Mexico City: chinampas at nine, Roma and Condesa from three until late

Mexico City

1. 8:15 am1

   Metro to Tasqueña, Tren Ligero to Embarcadero CuemancoMexico City

   Line 2 south to Tasqueña, then the light rail to Xochimilco — the whole run from Roma is about an hour and costs under twelve pesos, which is less than the tip on the boat. Cuemanco is the working pier next to the ecological park; Nativitas is the party pier with the beer boats and the mariachi. Pick deliberately.

   12 min by train or taxi · 7.3 km
2. 9:30 am2

   Two hours on a trajinera through the chinampasMexico City

   The official tariff is posted on a board at the pier — around 750 pesos per hour for the entire boat, which seats a dozen or more. It is not per person, and anyone quoting you a per-head price is working you. Agree the number of hours before you push off, pay the boatman at the end, cash. Go early: before noon the canals are herons, farmers poling seedlings between plots, and the smell of wet earth; by two it is amplified banda. If you would rather eat than float, Arca Tierra runs breakfasts on a working chinampa from this same pier, booked a week out.

   17 min by train or taxi · 10 km
3. 12 pm3

   Quesadillas de huitlacoche at the pier stallsMexico City

   Blue corn, comal, huitlacoche and flor de calabaza, thirty pesos each. This is a holding action — lunch is three hours away and Contramar does not reward arriving hungry-and-early.

   9 min by train or taxi · 5.4 km
4. 1:15 pm4

   The long ride back north to Roma NorteMexico City

   An hour and a quarter, and worth budgeting the full time — Tasqueña at lunchtime is not a place to make a tight connection. Change into something you would eat lunch in; Contramar is not formal but it is not damp-from-a-boat either.

   7 min walk · 500 m
5. 3 pm5

   The long lunch at ContramarMexico City

   Lunch only — it never opens for dinner — and the 15:00 sitting is the one the city itself books, weeks out, the day the calendar opens. Two orders decide the meal: tuna tostadas to start and the pescado a la talla, split half red adobo and half green parsley. Do not skip the tarta de fresa. If you cannot get a table, the same kitchen runs Entremar in Polanco with far better availability.

   12 min walk · 950 m
6. 5:15 pm6

   A guava roll at Panadería RosettaMexico City

   The Colima branch has seats and a manageable queue; the original on Havre in Juárez has a line down the street by nine in the morning. The rol de guayaba is the thing, and they do sell out — late afternoon is a gamble you take knowingly.

   10 min by train or taxi · 6.1 km
7. 6:15 pm7

   Walk Avenida Amsterdam around Parque MéxicoMexico City

   Amsterdam is an oval because it was laid over a horse-racing track, and the 1.6 km loop is the most pleasant walk in the city at dusk — art deco doorways, dog walkers, jacarandas if you are here in March. Cut through Parque México for the Foro Lindbergh bandshell.

   9 min by train or taxi · 5.3 km
8. 8:30 pm8

   Cocktails at Licorería LimantourMexico City

   Álvaro Obregón 106, and consistently on the world's-best lists without behaving like it. The Roma bar takes no reservations — leave your name and number, walk two blocks for a beer, they text. Ask for the Mr Pink, and if the room is full upstairs is quieter.