Head south out of Old Town (also known as the romantic zone) on highway 200.   It will take you 20 or 25 minutes on the winding, twisting road, especially when you get caught behind the inevitable lumbering bus.   Keep your eyes peeled for a Zoologico Vallarta. Sign and take the improbable poorly maintained dirt road to the right.  There is also a sign for El Eden waterfall, which is beyond the zoo.      In less than a bumpy mile, you will see the Zoo.  

 

It is heralded by a an entrance brightly painted in jungle motif.  You are immediately faced with a tourists choice.   $10 for a normal ticket or $85 if you want to interact.  Which means play with some young large "cats" and a lemur.   It would be fun but we decided $85 was a little excessive.  If anyone reading this did the interact price, please leave a comment on how it went.

 

You are now on a one way path for about an hour or more walk through dozens of exhibits.  First we wil give you the liberal, zoo hating,  animal loving negative response.  Then we will give you the animal feeding , also animal loving, tourist, not to analytical positive response.

 

It is depressing to see a huge tiger stalking in front of a barred wall , obviously continuously upset.   Some of the enclosures are tiny and unimaginative, restraining animals that long to be free.  The emu looks depressed and half dead laying flat with head on the ground.   The wild dogs appear to  have mange.   Monkeys sit moping and depressed looking in small exhibits.

 

You buy a bag of food at the gate with instructions on who gets what. The zebras , goats, wild ponies, camel are great fun chomping the carrots from your hand.   The giraffe hanging over the railing over your head is a trip.  The long tongue taking food from you while you jump back to avoid the drool is hilarious and fun.  The variety of animals with multiple kinds of big cats is amazing.  The Tigers prowling the cage on one side of you in quest of the goats on the other side of you is amazing and a bit terrifying.  There are varieties of animals and birds you have never seen.  Massive Eland eat right out of your hand.  And the Toucans are cooler than cool and grab the peanuts as fast as you lay them down.

The Emus can reach right over the wall and grab you if they were so inclined.  They do have a bit of a wild look in their eye.  You can get close enough to get bit by several varieties of animal (mentioned above) and you can get your fingers in where a few more could grab you.  If you have young children that do nobt heed  their parents warnings they, in fact , could get seriously hurt.  

 

Ok, so the gaggle of geese  following you with your bag of food is a bit intimidating, but like Mexican drivers they are aggressive but not mean.    But not being treated like an idiot that doesn't know how to be just the slightest bit careful is refereshing. Having the risk of being slurped by a camel or drooled on by giraffe is hilarious and entertaining.   Feeding huge big horned sheep and making sure the shy one in back gets some is rewarding.  All the truly dangerous animals are behind double layers of heavy fencing. 

 

Just when you think you are almost through and you are out of animal food, there is a snack shop and the attendant informs you that you are 60% through.... And of course sells you some more animal food. 

 

I have not mentioned,  overall the zoo is remarkably clean and well maintained.  There are two or three varieties of pig in large areas toward the end and those make you move faster due to the unmistakable pig farm smell and ready for your tour to be over.

 

Our answer is .... Yes.   We will leave it up to you to decide if it is worth a visit or not. The Puerto Vallarta Zoo was a love / hate experience for us. If you do go, make sure to take insect repellent.  We didn't see mosquitoes, but we did get no see um type bites that itched for a few days. And hey, if you are that far south of Puerto Vallarta, go a little farther and visit the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens !   Leave a comment about your experience at the Puerto Vallarta Zoo..