Embarcadero Caltongo — Attraction in Mexico City

Scam--foreigners beware. These people are pirates.

We had an Uber to embarcadero Nuevo Nativitas, which I've been to before. It's the recommended pier for avoiding scams--go there, if you're gonna go. As we were nearing the exit for the pier, a guy on a motorcycle (you can't make this stuff up) came up to our driver's window and told him that Nativitas was closed because of an event in the city, that only 3 piers were open, and that he would guide us to them. The driver didn't know any better, as the motorcyclist pretended to be a tour official of some sort. He took us straight to Caltongo, ushered us onto their boat, and of course Nativitas was open, as we later found out on the water. There was no event, and all the piers were operational. He got paid well, I'm sure.

The guy booking trips at Caltongo then told us 4,000 pesos per hour! We immediately said, no, and he brought it down to 3,000. That was repeated until it came down to 700 pesos for 2 hours (smh). We unwisely agreed to that.

Once on the boat, they offered us drinks and we agreed to four alcoholic cocktails (they asked if we wanted alcohol, btw), but as you might imagine, they contained no alcohol. We should have known better, honestly. My margarita was literally sprite with limes in it. When we ended our trip, they charged us 800 pesos for four non-alcoholic drinks. We refused to pay for them, and they brought in, first, a bouncer to scare us, and then a kind of tourist overseer to settle the dispute (he wasn't attached to Caltongo). That guy agreed that the drinks had no alcohol (we hadn't drank them), and that we didn't have to pay for them. Meanwhile the people at Caltongo were lying through their teeth about the rates we agreed to, and that we had ordered 4 non-alcoholic drinks.

The overseer dude also revealed that the official rate was 600 pesos per hour. As of 2023, that's what you should be paying, no matter the embarcadero--and that's for the boat, not per passenger.

The experience was terrible. Even on the water people were charging us crazy prices. We tried to buy 4 beers and 4 shots from someone, and I asked repeatedly for the price before agreeing (I speak Spanish, btw), yet the vendor literally pretended not to hear me. I eventually was yelling at her, but she opened two beers before I could get the price and refuse, and so she insisted that we pay 300 pesos for the two beers. That was double the price, as we came to find out.

Even with a good embarcadero, Xochimilco kind of sucks. It's a slow, short ride down a dirty canal (with colorful boats, sure). Post-Covid you can no longer join the big group boats, which was way more fun, and everyone there acts predatorial towards foreigners. It's also far from the center of the city. There are a million great things to do in CDMX, so I'd recommend doing one of those instead. Or maybe try the...

This internationally-famous web of constantly-cruised canals are heralded an essential part of any first-time México City trip. Spending a couple of hours drifting through the network of rivers will absolutely be what you make of it. If you want to relax, pay a little extra for a bucket of ice-cold beers and venture off with a Bluetooth speaker blasting norteño ballads. Looking to party? Get ten buckets of ice-cold beers and take a mariachi band with you! Either way, the bright colors of the hand-painted gondola-style boats make for vibrant photo opportunities. I’m looking at you, Instagram influencers.

Some warnings: docks should display their prices, and you should agree a price before departing. If a dock doesn’t display their prices, don’t let them charge you more than $500 — and that’s not per person, that’s per boat. And boats can hold up to 20 people. Negotiate down to $350 if you can, and tip the boatman the remaining $150. If you stop off at a chinampa to admire the flowers and wildlife, bring your boatman a drink. He’s spending two to three hours pushing you along several kilometers of water with a big stick — he’ll appreciate the kind gesture.

I’m docking (pun intended) one star for the occasional dishonesty of the people selling you the trips, who will regularly try to take advantage of tourists’ ignorance. I’m docking a second star because the constant flow of more careless tourists has sparked heightened pollution of the Xochimilco waters. Native wildlife, such as the charmingly unique axolotl, has suffered greatly at the ignorant and lazy hands of visitors who spend more time taking selfies than they do picking up after themselves. Don’t be one of those visitors. Take your trash with you...

FIND ANOTHER DOCK FOR THE TRAJINERAS IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO.....I am only giving these 2 stars because of the guy (Juan) who was guiding the Trajinera. Juan was very informative and knowledgeable able the area. Very polite and helpful. Other than that its a complete rip off. My suggestion is find any other dock for the Trajineras because these guys are a rip off. I was recommended Nativitas, but since we started diving into town, we were intercepted by this guy in a motorcycle that followed us/guided us to this dock that obviously is who he was working for. DO NOT PAY MORE THAN 500 PESOS PER HOUR. Its posted everywhere and even on a motorized boat that is riding around when u take the ride. So don't get fooled like we were. If they don't want to give u that price. Get up and go find other ones. They are not far from each other. Our price started at 2500 pesos down to 2000 then finally we settled at 1800 pesos which we still paid more. Our ride was about 2.5 hours at the most. I just think it sucks that people try to take advantage of us. If I would recommend to one of my friends that want to go there. I would tell them to ask their Uber driver to take alternate routes to get there and not the main blvd to get there. Because that's where all them people on motorcycles are. I...