Ech omrim “Trajineras de Xochimilco”?

First things first, if you have noticed the “Next family visit” clock just got to 0. The Israeli nation gained last night with the arrival of Rajel who just moved to Israel. We are so excited to have her here and are so proud of her. Congratulations Rajel!

Now with the post title, I need to give credit to Benji from www.whatwarzone.com blog for inspiring me with him post Ech Omrim "I'm Wearing Shorts in January"? Ech Omrim means “How do you say” in Hebrew.

Now with the Chinanpa de Xochimilco. Last month we visited Mexico and I felt so much like a tourist when I was there, an Israeli tourist that is.

As good tourists we went to Xochimilco which was declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO and is a series of canals on what was an ancient lake many centuries ago. The fun thing to do is rent a Trajinera (special boat) and it’s driver and go trough the canals, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling and listening to everything around you. Think gondola in Venice, but in Mexico.

Below are some photos from beautiful Xochimilco. But just before that a quick story:

As we were in the Trajinera enjoying Xochimilco we passed by one of the many commercial Trajineras and a man (picture below) with a Polaroid camera asked if we wanted to have a picture taken (and sold) as I was taking photos with my digital camera left and right, I kindly said in Spanish “No thank you, I have my own” and the wise man with the Polaroid replied “With that one (camera) you can only see, whit this one you can see and touch” :)

From Xochimilco 2009

So now enjoy the pictures however they do no justice as you can only see Xochimilco but cannot really “see and touch” Xochimilco.

Now for a taste of Xochimilco’s sounds enjoy the following video of the Mariachis, including the negotiating tips of our driver, the show and the actual negotiation with the Mariachis, extremely funny…