In Coyoacan neighborhood in Mexico City there is the Frida Kahlo Museum. Frida is the most important Mexican female painter in history… all around the world they love her. Yes, I know she made famous because of the Salma Hayek movie, but there is more than that. In Coyoacan there is a place known as the Blue House, the place where Frida lived all her life. This time, our private tour started here and our guide knew everything… really.

Frida Kahlo’s works are distributed in this museum and other called Dolores Olmedo Museum. Frida was the wife of Diego Rivera, other Mexican painter, famous for being part of the muralism movement. To visit Frida’s place is to see the place where she lived bedridden because of a fatal disease. Painting, Frida released her demons and communicated a lot of sadness. Each one of the house walls has different collections, temporal and permanent. You can stay watching a painting for hours and discover unsuspected details.

This is not a one visit museum. If you are a fan of Frida, you can come back and come back. It’s hard to describe, I think it’s better to live it, and better if your tourist guide explains you all clearly.

After the museum, we took our van and went far away to the south of Mexico City. In fact, here is not “so city”, is a rural ambient, surrounded by nature. We went to Xochimilco, the Mexican Venice, even they are different places. Venice is a channel in the middle of a city, Xochimilco is a big lake, but is not surrounded by houses. Xochimilco has a special magic.

That day we were five amigos and our tour guide was Ernestina, a Mexican that speaks English perfectly, altought we laught a lot when she sayed ‘heeey guys!” We went in a private tour, just the the five of us because we only want to live this kind of experiences with closer people.

Xochimilco is cute. Here are a list of keywords to understand this place:

 Trajinera: its a kind of boat where is a big table and chairs. Similar to the ones that are in Venice, but this can take until 20 persons and who drives is a man that with a big stick takes you to all the Xochimilco channels.

Mariachi: its a group of musicians that play “rancheras” songs. Rancheras are typical Mexican music. There are very famous ranchero singers and musicians, such as Vicente Fernandez, Alejandro Fernandez, Pepe Aguilar, Pablo Monteri, Aida Cuevas and the classic ones, from the black and white movies, such as Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete and Luis Aguilar.

In Xochimilco you can hire a mariachi to come in your trajinera and play Mexican music for you.

Chinampa: Its a little ground in the middle of a lake. In Xochimilco there are a lot of chinampas, that delimit the channels where the trajineras float.

Dolls Island: In one of the Xochimilco chinampas, a man called Julian Santana, collected old dolls and hang them in the trees. According to the story, the reason was to ward off the spirit of his daughter that died drowned years before.

Axolotl or ajolote: Its a little animal that is raised in Xochimilco. Unfortunately it is an endagered species because years ago, in Xochimilco channels, they introduced mojarras. This fishes multiplied themselves quickly and were finishing with ajolotes, an amphibian specie cabaple to regenerate its extremities if they are cut. Anyway, in some chinampas, there are persons raising in captivity to preserve them.

To ride in a Xochimilco trajinera means to be happy. It’s a place to sing “en la sierra morena, cielito lindo, viene bajando, un par de ojitos negros, cielito lindo, de contrabandooooo… ay, ay, ay, ay… canta y no llores…” This is one of the most popular Mexican songs. Mexicans sings in football stadiums. They sang it in the reconstruction of Mexico City after the 2017 earthquake.

In Xochimilco trajineras it’s about to sing, eat, admire the landscape and drink, with moderation, please.