Guadalajara Zoo

Today I was a chaperon for Kristen's school trip to the Guadalajara Zoo. I have not been to a zoo in about 20 plus years and I was just as excited as Kristen was.

The children rode in a plush touring bus that would be wonderful for any trip and was so far from the noisy orange school buses that she is used to going on for any school trips. The parents and most of the teachers rode in the school bus, which is a long decked out van, so we rode in peace and quiet.

When we arrived at the zoo there was an amazing fountain out front that held all the faces of the animals on it, for the water to rush around it. It was beautiful and then when we entered the gates, we were met with another large fountain but this time it went down 3 large flights of stairs and had monkeys on all poses inside the fountain. When we looked down the flight of stairs there was another fountain but this one had real live flamingos in it.

We walked to the African safari exhibit and looked at many animals along the way. The African safari was seen via a safari style bus that drove us around. There we saw Hippos, zebras, Ostrich's, buffalo and my favourite was the giraffe's.

We were given chopped up carrots when we got in the bus and we found out what they were for when we got to the giraffe's. They came running for the vehicle and all the children squealed with delight as they ate right out of the children's hands, so gently.

Then we had lunch and went to an exhibit which I am sure was fascinating but I did not understand it because it was all in Spanish. But what I did understand was that it was a presentation about the world and the different climates and how the animals survive there.

Then we went on a train ride through the zoo where we caught quick glances of elephants, tigers, lions and many other exotic animals. I would have loved to have had the time to walk right up to the cages and see the animals.

The zoo was really well done with each animal living in its appropriate surroundings. The mountain goats were in a rocky area, the leopard was in a grassy, treed area that was surrounded by a mote and water to keep it in instead of cages. It was truly wonderful.

We only had 3.5 hours to spend there and that is never enough time to fully appreciate any type of exhibit but it sure was not enough time for me. I will have to go back and spend the day when Andre gets here.