Los Perros de Xochimilco, The Dogs of Xochimilco: A Photo Journal (Mexico City, México)

The Dogs of Xochimilco, Perros de Xochimilco, along the trajinera canals (Mexico City, Mexico)

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Mexico is a time to stop working and spend time with family and friends. With a shortage of the former in México, we spent this day (Holy Thursday) with new friends! Seven of us in total hired a trajinera in Xochimilco — a popular activity for locals and visitors alike —  for a fun, relaxing afternoon… Passing the time floating up and down the canals with delicious grilled meat and veggies to eat… a plethora of alcohol to drink… and observing one particular species that kept stealing my attention… 

I’m a sucker for animals. Especially dogs. Be they puppies or mutts or strays, I like them all!  And the dogs of Xochimilco were no exception.

Note: Most of these dogs did NOT appear to be strays. I could write a whole post about stray dogs in Mexico, but we’ll save that for another time…

It’d be easy to ignore the dogs here, with their quiet demeanor, and the fact that there’s a quite effective water barrier between them and the trajineras. I, however, made it my mission to get a photo of every one. These full-grown dogs pull off the puppy-dog face quite well, seeking food from the kind strangers as they slowly float by.

Have a look, and then tell me: Would you be able to resist these faces?

dog on a boat on the Xochimilco canal in Mexico City

Most of the dogs of Xochimilco silently observe the humans on the trajineras, almost blending in with their surroundings on the shore. I almost missed this one entirely:

Xochimilco trajineras: dogs on the canal's edge in Mexico City, Mexico

Xochimilco trajineras: dogs on the canal's edge in Mexico City, Mexico

There’s two in this next photo. Can you spot both of them?

Xochimilco trajineras: dogs on the canal's edge in Mexico City, Mexico

This next dog reminds me of my Tiger: obviously a mutt, perhaps part German shepherd, and with a persistent smile on his face.

dog on a boat on the Xochimilco canal in Mexico City

Sleeping while standing up? This guy appears wary, perhaps after a long day of begging!

Xochimilco trajineras: dogs on the canal's edge in Mexico City, Mexico

Some of the Xochimilco pups followed us for quite a distance, watching from a boat’s edge until we floated out of reach, and then running along to catch up and hop on the next nearby boat they could find. These two in the next photo followed us for a particularly long time.

After twenty minutes of persistent begging, we gave in and threw them whatever leftovers we had on board.

dog on a boat on the Xochimilco canal in Mexico City

As I mentioned before, though the dogs beg for food, they don’t appear to be strays. Homes and farms line the trajinera canals, and most of these dogs seemed to belong to one of them. In fact, we saw one dog owner scooping up her pup to carry it home as a storm threatened to begin in the late afternoon.

dog on a boat on the Xochimilco canal in Mexico City

All of these photos were taken with my Sony RX-100 III and edited using the ‘Neutrino’ preset in our collection of free Lightroom presets on photoncollective.com.

Like this post? View more of our animal encounters on North to South!

This post was handcrafted just for you during our travels in Mexico.

2 Replies to “Los Perros de Xochimilco, The Dogs of Xochimilco: A Photo Journal (Mexico City, México)”

  1. I LOVE these pictures!!! The dogs on boats…. so scenic. I take a picture of every single stray dog I see too, haha :). It drives the bf nuts. I’m in Taipei now and the pet dogs are all sooo cute that I would love to take a picture of every one, but I’m too shy to ask the owners for permission!

    1. Haha, thanks Anna! I’m the WORST! I not only take pictures of every dog I can, but I’ll also insist that Ian take one with his camera if I don’t have mind with me.

      ::perks of having a photographer boyfriend:: 🙂

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