After spending the morning at the Museo Dolores Olmedo, a beautiful 16th century hacienda with gorgeous grounds and an extensive collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, we headed to the chinampas, also located in Xochimilco, a southern borough of Mexico City. Xochimilco, meaning the "Place of the Flowers" in Nahuatl, is famous for its waterways surrounding the ancient city of Tenochtitlan which is now Mexico City.
What a wonderful experience we had when we climbed onto our own private, flat-bottomed boat, a trajinera, to spend a few hours leisurely floating around the chinampas.
These trajineras are so colorful.
At one point in time, the trajineras were decorated with real flowers.
The Aztecs built fertile riverbeds called chinampas for most of Tenochtitlan was a large lake. They were able to grow their crops on these chinampas. Chinampas were made with sticks and old trees woven together to form a huge raft and then anchored to the bottom of the lake. Then piled with mud and soil to create large garden plots. To stabilize the the plots, willows were planted around the perimeter. Over time, the willow's dense route system helped anchor the retaining walls and reduce erosion. Many times they are referred to as the "floating gardens" of Xochimilco but they are neither floating nor gardens but intensively cultivated farm plots.
The first historical record of the chinampas was by Hernan Cortes, when he arrived into the ancient capital in 1519. But the Aztecs were not the first to use the chinampa technology. Earlier ones were found in the Basin of Mexico dating back to 1250. That is more than 150 years before the beginning of the Aztec empire in 1431.
The Great Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco's Market View
Diego Rivera - 1945
At the National Palace
This reproduction of the market in Ttateloco shows the multi culture of ancient Mexico City, Tenochtitlan, with its chinampas, roads, neighborhoods and temples built over the lake with the volcanoes and mountains surrounding the valley.
We
saw Diego Rivera's murals earlier in the week when we visited the National
Palace. The murals, the buildings and the grounds were all so
spectacular.
Our young man did a wonderful job maneuvering the trajinera through the canals.
The scenery was so lush
and full of different birds.
We only encountered one or two other trajineras that day.
At the back of the trajinera, our comida, lunch, was being heated up in several clay cazuelas.
An occasional trajinera would go by selling antojitos (snacks)....
Along with a group of mariachis ready to entertain us.
Suzy and Betty waiting for comida to be served.
Bonnie, Al and Ursula.
We had a cooler full of cold cervezas and a big bottle of Jose Cuervo Traditional Tequila to enjoy with our comida. We started with a some Queso Fresco, guacamole and chips, a plate of sliced cucumbers, carrots and celery served with some special salt from the area.
The meal was outstanding! Black beans, achiote seasoning and pork along with some sweet potatoes, a delicious red mole with chicken (Mole Coloradito de Pollo), rice and a very interesting dish that I had never had before, pork rind in green sauce (Chicharron sudado en salsa verde). I just found the recipe for the chicharron in one of my Mexican cookbooks, The Taste of Mexico by Patricia Quitana. She was a well known chef from Mexico city who had a famous restaurant in the city for years and had published two outstanding cookbooks on traditional Mexican cuisine which I have in my library.
After polishing off a perfect meal, we toured one of the garden plots.
Me with my wonderful group.
The chinampas are very productive because of the mixture of mud and vegetation that makes the soil very fertile. The water in the
canals also contain fish which add
nitrogen-rich manure to the water, which in turn fertilizes the plants. Not only are flowers grown here, it has become quite the industry, farm to table. Many restaurants buy their produce here along with other products such as chicken, pork...
Two and half hours later, we had come full circle to where we had started.
It was our last day in Mexico City and I can not think of a more relaxing, enjoyable way but to spend the afternoon on our own trajinera!
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