Wonderful Punts

Today we went canal boating, Mexican style - and it didn't disappoint.

We blindly followed our friend Raul, and he soon came up with the goods - a kaleidoscope of floating wooden boats, crammed together in the water.
We teamed up with three generations of a lovely Mexican family, and gently climbed aboard the non-too-seaworthy-looking vessels.

The boats were punts, lying low in the water and powered by a man pushing on the canal bottom with a pole. They had chairs down each side and a long table down the middle, and whilst the canal was not the most beautiful stretch of water in the world, the experience was unforgetable.

Hundreds of colourful barges vied for space in the water, and in between were smaller ones selling all kinds of wares. As one boat pulled up alongside ours selling unfeasibly large beers, another one joined offering flowers. A little after that we were tempted with toffee apples, and were later happy to find the beer boat again.
As we turned a corner, a full mariachi band appeared and sailed alongside, serenading us with traditional Mexican song.
Next came a floating food vendor, supplying the family on our boat with meat, rice and taco dishes - even floating back later to collect the plates.

And so as our aquatic shennanegans came to an end, we said adios to our shipmates and headed to a market to fill our bellies.
After much confusion I selected what I think was a potato sandwich - and I'm still not sure if I was delighted or horrified as said sandwich was fried in a pan of hot oil to warm it up.

We ended the day with a cup of iced lime, a stroll around the city and a feast of spit roast chicken, and I thanked my lucky stars for days like these.