el primer día (otra vez)

So I arrived back in the Mexico City airport yesterday afternoon, was processed through immigration and customs without any hang-ups, and arrived safely to the hotel, all by my own self! After my very independent, grown-up feeling morning I shaved my legs, ate a whole package of chocolate chip cookies, and fell asleep until dinner time. Classy? Totally.

It feels good to be back.

Today we woke up relatively early (especially by Mexican standards) and went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología. Since we had already been last semester, Joelle and I wandered around a part of the museum we hadn't seen before, then sat outside in the very pleasant 60° F. Once again we watched the voladores and bought overpriced bottled water, an unpleasant and omnipresent side-effect of being in touristy areas.


These amazing creations we found in the museum. They were carved from wood and then covered with intricate beadwork. So beautiful!






Later we went to Xochimilco, famous for its canal system which basically functions as a floating market. We rented a covered barge for the group (named "La Margarita"), one of many being steered around by men, young and old, with long wooden push poles. We then spent the next hour watching the other boaters, observing the many nurseries and florist shops along the banks, and getting hollered at by vendors selling flowers, foods, and any number of artesanias and knick-knacks from their tiny boats.


Religion is impossible to escape here, and even the most watery of roads has several of these seemingly obligatory shrines to the Virgen.



A party on a boat very similar to ours. The brightly colored fronts distinguish one from the other. Many of the boats have two names (note: everything here has way more names than is necessary), which our ferryman told us is the result of Capitalism; people want to rent boats with certain names, and having two names doubles the ferryman's chances of being hired. He also confessed that frequently the ferrymen keep several of these facades handy with different names so that if a client requests a boat named "Lupita" or "Elizabeth" or "Maria" or "Adelaida", the ferryman can oblige.