Feeling a bit of the excitement promised by the name – “¡A volar!” (Let’s fly!) – of the new bird exhibit at Guadalajara’s Museo de Paleontología (Museum of Paleontology),
I passed through the entrance gates of Parque Agua Azul and headed to the museum, located at the eastern edge of the city’s largest, most verdant park (except arguably for the Colomos and Metropolitano, situated in swankier, peripheral areas).
The quiet, towering trees, inviting grass, aviary, and butterfly and orchid houses made me realize it had been much too long since I’d visited the park, which is either free or very inexpensive to enter, and boasts, at the corner of Calzada Indepéndencia and Gonzalez Gallo, the largest, most dramatic fountain I’ve ever seen. (When I passed, three men who appeared to be Central American refugees – the park is near railway tracks connected with the distant south – were washing in its upper reaches, but I consider this a public service to the less fortunate.)
Since both the park and paleontology museum are located within a few blocks of the Antigua Central Camionera (Old Central Bus Station, where buses from Chapala unload), I soon began planning a bucolic getaway for Ajijic-based bird lovers.
Don’t get me wrong: Parque Agua Azul is no pristine wetland. But it is surprisingly rich and orderly. Birders willing to take a brisk, ten-minute hike from the bus station south along the car and bus choked Avenida R. Michel (the park is on your right most of the way) will find much of interest in the small museum’s current exhibit highlighting the work of local birders, photographers, taxidermists and museologists and, afterwards, inside the park’s approximately 50 square blocks.
Proceed down R. Michel until you reach the wide, tree-lined boulevard Gonzalez Gallo, all of whose lanes go in the same direction. Cross and continue a short distance and, before you reach the end of the park, you will see a service drive, gateway and driveway to the museum. (If you follow the route I suggest, you will visit the park and huge fountain after you exit the museum.)
The museum’s bird exhibit is small but colorful (what would you expect in Mexico?) and most likely will be replete with kids and parents all summer. (It is open until October 29.) There is plenty of emphasis on local birds, and displays cover birdsong, bird toes, wings, lungs, beaks, feathers, food, flight styles, nests, eggs, chicks and more. Outside this exhibit, the museum has other displays, including its big, signature Gomphotherium (mammoth fossil) discovered on the shores of Lake Chapala in April 2000.
The Museo de Paleontología – sometimes referred to as a “hidden jewel” – is dedicated to the late Don Federico Solórzano Barretos, one of Mexico’s most famous paleontologists and a local luminary. The museum houses around 9,500 of the fossils that Solórzano managed to collect in his long, distinguished career.
After exiting the museum, the park proper is behind and to the right, which is not entirely obvious. You might try asking for the distinctive and centrally located butterfly house, the casa de mariposas.
In the park, stop at the mesh enclosed aviary and walk its winding pathways. Don’t forget the 15 or so large birdcages outside the aviary, which house big and sometimes raucous, sometimes colorful and sometimes shy birds. They are not identified, so bring your tropical bird book.
While you’re there, you may want to visit the butterfly and orchid houses. Park personnel told me I could exit the park at any hour through turnstiles, but supposedly it closes at 5:30 p.m.
When you leave through the main gate on Calzada Indepéndencia (notice the Macrobus lanes in its center), turn right and go to the first corner (González Gallo), where the splendid fountain is on your right.
You can stroll along this pretty boulevard and under the footbridge that traverses it overhead. You may be amazed to encounter so much peace and oxygen in an urban area that qualifies as only slightly less unscrewed than Purgatory.
Museo de Paleontología, Avenida Dr. R. Michel 520, corner of González Gallo in Parque Agua Azul. Open Tuesday to Friday, 9:30 a.m to 5 p.m. (Guided tours in Spanish: 12:30, 1:30, 4 p.m.); Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Guided tours in Spanish: 11 a.m., 12:30, 1:30 p.m.); Sunday: 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Guided tours in Spanish: 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m). Closed Monday. Workshops at 1 p.m. on weekends. Call (33)3619-7043. See www.paleontologia.guadalajara.gob.mx.