What is Xochimilco, exactly?

A flower field in Nahuatl

Wikipedia says the name Xochimilco comes from Nahuatl and means flower field. The word still suits the place, because some of its farming islands still grow vegetables, herbs and flowers. It is a borough in the south of Mexico City, reached by a light rail line from the Metro, and Wikipedia calls the canals, chinampas and trajineras its main tourist attraction. Tourism is described there as the most visible economic activity after agriculture.

What a chinampa is

Chinampas are often called floating gardens, but Wikipedia says they did not float. They are artificial islands, small rectangular plots of fertile land on the shallow lake bed. Reeds were woven around stakes below the waterline to make underwater fences, and soil and aquatic plants were heaped inside until the top layer showed above the surface. Trees such as the willow ahuejote were planted at the corners to hold the plot in place. The canals are the gaps between the plots.

How old they are

Wikipedia says the earliest securely dated chinampa fields come from the Middle Postclassic period, between 1150 and 1350. It says the Aztecs did not invent the technology but were the first to develop it for large-scale cultivation, and that the plots supported crops such as maize, beans, squash and chilli peppers, with some producing several harvests a year. The Xochimilco article adds that pre-Hispanic peoples of the region invented chinampas to increase agricultural production.

A World Heritage setting

Wikipedia records that the canals and their ecosystem were declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and the inscription is named Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco. The Chinampa article adds that the United Nations designated the system a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2018.

Where the trajineras fit

A trajinera is a flat-bottomed wooden boat. Wikipedia says traditional ones are moved through the shallow water by a boatman, that they carry colourful decoration and names, often women's names on the canopy, and that they began as transport across the lake. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries they have been used mainly for tourist rentals, with mariachi music and food on board. Wikipedia's Xochimilco article also pictures mariachis playing for tourists on the canals.

What the canals face today

Wikipedia says plagues and poor planning have gravely affected the conservation area in Xochimilco, and its axolotl article says pollution from partly treated wastewater and farm pesticide runoff has degraded the lake. The Chinampa article says many plots have become overgrown, some filled in or used for cattle feed, while others still grow vegetables, herbs and flowers. The axolotl, the best-known animal of these waters, is critically endangered. None of this stops a boat ride, but it explains why local tourism, farming and conservation are tied together.

Read next: Island of the Dolls, axolotls

Who this isn't for

This guide is background, not a route plan. It does not tell you which landing to use or what a boat costs, and it does not describe a particular ride. For the party boat itself, read the first guide. For comparing boats, read the comparison guide.