A common theory as to why no Mesoamerican culture invented the wheel is because they didn’t have any pack animal to pull it, cows and donkeys and horses all came from Europe. (FUNFACT: Horse actually evolved in North America first and crossed into Asia before dying out in North America long before humans arrived here).
A obvious side effect of not having the wheel is that your cities tend to use canals rather than streets, originally Mexico City was almost entirely canals
When the Spanish conquered they filled in all the canals with the exception of one small village far to the south, Xochimilco. Today Xochi is the far southeast corner of Mexico City and the only place where the canals survived.
The best part of a trip to Xochi is you get to ride the tram system, it starts where the furthest subway line ends and continues all the way to Xochi.
I arrived hungry and found multiple shops making machetes, gigantic quesadillas, which I have not tried yet, ordered one.
Buuuuuuut linguistic miscommunication happens and I ended up with three… of the gigantic…. quesadillas. I got them to go and ate one in a park nearby and gave the rest away.
I wandered down to the embarcadero and walked along the canals for a while.
I was gonna spend more time in the area but after an hour or so of wandering the past week of 20+kms a day in 30c heat finally caught up with me, all at once. I could not move, my back instantly locked up and I had to sit for 45 minutes, after which I made my way home, slowly, one foot at a time, for two hours. I got home around 5pm, fell into bed and slept 20 hours. I have a tendency to overdo things, not sure if you heard.
A Bit Gone 