Xochimilco

Xochimilco is chinampas (floating orchards), trajineras (local boats), museums, flower and plant markets, churches, parks and forests. The channels of Xochimilco and the chinampas traditional cultivation system were declared World Cultural Heritage Sites. From 10 different piers over 200 colorful trajineras set out to glide through the channels, sometimes all the way to the chinampas or Island of Dolls. On the way, visitors can eat, celebrate with family or friends, sing with a mariachi or just enjoy the beautiful scenery. Few things in Mexico City are as traditional as this.

Buying flowers is part of the Xochimilco experience, as is visiting the town center, with its magnificent Franciscan parish church San Bernardino de Siena or the colorful traditional market.

Art lovers must visit  the Dolores Olmedo Museum, a patron of artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and a key figure in the cultural life of Mexico in the last 50 years.

At the Nativitas Forest you can enjoy the outdoors from a palapa and on horseback. To enjoy nature and learn about conservation go to the the San Luis Tlalxialtemalco forest, the Xochimilco Ecology Park and Michmani Chinampa Eco-tourism Center.

Why it is World Heritage. UNESCO inscribed Xochimilco in 1987, in the same listing as the Historic Centre of Mexico City. What is protected is not a pretty landscape but a living system: the canals, the chinampas —plots built out over the lake that are still farmed— and the fourteen original villages of the area, with their patron saint festivals, agricultural ceremonies and devotions such as the Niñopa, an image that moves to a different host family every year.

What is grown here. The chinampas supply much of the cempasúchil marigold that fills Day of the Dead altars and the poinsettias of December, along with orchids, vegetables and seasonal fruit. That produce is eaten on the spot: charales, tlapique, mixiote, amaranth sweets and nieve de garrafa ice cream under the arcades of the Xochimilco market.

The docks and the trajinera. Trajineras leave from several embarcaderos, each with its own character: Nativitas is the busiest and the most party-minded, with food and music on board; Cuemanco is the one for ecological tours, quieter, and the route that reaches the working chinampas; Fernando Celada is close to the town centre. One practical fact that saves arguments: the fare is per boat per hour, not per person, and mariachi or marimba are paid separately. Agree the price, the duration and the route before you board, and bring cash.

What else to see. The 16th-century parish and former convent of San Bernardino de Siena, with its main altarpiece; the Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco, the reserve that leads conservation work on the axolotl, the city's emblematic amphibian; the Cuemanco plant and flower market, the largest in the country; and the Island of the Dolls, with its dolls hanging from the trees, which lies far down the canals and needs a long trip.

When to go and how to get there. Weekends are when the atmosphere, the music and the crowds are; for quiet canals and a look at the chinampas being worked, come on a weekday morning. Take the Tren Ligero from Tasqueña to the Xochimilco terminus, then walk or take a short taxi to the dock; by car, via Periférico Sur or Prolongación División del Norte.