We decided to take them to a place called Xochimilco, which is a district south of the city, which is famous for its canals. Of there were loads of traffic on the way, but when we arrived Jose and I couldn't quite remember our way to the part where you take the boat canals from. There were men all around the car trying to get us to come to their boats... basically a very typical Mexican situation, it is chaotic and a little bit intimidating of you are not used to it. At some point we were following a man around on a bike that claimed to be from the tourism department... who knows. We got to one canal area that seemed suspiciously small and .. well we were the only ones there. We clambered onto the boat which seemed to be in a state of decay. After the gave us a price of 1400 pesos for an hour and a half we said on ya bike mate and then we all clambered back out. I could see that my parents we a little dubious of the situation and at this point I just wanted to drive away, or better said, make Jose drive away. Eventually we got to a nice launching area, we agreed on a good price and away we went on the rickety boat down the canal. It turned out to be fantastic time. Lots of boats full of families, attached to their boats that had mariaichi bands. There was food and music everywhere, the weather was great and we took some very colourful pictures.
After the boat ride we went home, but on the way home we were driving along Reform when a bus pulled out without signalling or looking so we had to brake and then a few seconds later.... bump. My first thought was "I can't believe this, the one time we drive with my parents we have a crash." Nobody was hurt because it wasn't very bad but i got out and it was one of the construction trucks that has about 20 men hanging off the back. He was trying to change lanes and so wasn't looking ahead and so he went into the back of us. Somehow there wasn't a scratch, which was lucky because we were in a hire car. First bumper crash in Mexico City! We then went and had a sleep, Jose and i watched a Mexican version of Ricky Lake, episode: "you adopted me and then you treated me badly" very entertaining.
We then went to the zocaolo to have a look at the church and what not but the crowds were rather big and i think my mum was ever so slightly terrified of crossing the road Mexico City style "find a space and then run for your life".
We finished our day at our favourite Chinese restaurant "P.F Changs". The food is excellent and the waitress spoke English for my parents which resulted in a 15% tip. We shared all of our food which included Dan Dan noodles, duck, chicken and shrimp... we decided to take it easy on the meat.
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