Mexico City, Day 4: the Island of Dead Dolls
Today started with a cute Sunday brunch at Matisse, a nearby restaurant themed around the French artist. The place has an old-school vibe, with a waiter running up to offer mimosas and another coming around with a tray of pastries shortly after we were seated. The food selection was traditional Mexican breakfast foods, and we tried some dishes we'd never seen before.
The main excursion for today was to lounge on a boat in Xochimilco, an area in the southern end of Mexico City known for narrow canals and man-made islands. Originally, Ciudad de Mexico was the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, which was founded on an island in the middle of a large lake / swamp known as Lake Texcoco. Xochimilco was a neighboring lake to the south of Texcoco, which was also quite marshy. In the pre-Spanish times, they dredged the lake to make canals and pile up soil into islands to grow crops, and many of these man-made islands are still used for farming today.
The Spanish drained most of the lakes to make more productive land, so Xochimilco is the last remaining place with canals like this in the area. These days, you can hire a well-decorated boat, called a trajinera, along with a driver who pushes it through the canals with a super long pole. The boats seat up to 20 people, but you typically hire them as a private ride for your group, so we had a very relaxing time with just the 4 of us. Yes, it was time to settle in for a relaxing 3-hour boat ride.
Oh, I didn’t mention the dead baby dolls? A long time ago, a man went crazy, left his wife and child, and moved to an island in Xochimilco (the islands are called chinampas). He supposedly saw a drowned girl, there was something about being haunted, and then he started putting dolls around the island to appease the ghost or spirits or whatnot. Decades later, his chinampa has become a major tourist attraction for Xochimilco. So much so, they created a replica version closer to the dock we departed from. Speaking of the dock, let me tell you more about renting a trajinera before I throw more dead baby dolls at you.
Embarcadero Cuemanco is one of the two bigger docks for hiring a trajinera, and we had no trouble booking one for the “4-hour” tour, which includes an axolotl aquarium and the replica doll island. Apparently the real doll island requires at least a 5 hour tour, and we didn’t feel up to that.
The boats are beautifully decorated and have unique names (well, we saw two “Feliz Cumpleaños” boats…), but are otherwise very consistent from one to the next. The drivers are just there to take you around, and aren’t really tour guides or anything (and generally only speak Spanish, just FYI).
You’re encouraged to bring your own snacks and entertainment. We thought we were doing well with bottled water and bags of chips, but we saw other boats with coolers of beer, speakers to blast music, a camping grill, and in one case a hookah!
Of course, other boats will pull up (and tie up to your boat while on the move) to sell you food and drinks, such as beer, quesadillas, tequila, chips, and much more. Jerry actually got a freshly steamed corn (with the mayonnaise and cheese, mexican style), and Nick had a gigantic tub of terrible beer. (It was served in, like, a big gulp cup, but poured from a giant unbranded jug.)
Additionally, there were mariachi bands who would tie up to your boat and perform songs for a price. We didn’t opt for it ourselves, but saw some others.
Our first stop was la isla de las muñecas, literally “the island of the dolls”. For some reason, people love to add “dead” into the translation, and I can’t fathom why…
After that delightful experience, our driver took us to the axolotl aquarium. Axolotls are a unique species that can regrow just about any part of their body if damaged or severed (even eyes and internal organs). However, I’m not gonna lie, the aquarium itself was small and disappointing. Though, for 30 pesos (about $1.50) per person, I guess we got what we paid for.
Finally, we headed back toward the dock. We had moved a lot faster than the 4-hour timeframe was designed for, but we asked the driver to just go straight to the dock even though we were an hour early. This also gave us the opportunity to head across the road to a giant plant & flower market in Cuemanco. It was bigger than all of the nurseries we typically go to, yet all the vendors were cramped into tiny individual spaces. There were even vendors selling potting soil (with a giant pile that they’d rake into bags) and river rock. We don’t have many photos, as the ones with nice plants and pots had signs up asking folks not to take photos. Also unusual (and not pictured), there were a few vendors selling beer, corn, and other snacks even though it’s a plant market.
We headed back to our airbnb in La Condesa, and popped out briefly for ice cream at Bendita.
After that delicious snack, we grabbed pastries at Ficelle for an early morning breakfast tomorrow. There was a pop-up thing called “K-town” that involved cutouts of kpop stars that people were taking selfies with, as well as some merchandise and food. However, we wandered in there just as it was ending, unfortunately (and honestly felt kinda out of place in a space full of hardcore kpop fans from Mexico).
Finally, before heading in, we stumbled on an adorable clothing store called Espacio 303 around the corner from our place.
The store focuses on locally made goods by Mexican designers. One designer in particular used all upcycled materials such as discarded bike tires and fabric from used airbags. Anyway, Jerry and Tiffany were really there for the cool clothing designs on offer. And the guy running the shop was awesome (and spoke fluent English, which has been less common than we expected in CDMX).
For dinner, we walked to the nearby Mercado Roma, a food hall with a bunch of different vendors. Everything closes a bit early on Sundays, but thankfully plenty was still open at 7-something when we showed up. Nick and Mike had tasty burritos, Jerry had a burger, and Tiff had “okay” (but not great) pasta. And Nick risked a michelada (it’s like a bloody mary, but with beer instead of vodka) for the 3rd time, and actually enjoyed it for once; this version was strong on lime and a sweet chili sauce, with a salt rim, which really complimented the dark beer.
Tomorrow has an early start so we can make it out to the Teotihuacán pyramids, and that’s our last full day in the city. We’re excited to share how that goes; look out for another post soon!
