Tommy Stramat would have loved it!  Rich and very dark and chocolatey!  I loved it!  Also some wonderful rice.  R ordered a chicken breast stuffed with cheese and covered with a much lighter mole, which he very much enjoyed!  (He thought mine was too bitter, but that’s what happens with the chocolate!)  He also received rice with his meal.  To be honest, we had had the starters and the tacos (which were totally unexpected!) and neither of us were able to finish our meals, even though we wanted to!  And then we were asked if we wanted coffee or dessert?!  Whew!  No way!  Fortunately, as we’re staying a few more days, this is definitely a place to which we will return!

 

R's stuffed chicken breast

My chicken breast with Pueblan mole!

One Very Happy Camper!

 On our way out, we took the opportunity to hit the Santander ATM in the lobby, as the Santander ATM which had formerly been attached to the outside of the building (and the bank to which it was attached) have closed in the couple of years since our last visit!  This was very convenient, though, and I was able to note that the HUGE tv screen in the Hilton’s bar does carry ESPN2 so I have high hopes that we’ll be able to see the IU-Miami football game on Monday night – once I figure out what time it’ll be on!

Tomorrow is our first cooking class, so we need to be at a restaurant near a market in Roma at 10!  So, more adventures tomorrow!  As for me, even though it’s not even 7 pm, I’m feeling like bed is calling my name!  So, until tomorrow!

Love to all!

m

xxx