Yesterday, I spent 9 hours doing a tour of some of Mexico’s parks and also a museum and a zoo.
My journey began in this article here and the article before this one can be found here.
After finishing my time at the Bosque de San Juan de Aragón, I decided to visit the zoo right next to it.
As I was walking towards the exit of the Bosque towards the zoo, I did see more street food stand folks.
Those offering great deals like 5 hotdogs for 35 pesos (roughly 1.75 USD).
That’s a steal!
To cheap hamburgers for only 35 pesos.
And obvious Mexican food choices like gorditas, tacos, etc.
Initially, I thought of stopping by for a quick bite since it had been roughly 7 hours since I last had food but I decided to carry on towards the zoo since Google Maps told me it closes at 2 PM.
It was roughly 1 PM by the time I was heading towards the zoo.
Though, as I was later told by an employee at the park, they apparently close at 4 PM actually.
Anyway, I didn’t know that when I was passing by the food options and kept on marching towards the zoo.
Here are some initial photos of the outside of the zoo for those curious.
It’s funny to see the sign about the “closing of zoos” on the outside as you see above.
Reminds me of my time in Buenos Aires of Argentina where you had a mini protest outside the zoo I went to over there.
Always seems like zoos are a controversy these days for those who care about them.
Personally?
I got no issue with zoos.
Granted, I haven’t looked into the issue too deeply but I always assumed they offered good benefit.
The animals in question don’t have to withstand the brutality of the wild while getting fed and housed for free.
Wait – doesn’t that sound like a prison?
Still, they do get free food, OK?!
Plus, it’s educational for us and it’s not like that many animals are taken away for zoos anyhow in the grand scheme of things.
So I walked up to the entrance.
Not sure if today is my lucky day but the entrance was free for me.
Can’t say if it is normally free but it was a nice surprise to not have to pay to enter.
So I carried onwards.
At the Zoo
Similar to other parks in the area, they had certain sections blocked off for whatever reason like this “jardin” or garden here.
Not sure if they normally do that or if it’s somehow because of Covid concerns like when you see park benches blocked.
Anyway, I carried on.
There were a few spots where I couldn’t see any animals even though they were advertised like here.
It's like that game where you have to find the hidden thing in a photo.
Can you spot it?
Shit, maybe I'm blind...
Not sure if the animals are just good at hiding or if they had them taken away briefly but there were a few spots like that.
So, at the beginning, the zoo did seem slightly not so exciting given the relative lack of animals I was seeing.
But that changed soon enough!
Here are some pictures of a few animals that I saw along the way.
As a side note, this time at the zoo did help my Spanish a little bit!
After all, I never took the time to actually learn the scientific or formal names of animals around the world in Spanish like these examples here.
Along the way, I also found this funny thing here.
Somehow a couple was able to write their names on this even though it was off limits?
Even seems like it was a Mexican-gringa couple given the names.
“Yadira y Brown.”
Well, what can I say?
Anytime I see an example of a gringo conquering the hearts of Latina women, I give a salute!
We gringos are taking over!
Good job, Mr. Brown!
Assumingly you are American perhaps?
We Americans shall win over all of the Mexican women out there!
Hehe jaja hehe jaja…
Anyway, in all seriousness, it was funny to see that somebody managed to somehow get across the barrier without being noticed and write that.
From there, I saw some “snake” place but decided to skip it and maybe come back to it later.
Here are some more photos of what I saw going forward.
Then, getting a tiny bit hungry, I went for a snack.
The Restaurant of the Zoo
Here’s a picture of the main restaurant in this zoo area.
Figuring I would get a real meal later in the day, I decided to just get a quick snack.
Initially, I was thinking about some nachos for only 50 pesos or 2.5 bucks but I saw they put spicy shit on it.
Though maybe I could ask them to not include the spicy sauce, I also wasn’t confident that the cook somehow wouldn’t fuck it up.
So I got French fries instead.
Especially because the portion sizes of the French fries looked a bit bigger than the nachos.
With “extra cheese” as I asked.
Here’s a picture of it for only 50 pesos or 2.5 USD.
Was it good?
Sure. How can you fuck up French fries?
Anyway, there needs to be a few things mentioned here.
First, while some of the food items looked reasonably priced given it was the only food spot in this zoo (thus, they can charge more), some of the other items did look ridiculously priced.
Like 75 pesos for 3 very small tacos or almost 4 bucks?
Shit, I could get 10 small ass tacos for that price.
Not sure anyone is buying their tacos.
But then look at the photo of the French fries above!
See how little ketchup they offered in this photo here?
If I didn’t buy the cheese, I would basically be left with little of anything with 90% of my fries.
That’s a side point I want to make here that maybe I’ve made before about Mexico but it needs to be said again.
Despite all the things I like about Mexico and Mexicans, it needs to be said that Mexicans are some of THE CHEAPEST MOTHERFUCKERS when it comes to offering ketchup.
Not just this place!
Any fucking where in Mexico is like this from what I’ve seen.
Go into any restaurant and they give you such small portions of ketchup that you would think you were in the height of the economic crisis of the Soviet Union where basic shit had to be rationed also at such pitiful amounts.
Do Mexicans really think that’s an appropriate amount of ketchup for that many fries?
What – they like bland fries or some shit?
I don’t get it.
Would it make their business go under if they offered a little more?
Anyway, I’m glad I got the cheese.
If you go to this restaurant, you need the cheese since they give so little ketchup.
And, if you go to other spots in Mexico like Burger King, make sure to insist on the extra ketchup.
You’ll need to.
Rant over.
Let’s go back to the zoo!
The Zoo Adventure Continues
Outside of the elephant we saw before, we will finally see some really cool animals going forward.
Including lions, tigers, snakes and more.
Here are some more photos for you all to enjoy.
By this point in the zoo, I’ll say that I wasn’t the only one slightly loss at where to go.
At the beginning, the zoo does a good job in pointing you in the right direction.
But it does become slightly confusing going forward as others had some confusion.
Thankfully, some employee pointed us in the right direction towards where we’ll eventually see the Star of the Show.
The tiger.
Walking along that way, I found myself at some door that I couldn’t open.
It was locked on the other side.
Some guard had to open it for us to let us in and said that “only he can open it.”
Fair enough.
Not exactly sure why that specific door had to be locked since any animals on my side.
Maybe it makes sense for the other side of the gate where you have some animals that assumingly need to be kept on that side.
Anyway, we got to see some cool aquatic animals as you can see here.
By that point, I found myself with a group of people wanting to go through the other side of the gate.
We were all at the door and some person in the group opened it with the guard checking his phone in the process.
Probably messaging Alejandra the HB 3.25 who is “too busy” for a date today.
Once the door was opened though, the dude almost flipped his shit.
Walking sternly over to the group with me on the side and saying sternly “please, PLEASE be PATIENT! Only I can OPEN the door, OK?!?!?”
Part of me feels like the dude was power tripping.
Like this is his only opportunity to feel like is in in control of something.
Plus, we probably did interrupt him from texting his best pick up line: “I am once again asking for bobs and vagene.”
Anyway, we carried on!
The Star of the Show: The Tiger
Not very impressive, is it?
The tiger was just resting!
Not doing tricks for us.
Or a dance.
No singing a song for us!
Lame!
One lazy ass motherfucker.
I travel 40 minutes to see him and he can’t even stand up?
I did contemplate tapping the glass to get his attention.
But then I thought that an entire security team would bust through the gate to kick my ass.
Anyway, it actually was cool to see a tiger in all seriousness.
Here’s a few photos of him.
From there, I carried on.
More Photos of the Zoo
Not much else to say at this point.
Here’s more photos of the zoo before I found myself at the exit.
Which, similar to before, it was a tiny bit confusing as to where I should go at a few points along the walk but I found it easily enough.
The End of the Trip: Snakes, Alligators & Turtles
After all of that, I soon found myself at the exit of the zoo.
Sitting down, I contemplated for a second if I should go back and see that snake section.
The walk wouldn’t be very far since it was close enough to the entrance of the zoo.
But I also knew I wanted to see one more park that day that I knew would close at around 5 PM and it was 2:40 PM roughly.
Thinking about it, I assumed that the snake section couldn’t be THAT big and so I could surely check it out quickly and leave myself with enough time for one more park.
So I walked over.
Once I arrived, there was a 40 peso (2 USD) fee to enter.
Though I can’t remember perfectly, I think it’s about 20 pesos for children under 12 or 13 roughly speaking for those with kids.
I paid the 40 pesos and walked inside.
Outside of the tiger, this was arguably the other coolest bit of the zoo.
If you visit this zoo, you definitely need to check it out because it is more exciting than anything else in the zoo outside of the tiger, monkeys or elephant.
And it’s only 2 bucks, you know?
Here’s pictures of what you’ll see inside of the snakes.
With that last snake, I made firm eye contact with it.
Thinking “yeah, why you looking at me? What’s up? You want some pets?”
At some point, the snake tried averting eye contact but, being a badass alpha, I made sure to keep eye contact with it.
“Yeah, whose the scary one now?”
Then I moved onto the alligators (or crocodiles?) of the zoo as you can see here.
This was fun for me.
Reminds me of home where we have a restaurant that has an actual alligator inside that you can look at.
Similarly, I made sure to look at the motherfucker.
Make eye contact with it.
And, internally, I was mocking it inside my head.
I’m sure it read my thoughts.
With me thinking “yeah, you little sissy ass bitch. Can’t eat me now can you? You just a faggot stuck inside a cage and I’m here FREE! Eat me now, huh?! No? You can’t! Deez nuts, bitch. Deez nuts!”
“OK, don’t eat my nutz, but, uhhh yeah, I’m free and you ain’t. haha jaja haha jaja haha jaja …”
Anyway, you could clearly see the alligator thinking about chomping me up in this photo here.
“Fucking humans…The day I get out, it’ll be the re enactment of the Last Supper. Just you wait…Just you wait…”
I moved on!
Just in case he manages to break through the glass…
Then I found myself looking at some turtles here.
And that’s it!
The Walk Outside
It’s something I said before in the last article where I checked out the Bosque de Aragon.
But, upon my visit to this area around the Bosque and the Zoo, it does all seem like a decent enough area for someone to live in who prefers to be outside the touristy areas.
I’ve never checked out this area before but it did leave a positive impression on me.
If I give Mexico City enough time, I might find myself spending a few months here actually.
We’ll see!
Definitely on my radar though.
Is it safe?
Along the walk to the metro after leaving the zoo, it did seem safe to me on my brief walk.
And I asked a few locals who all said it’s a safe and “tranquilo” area.
Here’s some photos of the walk before I got to the metro.
Anyway, let’s wrap this article up.
Final Verdict: Worth it?
It was free!
Granted, I don’t know if it’s free normally but it was free on the day I went outside of the 40 peso charge to see the snakes.
Were the snakes worth it?
Absolutely.
Shit, it’s only 2 dollars. OK, it’s worth the price.
Though I’m not normally a fan of going to the zoo and I have seen better zoos elsewhere, I did find this zoo to be worth a brief visit.
If you happen to be in the area, why not stop by?
The double bonus here is you got the Bosque de San Juan de Aragon right next to it!
So it’s like a two for one deal.
While not the best that Mexico City has to offer, it’s definitely worth a visit if you have the free time and want to kill two birds with one stone while being in the northern part of Mexico City.
And, while you are in the northern bit, you can check out the Basilica that is not close by but isn’t terribly far away either as I wrote a review on that here.
Either way, both the Bosque and the Zoo are definitely worth mentioning when it comes to tourism spots in Northern Mexico City.
Worth a visit?
Definitely.
Anyway, that’s all I got to say on the topic.
Leave any comments below in the comment section.
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And follow my journey to another park that day after I was done with the zoo in this article here where I go to Bicentenario Park.
Thanks for reading!
Best regards,
Matt