Xochimilco!

 Do you remember when we were at the International Learning Center in Virginia learning all about being missionaries? Our sweet friend Amy lived in our quad and the girls adored her:) Well, she has been serving in Peru all this time and she had to come to Mexico for some training. Yay! She spent the night with us last night and we all enjoyed her so much. The first picture is the girls with Ms. Amy in Virginia. Oh ....they both look like little babies in that picture:)

 So we took Ms. Amy to see one of the top 10 places in Mexico to experience and it is in our city where we live! We took a boat through the canals of Xochimilco.  I only took this picture because it had Elisabeth's name on it:) Not spelled the same but we thought it was cool. These are gondola type boats that are called Trajineras.  The arches often have female names on them such as “María” or “Juanita,” which may refer to someone special or is simply the name of the boat. They can be decorated with flowers but more often they are painted with floral and other designs. Under the trajineras used for tourists, there is a long table with chairs to allow for eating and drinking.  Along the three hour canal ride, they have Mariachi bands in other trajineras who will play for you, they have venders selling blankets, flowers, snacks and drinks in their own trajineras. They just pull up beside your boat and you can have whatever you want...for a price, of course:) They will even serve you lunch with a tablecloth and everything!

 Xochimilco is best known for its canals, which are left from what was an extensive lake and canal system which connected most of the settlements of the Valley of Mexico.  The canal route was not that long but there was beautiful scenery everywhere.

 Around the canals are little "islands". This is the "Island of Dolls". There were about 40 or so dolls hanging from these trees near the water. It was a little creepy.  There was a man named Julian Santana Barrera.   Santana Barrera was a loner, who was rarely seen in most of Xochimilco. He came to fame because he would collect the old broken bodies of dolls from the canals and the hang them from branches and tie them to tree trunks to  keep away evil spirits and appease the spirit of a dead girl he had found in the canal a few years before. He would state that he believed that the dolls were somehow still “alive” but “forgotten” by their owners.

Santana Barrera was there, living in a hut with no services and generally did not receive visitors, other than family. The display of dolls and parts attracted attention of the press. Eventually, he stated to them that the dolls were there to keep away evil spirits and to help with the harvests in his gardens. Santana Barrera died in 2001,there were many ideas on how he was killed, some say he drowned himself in the river because he was driven insane, others say the dolls came alive and killed him. But in fact he just died of old age and he may not be alive anymore but the dolls are still on the island, accessible by boat. Creepy but heartbreaking. 

 There were little Tienda's (store's) along the canal that sold desserts, cokes, ice cream, plants and there were a few restaurants but our guide told us they are only open on the weekend.

 There were many different houses around the canals that ranged from cardboard homes that squatters lived in to beautiful homes. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful historic city!

It was unusually cold today and so we hope to go back when we the sun is shining but we had so much fun and were very tearful when we took our Ms. Amy to the bus stop tonight. Thank you for coming early to your meeting so we could have some special time with you! We are praying for you Amy and hope that you enjoy the rest of your week in Mexico!!!!  Viva Mexico!