hello.hello.hola.

Xochimilco is one of those places in Mexico City that everyone tells us we need to visit - it is best known for its canals  - leftovers from the extensive lake and canal system that were part of pre-hispanic Mexico City.

We finally made it down last month with a group of friends; it's a bit a tourist trap (ok, fine it's pretty much exclusively a tourist trap), but it traps Mexican tourists too, which makes it seem like more of an agreeable trap to me.

My favorite part of the trip?  The fact that there was a mini gondola version of pretty much every mexican street stand imaginable.  The stand that sells corn on the cob on a stick smeared with mayonnaise and chili power?  there in gondola form.  The stand that sells every imaginable mexican candy and loose cigarettes?  there in gondola form.  The taco stand?  there in gondola form.  the wandering flower salesman trying to get boyfriends to buy their lover a rose?  there in gondola form!

My least favorite part?  having to haggle our way back down to a lower price with our boatman after we realized that we had been tricked into paying three times the government -established rate for the gondola.   (live and learn, baby.  live and learn)