Mexico City fragments: Xochimilco

When I was a child, I fantasized about going to Mexico City. I read up on Tenochtitlán, and the canals of Xochimilco, the floating islands, caught my fancy. I wanted to visit the Museum of Anthropology too. Well I finally did get to Mexico City.

You still can see some of the canals and the standing patches of water, but most of the lakebed of Xochimilco is filled with cement. The temples have been torn down. I walked on paving stones that once were part of Tenochtitlan. The basilica of the church is made of ancient dressed stone. Tenochtitlán still lives in the hidden hearts of stone. 

The underground lake still lives beneath the city. You can see glimpses of it beneath the sewer grating on the streets. The ancient lake is hidden in those cavernous depths.

added, slightly rev. 9/17
Xochimilco, in Nahuatl, is: a place seeded with flowers. Xochitl- flower, -milli- seeded land, and -co place.

from my Baja from the air journals, not sure of the date. I lumped it all together on one large lump of writing dated 1/7/87, but I think it was around Christmas 1986....I must've been writing on paper fragments and scraps, then, transcribed them all later.