Mexico's Best Zoos article

[ANyhuis]

I hope this isn't too self-promoting, but I've just posted an illustrated article I wrote about my March (2009) trip to see Mexico's Best Zoos. My intentions were to thoroughly review the Chapultepec Zoo and Guadalajara Zoo -- and I then squeezed in a look at the San Juan de Aragon Zoo.

I hope you enjoy this article. Let me know what you think:
Mexican Zoos Tour - America's Best Zoos

By the way, thanks to some of you ZooChatters for your advice before I went on this journey.

 

[snowleopard]

As always you have provided us with some in-depth reviews and extensive walk-throughs of some little-known zoos. I found you to be much more critical than in your book, and also lavish in your praise of the better exhibits. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Mexican adventures, and it seems as if there are some large enclosures for rare species alongside bare, traditional cages in the trio of Mexican zoos that you visited. A mix of everything!

 

[ANyhuis]

As always you have provided us with some in-depth reviews and extensive walk-throughs of some little-known zoos. I found you to be much more critical than in your book, and also lavish in your praise of the better exhibits. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Mexican adventures, and it seems as if there are some large enclosures for rare species alongside bare, traditional cages in the trio of Mexican zoos that you visited. A mix of everything!

Thanks, SnowLeopard. The reason I was "more critical" (at least with the third zoo, SJdA) is because it's Old Zoo section was simply worse than anything in the 60 Best Zoos in our book. This zoo is just plain not up to that quality. If we do a "North America's Best Zoos", the SJdA Zoo will probably get a paragraph as a "Best of the Rest" zoo. As for the other 2 better zoos (Chapultepec and Guadalajara), I didn't see any exhibits that I consider "bad" or harmful to the animals, but I did see some which could be better -- and I said so, as we did (a few times) in our book. I do, however, still try to focus on what is good in these zoos, rather than on the few "ordinary" or "unattractive" things.

 

[Jose]

yes anyhius i enjoyed your article also , admittedly the san juan de aragon zoo has some terrible enclosures for the patas monkeys and baboons i was short of livid when i visited recently , and i can only hope it is corrected in the future , Mexico must deepen its respect for human and animal rights this must be the course for the future here , Mexico is a developing country , and thus it must be seen as undergoing a development in all aspects , anyhius amigo im glad you are a north american who does not indulge in outright criticism and also im glad you show the good aspects of Mexican zoos also , there has been alot of criticism of all aspects of my country from the north so it is good to find a north american who does not look down upon my country

somos amigos

 

[ANyhuis]

anyhius amigo im glad you are a north american who does not indulge in outright criticism and also im glad you show the good aspects of Mexican zoos also , there has been alot of criticism of all aspects of my country from the north so it is good to find a north american who does not look down upon my country somos amigos

Gracias, Jose! Your advice was very helpful when I was down there. I certainly do NOT look down on your beautiful country, and I saw a LOT to enjoy in the 3 Mexican zoos I visited. I find it interesting that you call me a "North American", as technically, we are BOTH North Americans!

Today I am embarking on another big foreign zoo trip -- off to see the best zoos in Russia, Spain, and Portugal. So I'll be testing my Espanol one more time.

 

[Shirokuma]

'norteamericano' is often used in Spanish to mean (United States of) American, as opposed to from the Americas in general, translated this is North American.