Today Agustin Ruiz, who I'm working with during my time in Mexico City, and his wonderful family (mother, wife and 3 daughters) took me on a trip to visit Xochimilco and University City. Xochimilco is South of Mexico City and is where the last remnants of the lake that used to cover nearly all of what is now Mexico City is located. It is very shallow, as was the entire lake, and has been filled to create islands with canals running between. The canals are serviced by many colorful flat bottom boats which are propelled by a "driver" using a pole to push off the bottom, just as in Venice. We took and hour and a half boat ride through the canals, enjoying the scenery. There are many plant nurseries on the islands, and several restaurants. And there were many boats in the water that would cook a meal for you and serve it right on your boat, and also floating musicians and vendors. Very entertaining. After the boat ride we stopped at a beautiful mall, which is located in a converted old paper mill. The building is beautiful, and the mall is owned by Carlos Slim, richest man in the world and it seems the owner of about half of Mexico. After lunch we stopped by University City, where the National University is located. It was a great day, and many thanks to Agustin and his family for allowing me to be part of it.
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| The boats at our embarcation point. |
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| Heading into the canal. |
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| A nursery |
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| Starting to see some traffic. |
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| A restaurant on the banks of the canal. |
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| These marimba players did a song or two for us. |
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| There were several places being readied for big parties for the Virgin de Guadalupe celebration. |
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| Mexican Canal Dog. Very happy. |
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| Each of the boats is named.The names used to be done in flowers, but are now painted. |
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| We stopped at this nursery. I am told poinsettias are native to Mexico. |
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| Gringo tourist on the boat. That is Agustin's mom Sylvia to the rear. She is one of Mexico's most prominent microbiologists. |
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| Vendor selling trinkets from a boat. |
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| A shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe being prepared. |
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| Returning to port. |
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| The town of Xochimilco |
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| Mall where we lunched. |
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| Inside the mall. |
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| Mexican elves. |
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| Train in the mall. |
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| The University |
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| The library to the left |
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| The medical building |
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| 1520 was when the University was founded, the first on the Continent. |
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| Agustin and his family |
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| The Olympic Stadium, where the 1968 Olympics were held. |
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| The flag |
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| The entire University area is on a lava flow from several thousand years ago. Here is a lava outcropping. |
