Xochimilco, Patrimonio de la Humanidad

So for their last day, and the actual Day of the Dead, E & E wanted to go ride the boats in Xochimilco.  We arranged for some friends to join, and ended up with a boat of 15 people!  It was really busy, which was fun.  You got to wave to other boats, have music, really get the whole experience.

The elaborate Day of the Dead ofrenda at the embarcadero in Xochimilco.

A sea of canal boats!

Traffic was pretty serious on the canal.

E, E & I enjoying the afternoon...'cuz we're on a boat.  Hell yes.

This mariachi boat regaled us with some great music and funny dancing.  Well worth $100 pesos per song!

Here is our driver.  The canal boats don't have motors, they are propelled by a guy with a huge stick pushing along the bottom.  Vaminos!

Here we saw this awesome marimba boat.  It was too far over to come attach to us and play, but it certainly looked cool.

Hmmm...something seems not right about these boats...

Whiskey!

As with everything else in Mexico, Xochimilco is also considered the patrimony of humanity.

We had so much fun with E &E!  Thanks for coming!!  Remember everyone else, only 8 months left to get your visit in!

Day of the Dead Festivites

So last night our good friends E & E flew in from Seattle for a vacation here in Mexico City during Day of the Dead.  We got up bright and early this morning and made our way to San Angel and Coyoacan in the south to do a little shopping and enjoy the ambiance leading up to Mexico's big day on Wednesday.

Here we are in disguise as catrinas!  (Catrina is the word for the ubiquitous Day of the Dead skeleton.)  Bet you didn't even know it was us! 

Catrinas chillin' in the park in San Angel.

Here is an ofrenda on the street.  People build these in honor of loved ones who have passed away.  They are usually decorated with marigolds to attract the souls of the dead (thanks Wikipedia!), sugar skulls and the deceased's favorite foods and drinks.

Photogenic catrina.

In Coyoacan we found a whole tent full of Day of the Dead stuff.  Here is another ofrenda.

And here we have catrinas playing marbles.

We saw this giant catrina in the park, but you had to pay to get your picture taken with it, so we just admired from afar.

Coyoacan means wolf.  Neat.

And we ended the afternoon enjoying some Mezcal.  To me it tasted like someone put a BBQ in a cup, but others enjoyed it.