Day Twenty-Nine - Mexico City, D.F. (July 25, 2010)

This morning was an absolutely AMAZING and traditional Mexican experience! We headed out around 10am to the area known as Xochimilco (a delegación, or borough, of D.F). Xochimilco is known for its series of small canals which are remnants of Lake Xochimilco (dating back to the time of the Aztecs). Here Jacques hired a trajinera (boat) to take us on a small trip along the canals and among the chinampas (“floating gardens”, or artificial islands used to grow crops).

Each of the trajineras are named and colorfully decorated. Our trajinera was named Xochimilco, after the area, but I did find one on our travels named Virginia! Here’s a picture just for you, Auntie!

Our trip on the trajinera felt like sensory overload! Not only were there trajineras carrying people down the canals, but there were also small ones with people selling anything and everything! If you wanted to buy something, you would simply wave and they would paddle over and ride along next to you until the sale was complete! There were some people selling blankets, sombreros, flowers, and even candy apples (this I had to get!) . There were also some trajineras with mariachi bands (who would sing you a song for 30 pesos) and still others with marimbas! This was an experience that can never, ever be replicated…






Our afternoon was spent in honor of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, two very Mexican famous painters from the early-20th century, who were married to each other and had very controversial histories (according to some of my reading, Diego painted a pretty contentious piece for Ford in the 1930s, among others). We first stopped at Dolores Olmedo’s estate which houses many of Diego’s paintings. Although we couldn’t take pictures, I found this copy on the Internet of a work at Olmedo’s estate that I enjoyed, titled “En la fuente de Toledo (At the Fountain of Toledo)”.

The grounds were huge and housed various animals, including some peacocks! I decided to be artistic and take some pictures of a peacock through a kaleidoscope…here’s one of them:

We also made a visit to La Casa Azul (The Blue House), which was Frida and Diego's home for many years. According to some reading I’ve done, the house was painted blue by Frida’s father in the early 1900s and is the place where Frida got much of her initial inspiration. When she was 18, Frida was in a terrible accident and spent over a month in a body cast. Since she couldn’t move, her mother hung a mirror from the top of her bed and Frida used it to design various self-portraits. Much of Frida’s pain and suffering was depicted in her paintings. But, here’s a more refreshing painting of hers that I particularly enjoy (also off the Internet):

Oh, and of course I must mention lunch, where I tried…ANT EGGS! Yes, I did it! They looked and tasted a lot like cous cous. Although they appeared appetizing, I couldn’t eat much of them knowing what they really were. Here’s a picture before I tasted them:

Well, that's all for now.  It's a busy next few days in Mexico City, and then I head home to NYC on Friday.  How I'll get back to reality, I have no idea...