[May] Hi, friends!
Jim and May here from Spanish and Go,
your resource for learning real world travel Spanish.
Today we're checking out Xochimilco.
[Jim] Yeah, this place has been on our list for a long time
and we're finally here.
This is kind of like the Venice of Mexico right here.
It's like the whole gondola experience
with the Mexican flair, right?
[May] Mm-hmm.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Jim] Xochimilco is located to the south
of Mexico City's historic center
and it's one of the city's 16 boroughs.
[May] The name Xochimilco comes from the Nahuatl
language and is commonly translated into Spanish as:
"The flower bed", or
"Place of the flowers."
[Jim] So from where we're staying in Mexico City
it was about a 40 minute Uber ride
and it was $250 pesos or something like that?
[May] Mm-hmm.
Yeah, you can get here by metro
but the thing is you have to get on the metro
and then get off
and then take another bus.
[Jim] A lot of transfers.
[May] It's, yeah, well maybe not a lot
but at least two
and Uber is way better because it's direct.
So we took an Uber.
[Jim] More expensive but easier.
[May] Yes.
So we got here,
we didn't have much for breakfast
but you can buy food here
and you can take it with you
on the little trajinera.
You can have drinks,
you can bring a cooler,
you can even rent speakers
if you want to listen to music on the ride.
So it should be really fun.
Let's go look for food!
[Jim] Do you want to eat something here quick? [Waitress] Come on in, friend.
[May] Good afternoon. [Cook] What can I get you, miss? Good morning.
[May] Do you have mushroom quesadillas? [Waitress] Yes, friend.
[May] Let's see. Huitlacoche quesadillas...
[Waitress] I have this one, which is the small one... This one is the small.
[Jim] That's the small one?! [Waitress] Or the giant one is the "machete".
(laughing)
[May] Well, I'm going to get one like this one with... with mushrooms, please.
[May] Waht filling do you want? They have huitlacoche, mushroom, squash blossom...
[Jim] What are "sesos"? [May] "Sesos"? Brains.
[May] You don't want that, right? [Jim] No.
[Jim] It's going to be the same for me... [May] Mushroom, too?
[Jim] With mushroom, please.
[Waitress] Small, too? [Jim] Yes.
[May] And then we'll also get something to go. [Waitress] With cheese?
[May] Ah, mine without cheese.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Jim] Did you order the brains?
[May] Ah, ¡no! No, thanks. I ordered mushrooms.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Waitress] Plain mushrooms. [May] Mmhm.
[Waitress] Mushrooms with cheese. [May] Thank you very much.
(exotic upbeat music)
[May] How delicious! I think we're even going to have left overs. [Cook] Yeah, right?
[May] Okay, now, how much do I owe you? [Cook] Yes, it was two "machetes", right?
[May] Mhm, and two small ones. [Cook] And two small ones. It'd be two hundred, miss.
[May] Okay.
[Jim] Mhmm
[May] If only you could see how much more he likes hot sauce than me.
(laughing)
[May] I do only a little, but he...
[Jim] Thank you.
(upbeat music)
[May] What do you have there? [Jim] A coconut.
[May] You got thirsty after the quesadilla? [Jim] Yeah.
[Jim] The cheese-less quesadilla... well, mine had some.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Jim] I'd like to return my coconut.
(laughing)
[Vendor] I have coconut water! Want some chili powder, white boy?
[Jim] No. Just plain, please.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Vendor] Here you go. [Jim and May] Thanks.
[May] So when you're here
if you're not with a big group of people
make sure you find a group of people
to join them on the trajinera
because if you say that you're on your own,
or with your significant other,
or just with a friend,
they're going to tell you that
you have to hire a private service
which is going to be $500 pesos.
But it's going to be divided only between you
and the other person with you.
If you find a group of people
then you can divide the $500 pesos
by everyone on the trajinera.
And it's $500 pesos per hour.
You can choose if you want to ride the trajinera
for one, or two, or three hours.
[May] Oh yeah, you can have them decorate it for like your birthday or... yeah.
[Brazilian guy] Oh, awesome.
[May] Thanks a lot.
[May] And when do we pay? [Rower] Uhm.. What price did he give you per hour?
[May] He said it'd be two hours for six hundred.
[Remador] Alright. At the end. [May] Oh, at the end with him. Okay. Great.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Jim] With nine embarcaderos
and around 2000 trajineras
including the ones used for selling food,
snacks, music, and drinks
Xochimilco is a great place to come
and enjoy a smooth ride along the river
and reminisce of old Mexico.
(exotic upbeat music)
[Jim] So getting out of here is a little bit like
"carros chocones", right?
[May] Yeah, I feel like we're at the fair. (laughs)
[Jim] It's like bumper cars.
[May] There was a lot of traffic leaving the embarcadero
but it looks like it's better now.
[Jim] Mm-hmm.
But it's really cool,
they have all these little boats floating around
that will sell you elote, esquite...
[May] Micheladas.
[Jim] Yeah, they have floating bars basically.
[May] Yeah, uh-huh.
[Jim] You can get pretty much whatever you want.
Even a mariachi.
- [May] Exactly! (laughs)
(singing in Spanish)
(cheering and clapping)
(whistling)
[Jim] There are many reasons why Xochimilco
is such an important part of Mexico's history
but the most notorious one
is without a doubt the "Chinampería"
which is an ancient Mesoamerican agriculture technique
developed and used by many of the early inhabitants
of the Valle de Mexico.
[May] A chinampa is a man-made island
built on the lowlands of rivers
where people can grow trees, flowers
and a wide variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables.
The "chinampería" has always been a major source of food
to the people of Mexico City.
In the early 1900s,
Xochimilco was connected to the center of Mexico City
through canals of the lakes and lagoons of the area.
These canals were used to transport people and foods
onboard of trajineras
which are these kinds of flat boats used in the area.
[Jim] The Canal de La Viga
was one of the main canals that connected Xochimilco
to the historic center of Mexico City.
This once crystal clear canal
was not only used for commercial purposes,
it was also a tourist attraction
and a recreational place for the wealthy in the early 1900s.
[May] Poor management of the natural resources of the area
led to the extinction of most of these canals in the 1940s
when the majority of these canals were dried out
and turned into roads.
In 1987, the chinampas of Xochimilco
were named a cultural heritage of humanity
because of their important history.
[Brazilian girl] Wow! Is that blue corn? [Jim] Aha.
[May] It's a "huitlacoche" quesadilla. Do you know what "huitlacoche" is?
[Brazilian girl] No. [May] ¿No? It's the fungus that grows on corn.
[May] It's a blue fungus... it's like a plague. But here we cook it and we eat it and...
[Jim] A delicious plague. [May] Yeah. It's good.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
[Jim] That was really cool.
What'd you think, May?
[May] Yeah, it was really cool.
At first there was a lot of traffic
but after the first 20 minutes
it was all very smooth.
[Jim] Yeah, there's a lot of places you can stop along the way
to literally stop and smell the flowers
or buy some.
They had Venus flytraps along the way
and snakes
and other animals you could get your picture taken with.
[May] Mm-hmm.
[Jim] We skipped that part
because we're not into zoos and captive animals
but it was a really cool tour overall.
[May] It would've been nice to hear about the axolotl
which is the animal,
the emblematic animal of this area
and it's endangered.
I've never seen one in real life
and she said they have some.
I don't know how many
but that you can take pictures with
and pet them.
But yeah
we don't like doing that.
[Jim] Yeah.
They are really cool-looking animals.
I think they're related to salamanders
but they just have a really exotic look to them,
don't they?
[May] Yeah.
Along the way we also saw the replica
of the "Isla de las Muñecas"
which is two and a half hours away from here.
We didn't make it all the way there,
but they made another one,
a smaller one,
not too far from here
that you could just take pictures.
I don't know the story behind that "Isla de las Muñecas"
but some people say it's "encantada", "embrujada".
[Jim] Bewitched, hunted, one of those things.
[May] Yeah, yeah. (laughing)
What else?
They have a lot of "viveros", "invernaderos"
because Xochimilco means the place of the flowers.
So they grow a lot of things here
and it's believed that the waters
are very rich in minerals.
So plants love that
and they grow very, very, very pretty.
I was talking to a lady there
and she was saying they also grow
beans, corn, a lot of edible things
that they take them to the market
and then they sell them there.
[Jim] So we ended up finding another couple
that looked like they were asking around for prices
and we asked them if they would be interested in
getting on a boat together
and splitting the cost.
That was definitely the way to go.
And this couple,
they were bargaining,
they were going around
and what's it called?
"Regateando"?
[May] Mm-hmm.
[Jim] And that's not something we normally do.
We like to investigate
and see what the price of something usually is
which here it's usually $500 pesos an hour.
But this couple talked one of the guys
who was selling the places on the boats
for $300 an hour.
So we got a two hour boat tour for $600 pesos.
Between four people that's pretty cheap.
[May] $150 each person.
Yeah, mm-hmm.
And then we gave a little tip
to the guy who was actually taking us on the trajinera
and then you do have to pay to enter the "ajolote"...
[Jim] The little zoo they had. [May] Thing.
Yeah, you have to pay
I think she said it was $50 pesos
and then you get to see some other reptiles.
They have, I think a crocodile she said?
[Jim] Yeah, I heard that, too.
[May] So it was $50 pesos just the entrance
and the explanation,
and another $50 pesos if you wanted to take pictures.
There was also a lady who came with a bucket of drinks.
Beer, juice, soda...
and she left it with us. [Jim] On the table.
[May] Yeah, and she was like, "You can drink whatever you want"
and then, when you come back,
I'll charge you for the drinks you have."
That's a good option I think.
[Jim] Yeah.
[May] Yeah, if you don't want to carry a bunch of things
you can just come here
and they'll sell you anything.
We had another person selling jewelry,
a bunch of things.
[Jim] So if you're ever in Mexico City
this is an awesome place to spend the day
especially when you're with a bigger group
but if you want to come here with us sometime,
you can join us on our Spanish immersion retreat
here in Mexico City.
We'll leave a link in the description of this video
so you can join us for next time.
[May] Well, thank you guys for watching.
We hope you enjoyed this video.
Don't forget to like and subscribe
for more travel and Spanish tips
and remember
"El camino es el destino"
The journey is the destination.
See you soon!
¡Adios!