Xaman-Ha Aviario

I will talk about the aviary, and I do recommend it, but the story about getting there is also valuable, because it teaches us some lessons about navigation in Playa del Carmen. I don't know how much this applies to the rest of Quintana Roo or Mexico, because any time we got out of town we had someone driving us.

One thing to know is that there are often not street signs. The streets to have names, because we had a map with street names on it, but when you don't know what the street is, it is hard to make it correlate to the map. We knew which street we started out on, because the hotel was on it, and there was one street leading off to the left, and then the aviary was up there. We assumed that was the one street that led into the gated community, except that it was a gated community. We kept going.

The other thing to know is that a lot of the names repeat. We came to the next street. There was a gate here too, but there was a lot more traffic, and it was not just housing. Just to be sure, we asked the men at the gate for directions, and they said to go up and curve around to the left.

The other thing that is important to know is that names repeat a lot. So, the aviary was Xaman-Ha, but also the school, neighborhood, street, and I think the section of beach, and maybe some other stuff. This is why, after we went up the street and curved around to the left and saw a stone marker that said Xaman-Ha, leading down a path, we went that way. It seemed reasonable. However, then it led us through some trees and to the beach, where we were now back on the other side of the gate where we asked directions.

Our next move was partly due to embarrassment, because walking by those people we asked for directions would clearly show failure on our part, but also, we were not sure we would not just get lost again, so we hailed a taxi and he took us right there.

It turns out that the street going through that gated community would have curved around by the school and tennis courts and connected with the main road, which, after curving around to the left, would have gotten us to the aviary. I don't know how GPS would fare down there, but that was our experience.

Once at the Aviary, it was fine. As I mentioned earlier, they get visitors from all over Europe and Asia. The admission did seem a little high, and I think either they only took cash, or they did not take US Currency (most do), so there was some issue with the payment, but it was relatively minor.

Really, it is not a big thing. There is just a little hut for admissions, another with bathrooms, and the paths are fairly rough, where it might not be particularly wheelchair accessible. The reason to go is for the birds. They have a lot, and you can get close. There were parrots, flamingos, spoonbills, vultures, egrets, pelicans, and many others. Also, though this is not a bird, there were some peccaries there, which are quite common for the area. The most important thing for me is that there was a toucan.

I don't know what it is about toucans for me, but I love them. I would like to feed one grapes. I don't know if they eat grapes, I know we were not supposed to feed them, but still, I got to see one up close. Initially he was far away, but I could still see him and take some pictures. Suddenly he flew and perched on a branch right in front of me, and just stayed there posing while I took pictures and told him how beautiful he was.

Ultimately, walking along rustic paths and looking at animals is totally my thing, and when you can get closer looks, it is even better. In this case, the bird was cooperative without being caged. He came to me. So it was awesome and I loved it, and it was worth it, even though we did get lost.