Centro Historico, Xochimilco and Mariachis

Is this a makeshift pushchair or did they buy this kid?

After having a lie in after not getting to bed till the early hours, Katie, Aureli, Anas’ sister, nephew, a couple of friends of hers and I went out for a late breakfast in the old part of Mexico City. We were going to have a walk around town before going to a traditional form of Mexican wrestling, until we found out we had made a mistake and that the matches are only on Sundays. So instead we went to Xochimilco.

This friendly local saw me with my camera and happily posed for me as we drove past on the way to Xochimilco

Mexico City in Aztec times looked a lot like Venice, it was built on a lake with canals running through. When the Conquistadors conquered Mexico City they drained the lake and built the present city on top of the old Aztec capital. As a result of this modern day Mexico City is slowly sinking. Xochimilco is the only part of the city that still has canals and garishly coloured boats ply up and down with vendors selling flowers, toys, beverages, beer and food. You can also hire your own mariachi band and we saw several boats with partying Mexicanos and even a dancing, hip swaying, ass shaking Mariachi!

Not quite Venice, but the music was better!

Garishly painted boats on the canal

We could have bought a cooked meal from these guys

A very drunk man, when we passed him on the way back he was having another beer

A toy seller

We didn't buy anything from this flower seller but he insisted I take a photo of his flowers. He had a full assortment and they were all beautiful

Ana knew I had a thing about seeing real Mariachis and she paid a group to serenade me as we floated down the canal. There were five members in the band and a sixth person held both their boat and our boats together as they sang.

The Belles Des Artes at night

After Xochimilco we drove back into the centre of Mexico City and went to the cafe on the eighth floor of the Sears Tower and got a heartstopping view of Les Belles Des Artes by night. We then grabbed some dinner in a restuarant in an old stately home eight in the heart of the shopping district. After that we took a short drive to Garibaldi Plaza to see the Mariachi bands for hire. The lined the streets looking like musical rent boys, holding out their arms like prostitutes to slow down cars, hoping to be hired for a gig. We swerved and veered around them and instead freeloaded by walking around the plaza listening to Mariachis who had already been hired.