About an hour outside of Mexico City is where you’ll find Xochimilco (sow·chee·meel·kow), home to a series of floating islands. Though, they aren’t actually floating islands, they only appear that way. The islands are connected to the earth.
Mexico City is located in what was once a lake. The water was drained and the city was built on top. Xochimilco’s floating islands are actually small plots of land that are held together by pilons. My understanding is that long ago the land was very close, just a few centimeters above the river which was a method of keeping the land self irrigating since the plant roots would grow beneath the waterline. Today, the “islands” sit more like a half meter above the water so the folks who farm there have to irrigate.
Our tour started in a parking lot which wasn’t much to look at but once we got out onto the misty river the charm really kicked in. Our guide Marco took us in a canoe to an organic farm on a couple of the small islands and is quiet passionate about the history of land, its animals and preserving this bit of history. The land there is actively farmed for organically grown chard, cilantro, onions and a number of other vegetables.
He told us stories about the history of the ancient location, and how it still exists. Today, Xochimilco is a protected national preserve. The Mexican government actively manages the water level to keep the area alive. But many of the native animals struggle to survive because of poorly considered invasive spices that have been introduced to solve some problems only creating new ones. One of the worst seems to be Tilapia.
It seems that Tilapia are survivors and thrive in this environment. So much so that some native species such as the Axolotl, are near extinction. One of Marco’s current projects is an attempt to create protected habitats between the islands that use natural filters to protect the pH level of the water, and to physically separate some channels from the river proper to keep the Tilapia at bay so that the Axolotl can have a chance at breeding in their natural habitat. So far they haven’t been complete successful at breeding them in these environments but they are still working on it.
Floating down the river at sunrise was quite an enjoyable experience and I really appreciated Marco sharing his knowledge and his passion for this place.
It’s amazing to me that this ancient and somewhat natural place is so near to such a big city. If you’re planning to spend some time in Mexico City i would highly recommend the tour. It was recommended to us by a tour guide from a different tour and was organized by Tlatoani Tours Mexico. It’s called their “Eco Tour” and I set it all up via WhatsApp. They sent a driver to pick us up in a private car from our apartment in Polanco. Our driver took us out to meet Marco at the river for our tour and then he returned us home.
