The acuario de Mazatlán (aquarium) is a great place for a family to spend a few hours. It is a combination aquarium, zoo, and botanical garden, with several live shows during the day.
I will admit that I had some concerns prior to my visit about what the aquarium would be like and how the animals would be treated, but my prejudice was unfounded. I have been to aquariums and zoos in Canada where the conditions were nowhere near this good. While I found some of the enclosures small, the animals were all well taken care of, with plenty of fresh food, water, shade, and stimulation.
Entry to the aquarium is 100 pesos for adults or 70 pesos for children, a fantastic deal, especially if you take in at least one show.
Street entrance.
You buy your ticket from a disembodied voice. Seriously. The ticket booth has a mirrored surface and you cannot see the attendant. You then take your ticket inside and trade it for a bracelet. I was greeted in Spanish and blasted with information that I didn’t entirely grasp. I asked the attendant to please repeat herself and she instead switched the flawless English, telling me about the schedule for the shows, where to grab a tour, the location of the bathrooms, etc.
The ticket booth.
The entrance.
My snazzy Acuario bracelet.
All the other staff I interacted with during my visit had a good level of English. There is rudimentary English signage throughout the aquarium, but you really do need a basic level of Spanish to get the full experience and read all the informational placards. That said, I still think you can get a lot for your 100 pesos if you don’t speak Spanish.
You start in the building that houses the aquarium proper. It’s well done, but nothing spectacular, with tanks holding different varieties of fish and other critters, and a few small exhibits about boats, shellfish, fishing traps, coral, and a few other things.
Then, you go outside to visit the botanical garden, aviaries, zoo, another building with more fish, and a few other exhibits.
The tortoises were one of my favourite things I saw today.
Tortoise skeletons look rather sinister!
I’ve got one of these on my desk!
And one of the sand dollars, too (bottom left).
Sea lion skeleton.
I couldn’t find any signage explaining what animal this is.
There was a little booth showcasing all the things to see and do in the state of Sinaloa.
I’ll like to go see this.
It is called the Mirador del reloj and is in Choix.
The interior part of the aquarium is quite small, but beautifully done.
I arrived at 10:45 and there was a sea lion show at 11:00, so I went right there from a very quick inside tour (returning to the inside exhibits later). The sea lion show area was covered and had heaps of seating.
Interestingly enough, a sea lion in Spanish, like in French, is a sea wolf.
The show was really fun! The sea lions seemed to be enjoying themselves and it was obvious that the trainer has genuine affection for them. The only thing I disliked was that the commentary was done with a background of very loud music so I could barely hear anything, even when they said things in English.
At one point, the commentator asked the audience where they were visiting from and pointed to me. I said, “Canada,” and he switched to English to ask me where in Canada. I replied, “Saskatchewan,” and he wowed me by asking closer to Saskatoon or Regina!
Pictures really can’t do justice to this show, so I’ve included a video with highlights from it at the end of the post.
After the sea lion show, you can take a picture with a sea lion for 30 pesos with your own camera or 50 pesos with theirs and you get a framed print. Good deal! I would totally do this if I was visiting with a child.
Show set up.
This sign made me laugh. Spanish: The sea lion jumps could wet the people in the front row.
English: Siting (sic) in the fronts (sic) seat will get you wet!
I like that the Spanish one explains the English one. 🙂
Some sort of bird of prey was sitting above us.
Stork.
The stork few down to the show area and made itself comfy to watch it. I like that the trainer would periodically send it fish, too!
Here comes Bony!
Notice that he’s holding himself up by his flippers!
After the sea lion show, I wandered the grounds.
Interesting placard talking about how far back in history botanical gardens have existed.
It’s a fair sized facility.
I’m pretty sure I saw the first ostrich of my life. Wow, their heads really are disproportionately small compared to their bodies!
Ostrich! I think this is my first time seeing one!!! His lunch looked really yummy, lettuce with all sorts of veggies mixed in, plus seeds.
There was another, small, building with fish tanks. I think they might sometimes have sharks there, but there were none today.
Doesn’t he look like Casper, the friendly ghost?!
The crocodiles were amazing. They look like they are carved from rocks. I spent a lot of time just staring at them. The video at the end of the post shows one moving to a warmer spot.
Crocodile.
I literally watched this guy for 10 minutes to see if he was alive. He was. He breathes very shallowly so you have to really look to see his chest expand and contract. I also saw the tongue undulate a bit.
I did not expect to see a tiger today!
These silver foxes were very friendly. They ran up to me and made it very clearly they wanted to be petted. It was very hard to resist!
Koi pond.
You can pay extra to snorkel with the stingrays!
I love their translations. Do not introduce your hands.
There were a couple of aviaries where you could walk among the birds.
I think this might have been my first time seeing peacocks in North America, and very likely my first time seeing coloured ones (I saw albino ones at Scone Palace in Scotland). The plumage is stunning, but the birds are actually quite unattractive.
Peacocks are actually quite hideous, but their tails are impressive.
I could have taken in a bird show, with trained parrots, but it didn’t interest me at all, so I skipped it. They have a third type of show, but I didn’t catch of what and it wasn’t running today.
Toucan!
Barn owl.
Fresh food for the birds.
A goose who followed me around.
There was a small display with snakes and frogs that I enjoyed but for the fact that the glare made it difficult to see things. I’ve never seen so many boa constrictors in one place and there were babies, too!
I love that Spanish has a word for ‘frog habitat’ (ranario).
All told, I spent a solid 90 minutes at the aquarium. I could have easily added an hour to that by taking in the other two shows (if the third had been running).
Poseidon outside the aquarium.
