During his visit to Mexico City, Mr Apple visited the water canals of Xochimilco.
Xochimilco is Mexico’s very own version of Venice which spans about 400 kilometers. The water canals belong to the most popular attractions in the city which can be viewed by a breath-taking ride that has left plenty of people marvelling at Mexico’s natural wonders.
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| Trajineras |
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The best way to explore Xochimilco is taking a ride on a trajinera, a large wooden boat adorned with flowers and paintings. The boat trip will take you to see floating gardens, and a wide array of bird life and islets known as chinampas, originally made by the Aztec people.
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| Los Ajolotes sólo viven en Xochimilco |
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| Ajolotes only live in Xochimilco |
During the weekends, Xochimilco is filled with tourists and there are treats of floating mariachi bands and a host of party people and corn sales people.
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| Flowers market |
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| Mercado de flores |
Xochimilco means flower field in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs. This region has always been important not only for its flower production, but also for the crops grown here that have been destined to Mexico City since pre-Hispanic times. The Xochimilcas were farmers and founded their first dominion under a leader named Acatonallo, who is credited for inventing the chinampa system of agriculture in order to increase production. The chinampa is an agricultural method that uses small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds that existed in the valley of Mexico. These chinampas eventually became the main agricultural producer system with crops such as corn, beans, chili peppers, squash and more. The Aztecs became such an important empire in part because of the implementation of this method.
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| Mariachi |
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| Don't mess with the Mariachi! |
The city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, was a man-made island in the west side of the Texcoco lake. This city was connected to the mainland by causeways and canals. Getting to it was done by foot or boat. The city state of Xochimilco, around 11 miles south of Tenochtitlan, was also an island city, so most of the communication between the two islands was made by boat. All the goods harvested in the Xochimilco chinampas were transported to the capital by trajineras (boats) navigating the complex canal system. The lake, and consequently the canals, was drained by the Spaniards because after the conquest of the Aztec capital they neglected the dike system that protected the city from flooding.
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| Dolls island |
The destruction of the lake continued until the 1950′s when the city of Mexico started to look for alternative sources of fresh water for the sprawling city. This prompted authorities to seek World Heritage Site status for the canals and the pre-Hispanic chinampa fields, in order to give them more environmental protection, which was granted in 1987.
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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| Isla de las muñecas / Dolls island |
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