On the southern edge of Mexico city is a place as Mexican as it gets. Many of you may know that Mexicans have an obsession with death, as exhibited in their famous Day of the Dead celebration, where surviving family members go to cemeteries to carouse with their dead loved ones.

You may also know that Mexico city is built on the remains of an ancient lake that was once the center of the Aztec empire. What you may not know, however, is that there is still a part of Mexico city that is surrounded by water. I call it the Venice of Mexico, and Mexicans call it a word that only they can pronounce: Xochimilco (so·chee·meel·ko).

Every weekend, Mexican families descend on this village to spend the day on a trajinera. These are large colorful boats with a table running down the middle and chairs on either side. People bring food and drink and spend the afternoon relaxing as a gondolier conveys them along the canals using nothing more than a long pole and brute strength.

In general, I hate to visit places when they’re crowded, but in the case of Xochimilco, I purposely go on a Sunday, when it is the most crowded. This buzz of activity is an essential part of the experience. It’s fun to look at how different families have outfitted their trajineras. Some bring tablecloths and formal place settings, others bring loud speakers and many bring their own food.

None of that is necessary because in addition to the tourists boats, there are service boats. Some sell food, some sell goods, and others provide music. This past weekend, we learned that you can even rent a speaker for your journey that will connect via bluetooth to your phone’s playlist.

Food vendors come in all styles, but some are so elaborate as to be able to cook on a portable stove on their boat. Others can make unique Mexican drinks like pulque or micheladas. The Michelada is another Mexican peculiarity. It is a beer-based cocktail made with lime, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and tomato juice, and sometimes even shrimp, all served over ice in a glass with a salted rim. This is no simple feat to prepare on a boat as you’re passing by. If you’d like a service from one of the floating vendors, you or your gondolier can wave them over, and they will attach their boat to yours while preparing whatever it is you’ve ordered.

In addition to food and drink, there are boats filled with musicians, and you can hail them over to play a song or two for your boat. This is one of the reasons I like to go on a crowded Sunday. It allows you to enjoy, for free, the live mariachi music that someone else’s boat has paid for.

Most of the trajineras leave from the embarcaderos (piers) near the center of town, but this past weekend, we had a different destination in mind: Isla de Las Muñecas (Island of the dolls). This peculiar island has been featured on many TV shows (like Ghost Adventures). People visit it because of the collection of grotesque dolls scattered about the island.

There are many variations on the origins of this bizarre tourist attraction, but the one I remember is that the man who started it had a daughter who drowned in the canal. A short time later, he spotted a doll floating in the canal and thought it was her spirit so he rescued it. Over the years, he began to collect more and more dolls, eventually filling several rooms and trees on the island.

As the years passed, the dolls baked in the sunlight. The plastic began to degrade and blister, and what was left was an island filled with hauntingly disfigured dolls. It really is one of the creepiest tour attractions I’ve ever visited.

According to the ticket vendor at the entrance to the island, it is open 24 hours, so if you want to add to the creep factor, you can visit after dark. Apparently some even pay for the opportunity to camp overnight on the island.

For us it was enough to spend an hour taking photos and talking with other tourists who shared our desire to see the spectacle, and we hopped back onto our trajinera for the two hour return trip.

We’d been fortunate to share the cost of our boat with a Mexican family I’d spied at the embarcadero. It wasn’t the first time I’d applied this trick. What you need to know is that you rent the boat by the hour so you can split the cost by however many you have in your group.

When I get to the pier, I begin to listen to other groups talking about their trip. If I hear someone who wants to do the same trip I do, I introduce myself and offer to split the costs. One time I even spotted a foreign couple on the bus to Xochimilco, and by the time we got there, I had arranged a tour for all of us.

The other benefit is that you get to know someone new, and travelers always have great stories to share. The family we rode with last weekend was actually from Los Angeles but they were first generation, so they spoke both spanish and english fluently. It was fun chatting with them, and even funnier when we realized, they were probably more culturally American than we were.

What appealed to me about the family is that they wanted to do the tour in the same way we did. Out and back to the island as quickly as possible. The trip is typically 5 hours, but it includes a lot of other stops. Since I’d done the trip several times before, I wasn’t that interested in the petting zoo and the plant nursery. I just wanted to see the dolls. When I heard the family negotiating a shorter, more direct trip to the Island of the dolls, I jumped in and offered to split the costs.

So we were able to get in our visit to the site and make the return back to Mexico city in time for our afternoon siesta. Fortunately we were able to sleep comfortably without any zombie doll nightmares.