MEXICO: Volaris From Merida Operating Flights To Chihuahua, Tijuana, Oaxaca and Hermosillo

Yucatan has expanded its air connectivity by launching four new flights to Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Hermosillo and Tijuana.

These routes started operation in the month of March, and Merida is beoming a cultural, gastronomic and entertainment, tourist destination, and also growing significantly as a Conventions’ Destination.

Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal, wants to increase the air connectivity and the frequency of the arrival of national and international airlines, as part of the plan to turn tourism into the engine for the generation of investment in the city.

This as well as an opportunity to expand commercial relations with other cities and states, and increase the influx of visitors.

It is worth mentioning that the Merida-Tijuana flight allows passengers to cross the border between Mexico and the United States without leaving the airport, you just get off the plane, walk the distance of a football field and enter the United States of America.

It should be noted that the CBX is the closed pedestrian bridge dedicated exclusively to those who use that air terminal and cross the largest binational region in the world, with an average market of more than seven million inhabitants.

The first flight of Volaris from Tijuana, the A320, landed on Sunday March 3 at 06:10, with 174 people on board.

Likewise, the connection with Oaxaca also translates into a relevant opportunity in the commercial relationship with that destination, which has as its priority sectors the textile and renewable energy industries, as well as a prominent development within the sphere of tourism and recreation, to name a few.

And then we have Chihuahua, the threshold to magnificent Copper Canyon Train, where you can go from a 4-hour tour, to a 6-day trip .

It is a spectacular journey, and well worth doing, but you MUST book in advance. A journey through Copper Canyon is one of the most enthralling journeys you can take in Mexico.

Board the famous Chihuahua-Pacific Railway, a major rail line better known as El Chepe, and enjoy the views of the Sierra Madre as you pass over bridges and through tunnels.

Explore Cerocahui on your own and visit the old Jesuit Mission.

In the case of Hermosillo, a sustainable city with vast manufacturing, agricultural and industrial sectors, with significant growth in its tourism development.

With these four routes, Yucatan strengthens ties with northern Mexico manufacturing and commercial sectors, and increases the tourist influx and economic flow in the state.

Since November, the Merida – Leon, Guanajuato flight has been very successful, offering two weekly departures, Tuesdays and Fridays, with a maximum capacity of 180 passengers per flight.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: TAR Airlines To Open New Routes

Queretaro Airline, TAR Airlines will close a successful fourth year of operations by opening three new routes, said CEO Rodrigo Vazquez Colmenares.

The airline has grown by 68% over the last 12 months, and expects growth of at least 30% over the next 12.

With its business routes already consolidated, TAR is now looking at leisure destinations, specifically the cities of Veracruz, in the state of Veracruz; Merida, Yucatan; and Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.

Flights from Queretaro will begin on June 18.

TAR also plans to increase capacity on its routes to Monterrey and Guadalajara, bringing the total number of daily flights to five for the Nuevo Leon capital and three for the capital of Jalisco.

We’re also going to have two daily flights to Chihuahua, a daily flight to Ciudad Juarez and a daily flight to Torreon, improving connectivity for the aeronautics and automotive industries, Vazquez said.

TAR will take delivery next month of its 11th airplane, a 50-seat Embraer that will be used for charter flights and tourism packages.

With these packages created in partnership with the most important hotel chains in the country we’ll have a product that is within reach of the consumers of Queretaro, Vazquez insisted.

Opening a new route to Texas was postponed following the change of government in that country, but discussions are under way with authorities in San Antonio and flights could begin before the end of the year, he said.


Tourism Observer

USA: United Airlines Drops Some Mexico Flights Because Of Declining Demand

United Airlines will cut service to a few destinations in Mexico this year due to a decline in demand, but will beef up a few flights too.

The airline announced yesterday it will eliminate its Mexico City-Los Angeles service on October 4.

It will also cut flights this summer to the Pacific coast resort towns of Huatulco, Oaxaca, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and to Villahermosa, Tabasco.

In addition, a Saturday flight between Mexico City and Denver will end June 23, and service between Mexico City and Houston will be cut by one frequency.

The airline will drop two daily flights between León, Guanajuato, and Los Angeles in October.

However, United will increase flights on two other routes and add one new one.

Starting October 4, it will fly three times daily between Newark, New Jersey, and Mexico City, up from twice a day, and open a route connecting Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport with Leon.

The airline will increase service to four times a day between Queretaro and Houston, and on December 19 will begin flying a larger, 76-seat aircraft between the Texas city and San Luis Potosi.

While our Mexico network remains strong, customer demand on certain routes has declined and service to some markets is unsustainable, United said.

We continue to closely monitor demand for travel in the region and look for new flying opportunities for our customers.

The airline said it has doubled its passenger capacity between the two nations over the last decade, and remains committed to Mexico.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: World Monuments Fund Raises US $1 Million To Rehabilitate Oaxaca Archaeological site

The New York-based World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced more than US $1 million in funding to repair earthquake-related damage at the Monte Albán archaeological site in Oaxaca.

Restoration work will start in July on 15 structures that were affected by the powerful September 7 earthquake, including five with severe damage that required emergency structural support to prevent collapse.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which has worked at the site since 1999, will also be involved in the project.

The WMF said that its partnership with INAH would address the long-term stability of Monte Alban, including physical conservation, documentation and geological assessment.

It also said that the program will also emphasize training and capacity building, giving local technicians the skills they need to effectively repair and prepare Monte Alban for future natural disasters.

American Express, the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Fund and Mexican businessman Roberto Hernandez Ramírez were among the donors who made the program possible.

WMF president and CEO Joshua David said that for more than 50 years the fund has been helping people restore the buildings and places that define their values following natural disasters.

Now we have the opportunity to safeguard one of Mexico’s most important archaeological sites while empowering its community, he added.

Founded in the sixth century BC, the ancient Zapotec metropolis overlooks the modern-day city of Oaxaca.

The site’s impressive architectural remains include pyramids, terraces and canals that extend over 6.5 square kilometers.

Since 1987, Monte Alban has been a UNESCO World Heritage site and in 2008 it was included on the World Monuments Watch to highlight the various threats affecting it.

They have included erosion of hieroglyphic inscriptions due to exposure to the elements, looting, vandalism, unchecked tourism and forest fires.

The WMF previously completed work at the site to prevent the further decay of the hieroglyphics.

Following the funding announcement, the Consul General of Mexico in New York said the cultural sites that were damaged during this tragedy don’t belong only to the Mexican people; they belong to humankind.

Out of great loss and devastation, we have a chance to restore hope and optimism to the people of Oaxaca and those for whom Monte Alban is a source of great pride.

We are grateful for the support to make it stronger and accessible for future generations, Diego Gomez Pickering added.

The restoration project is expected to take about two years but the site will remain open to the public through its entire duration.

At least 1,200 historical buildings and monuments were damaged in last September’s earthquakes, which caused widespread devastation in central and southern Mexico.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: Magnitude 8.2 Quake Strikes Mexico

Mourners have lined the streets in the Mexican city of Juchitan to pay their respects to those killed in an 8.1 magnitude quake. Over half of the quake's victims were killed in the city, while 5,000 homes were destroyed.

Multiple funeral processions converged on cemeteries in the southern Mexican city of Juchitan on Saturday as residents buried family and friends who died in the worst earthquake to strike Mexico in 85 years.

Out of the 65 known victims of Thursday night's 8.1 magnitude quake, 37 of them were killed as buildings collapsed in Juchitan.

The picturesque city was the hardest-hit in the nation, with 5,000 homes destroyed and many more left without running water or electricity.

Accompanied by the sound of snare drums, horns and saxophones playing serenades for the dead, pallbearers carefully maneuvered caskets around the rubble in Juchitan's graveyard.

A toddler was asleep when the quake's tremors brought down his bedroom walls on top of him, his mother and older brother. Maximo died shortly after he was pulled out of the rubble.

A woman was displeased at Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's response to the disaster. The president made a brief appearance in the city on Friday, declaring three days of national mourning and pledging to rebuild.

Pena Nieto was able to make it here in his helicopter super fast. That's how help should be arriving, right? Exactly how he got here. But it hasn't, Alvarez said, reflecting a belief that southern Mexico has been neglected by the richer north.

Rescuers continued to comb through the rubble with sniffer dogs and heavy machinery to search for survivors.

Several residents dragged mattresses onto sidewalks to sleep outdoors, with some concerned that their badly damaged homes could collapse at any moment.

Mexico's Interior Department reported that 428 homes were destroyed and 1,700 were damaged in the state of Chiapas alone, which was closest to the epicenter.

The earthquake was felt around 800 kilometers (500 miles) away in Mexico City and as far south as Honduras.

Just one day after the quake struck, Hurricane Katia made landfall north of Tecoluta in Veracruz state as a Category One storm.

Meteorologists cautioned that Katia could still bring 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 centimeters) of additional rain to the region, which has a history of deadly mudslides and flooding.

The most powerful earthquakes to hit Mexico was followed by Hurricane Katia, which roared onshore in the Gulf. The president has declared three days of national mourning.

Rescue workers were struggling to cope with two natural disasters after the earthquake off the southern coast was followed by Hurricane Katia hitting the coast north of Tecolutla in Veracruz state overnight into Saturday.

The US National Hurricane Center reported Katia's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 75 mph (120 kph) when it made landfall and then weakened as it moved over land, becoming a tropical depression before dawn.

The center said that Katia was stalling over Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains, where it could bring 10 to 15 inches (25 to 37 centimeters) of rain to a region with a history of deadly mudslides and flooding.

After the earthquake on the other coastline, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto said 45 people were killed in Oaxaca, 12 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco. The death toll is likely to rise from the 8.2 magnitude earthquake, which struck off Mexico's southern Pacific coast late on Thursday, officials said.

Pena Nieto on Friday visited Juchitan in Oaxaca, one of the worst hit cities, where at least 36 people were killed.

The priority in Juchitan is to restore water and food supplies and provide medical attention to those affected, Pena Nieto tweeted after visiting the devastated town. Authorities have handed out ration packs, blankets and other supplies to people left homeless in the town of 100,000 people.

The quake's epicenter was about 123 km (76 miles) south of the town of Pijijiapan in Chiapas, but the shock was felt over 900 kilometers north of the epicenter, in the capital, Mexico City, knocking out electricity and sending residents fleeing swaying buildings.

The Interior Department reported that 428 homes had been completely destroyed and a further 1,700 homes were damaged in Chiapas alone.

The quake was also felt in much of Guatemala, which borders Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state.

The temblor occurred in a very seismically active region near the point of collision between three tectonic plates: the Cocos, the Caribbean and the North American.

At least six other magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes have hit the area since 1900 - three of them within a nine-month period from 1902-1903.

Civil Defense officials wrote on Twitter that their personnel were patrolling the streets in Chiapas, aiding residents and looking for damage.
Chiapas Governor Manuel Velasco told broadcaster Televisa some homes had been damaged and a shopping center had collapsed in the town of San Cristobal.

"Homes, schools and hospitals have been affected," Velasco said.

In Tabasco state, next to Chiapas, Governor Arturo Nunez said two of the dead were small children who were residents of his state. One child was crushed by a falling wall while the other was an infant who perished when his ventilator stopped functioning after a power outage in a hospital.



Tourism Observer

MEXICO: Mexico Visitors Increase Inspite Of Travel Warnings

A recent report released by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) revealed that Mexico has surpassed Turkey as the eighth most popular tourist destination in the world.

Mexico welcomed 35 million visitors last year, with a nine percent increase in foreign tourists arriving in the country.

Due to political unrest and security concerns, Turkey welcomed 28.3 million visitors last year.

Mexico had dropped in the UNWTO rankings to 15th in 2013 but has since climbed back to ninth due to improved security and a steadily recovering tourism industry in certain regions.

The country finished eighth for last year, with only 600,000 fewer visitors than the seventh-place United Kingdom.

Tourism revenue was also up in Mexico, climbing to $19.6 billion.

Tourism officials in Mexico believe the country will enter the top five in the UNWTO rankings soon due to the 50 percent increase in visitor numbers since 2012. Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat also said the nation is working to provide more activities and attractions to entice travelers to stay longer when visiting.

Despite remaining concerns about crime in certain areas of the country, a recent survey of travel agents saw business to the country increase, including 45 percent who reported an increase in Mexican vacation sales by more than five percent.

In terms of specific markets that have performed the best over the last year, the Riviera Maya, Cancun, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit were all considered the most desirable destinations in Mexico.

The summer vacation season is almost upon us, and Visit Mexico is looking to entice American families to enjoy the warm nature of the country.

To help convince people that spending time in Mexico is a great vacation plan, the nation’s tourism bureau points out the country was named No. 1 in the world for Family Travel. Puerto Vallarta also ranked as the No. 2 destination in the world for LGBTQ travel at the prestigious Travvy Awards.

What's more International Living named Mexico as the No. 1 retirement destination in 2017.

In addition, Mexico was ranked as the friendliest and most welcoming country in the world during a recent survey of expatriates. National Geographic went on to name Baja California as one of its top places to visit in 2017.

Travel + Leisure also had glowing things to say about Mexico, naming San Miguel de Allende as the fourth friendliest city in the world and highlighting five Mexican destinations in its Top 10 Best Cities in Latin America rankings, including Oaxaca, Mexico City, Merida, San Miguel de Allende and Guadalajara.

A recent report released by the World Tourism Organization revealed that Mexico has surpassed Turkey as the eighth most popular tourist destination in the world, welcoming 35 million visitors last year.

While much of the news surrounding Mexico has been positive, the United States Department issued a travel warning ahead of the December holidays, urging American tourists to exercise caution and be vigilant in some parts of the country due to the “activities of criminal organizations.”

Hatching a new destination brand is never easy; taking a fallen icon into a new era is even harder.

The world is strewn with vacation spots where the lights don’t shine so brightly. Flights stop landing and decay overtakes debut. Destinations have lifespans, from Honolulu to Havana, Las Vegas to the Costa Brava. Some pivot to stay relevant but many don’t; it’s part of an inevitable fall from grace to the place “no one goes anymore.”

Creating a destination identity where there was none comes with risk.

Two of Mexico’s most successful beach brands illustrate the challenges. First came Quintana Roo’s Riviera Maya, followed some years later by the Pacific’s Riviera Nayarit. Today vacation mainstays, many may not remember the fact these regions stumbled out the gate. Playa del Carmen, Xel-Há and Tulum remained day trip backwaters 20 years after Cancun’s rise in the 70’s. In the shadow of Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta sat nearly abandoned through the 1980’s and 90’s.

Today it’s hard to imagine these “Rivieras” will ever be on the has-been list of places no one goes anymore, but a destination’s destiny and decline can be two sides of the same golden coin.

That’s exactly what happened to the place that literally invented the mass market vacation: Acapulco. Like its famous cliff divers, Acapulco’s drop from stardom was spectacular. The place that invented the swim-up bar went stale and American travelers started looking to Baja and the Mexican Caribbean.

Since its 1970’s decline, pronouncements of an Acapulco “rebirth” and “comeback” have been more hype than reality. International nonstop air service nearly vanished (there is but one daily arrival). Last week, Mexico’s tourism showcase (Tianguis Turístico) rolled back into an over-the-hill Acapulco. Trade press reported how suppliers, buyers and agents decided to pass on this year’s event. By doing this, they missed experiencing what will become Mexico’s third Riviera: the newly coined Riviera Diamante.

While some development has been here for decades, the branding is new. Adopting the name Riviera Diamante was a brilliant stroke. While Diamante is really a mini Riviera compared to its bigger sisters, the name leverages Mexico’s other Riviera success and gives travel agents and travelers a fresh-faced Pacific Mexico option.

Mexico’s newest Riviera starts south of Acapulco Bay at Puerto Marques and continues for miles along a palm grove shoreline toward the Acapulco airport. Puerto Marques retains its rustic simplicity of beach palapas, roaming vendors and grilled fish-on-a-stick. But it’s also home to four luxury resorts: Quinta Real, Banyan Tree, Camino Real and El Encanto. Beyond these luxury leaders, you can now zoom at 70 miles an hour over the Pacific on Xtasea, the world’s longest (1.8 kms) overwater zip line adventure.

The Riviera Diamante continues as a beachfront corridor of hotels, condos, private residence, shopping and golf. Mexican developers Grupo Mundo Imperial, Grupo Vidanta and Grupo Posadas are the Riviera Diamante’s key players.

Mundo Imperial owns the venerable Acapulco Princess (now the Princess by Mundo Imperial) and renamed its sister Pierre Marques as simply Pierre by Mundo Imperial. Add the flagship Resort Mundo Imperial and guests can now move via shuttle across three spectacular hotels, Mexico’s most modern conference facility (Expo Mundo Imperial) and concert venue (Forum Mundo Imperial). The master plans call for retirement communities, a hospital and assisted living care. Add the Princess/Pierre golf courses (36 holes) a world-class tennis tournament venue and the bustling La Isla shopping/dining complex and airport proximity.

The other big player is Grupo Vidanta. Its four hotels under the brands Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, Sea Garden, stretch along Costera de la Palmas and sit adjacent to its Jack Nicklaus Design golf course, an Aqua Park, Lazy River and over 16 restaurants and bars. Mexico’s hotel leader Grupo Posadas is building a Grand Fiesta Americana Diamante and luxury condo towers can’t go up fast enough.

Is there room in Mexico’s eclectic resort portfolio for yet another Riviera? Will travelers embrace a return to Mexico’s original beach vacation playground? The Riviera Diamante is a self-contained luxury complex that’s betting it can lure airlines to return, really the only missing piece for this newest Mexican Riviera.

During a conference on how digital technology is changing the face of tourism, Mexico Tourism Board CEO, Lourdes Berho unveiled the new platform for the visitmexico.com. The site received a complete overhaul that not only includes a new look but a back-end system that can identify user preferences according to how they share on social media, using Big Data to adjust the offerings to what users are looking for.

During the presentation, Jorge Ruiz, Director of Facebook Mexico, also pointed to the importance for destinations and tourism providers to be a part of the digital ecosystem.

Taking a green cue from the UN’s declaration of 2017 as the "International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development", the event organizers took a series of actions making this the very first Tianguis to be carbon neutral.

Among the initiatives was the selection of the Silver EarthCheck-certified Expo Mundo Imperial Acapulco Diamante as host for the event; offering the event program and other information online and via their app to save paper; exhorting exhibitors to choose technology over paper, adequately disposing of their trash and more.

The event also generated a new tagline for the Mexico Tourism Board’s promotional efforts, inspired by the words of UN World Tourism Organization General Secretary Taleb Rifai, a special guest of President Enrique Peña Nieto during the inaugural ceremonies.

An avid admirer of Mexico, whose comments regarding the concept of open borders during the World Trade Market in London have been heard by millions thanks to social media, Rifai referred to Mexico as “a world unto itself.” That description resonated with Lourdes Behro, who presented it as the official tagline during her closing speech. Mr. Rifai was also named Honorary Ambassador for Life of the Mundo Maya.

On the final night of the event, Acapulco authorities “passed the baton” to those representing Mazatlan, the chosen destination for the 2018 Tourism Tianguis.

Mazatlan is already preparing to become the focus of the tourism industry next year. In an interview with Edna Yadira Gutierrez, (Director of Tourism Promotion for the state of Sinaloa), Jose Alberto Ureña Trujillo (CEO of the Mazatlan International Center) and Silvestre Carvajal (Sales Director for Don Pelayo and Royal Villas) indicated large infrastructure investments are already underway.

This includes a sort of rebirth for the destination, sparked by new connectivity that includes additional flights from Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Minnesota, along with five new hotels (Holiday Inn, Marriott, and Sleep Inn, among others) added to the already strong offering of 6,000 four- and five-star accommodations ready to welcome attendees, exhibitors and buyers next year.

“During the year, we will also be working to ensure our service providers are prepared as well, offering workshops and training to everyone from housekeeping staff to the transportation, public, urban and tourism services and restaurants,” commented Ms. Gutierrez.

“It’s not just because Tianguis is coming,” mentioned Mr. Carvajal.

“We’ve been hard at work since our occupancy dropped a few years ago and we had to strategize. Part of the plan was the Convention Center, training sessions for providers and attracting recognizable brands to the destination. In the past, 90% of the hotels were domestic, operated by their owners. Today it’s still at 80%, and that’s a peculiarity of Mazatlan. It’s one of our greatest attractions, as it makes our guests more like family and gives us a high rate of return clients.

"It’s a very local, very accessible destination, where locals, as well as tourists, frequent the restaurants and attractions, giving our guests a unique experience where they’re not segregated into a ‘tourist zone.’”

This year’s event showed notable growth over 2016 (final numbers are still being tallied):

10,000 attendees – +6%

44,312 business meetings – +35%

1,608 Buyers – +29%

973 tourism companies – +37%

38 conferences

88 countries participating – 9 more than 2016

3 honored guest invitees: Houston, Pacific Alliance and Canada

#TianguisTuristico hashtag was Trending Topic in Mexico for 14 hours and 1.5 hours on a global level, all positive comments

Improved connectivity of five states in the Mundo Maya plus Oaxaca and Guerrero to enhance the new Maya World Tourism project

MEXICO: About Mexico

Copper Canyon train

Capital: Mexico City

Size: 1,958,201 km²

Population: 94.9m

Currency: Mexican Peso

Language: Spanish

Visas: Not required by British passport holders

Food: Two main ingredients predominate; the chilli pepper, so spicy is the name of the game, and corn or maize. This is used to make the well known antojitos (light snacks) such as tacos, quesadillas, sopes, tostadas and tortillas, mole cocoa beans and sesame seeds. Mole colorado (red), or just coloradito, is also very typical and quite spicy. Almendrado (also red) is milder and slightly sweet. Mole verde (green) is a bit tangy, while mole amarillo (yellow) rounds out Oaxaca’s culinary chromatic spectrum.

Drink: Tequila or you can go for Mezcal with a gusano de maguey (worm in the bottle).

Festivals: Between 31 October and 2 November, in many parts of Mexico, rural cemeteries seem to come alive as villagers set up an all-night vigil to entertain returning souls. These celebrations, known as Day of the Dead and All Saints, are a fascinating spectacle. The ground blazes with candles and orange cempasúchil flowers whilst the air is scented with copal incense.

From the vivid wall paintings at Bonampak to the mighty temples of Chichén Itzá, and from the bizarre Olmec heads in Veracruz to the heart of jungle-swathed Palenque, the sheer variety of archaeological sites in Mexico is astounding. Add to this the brilliance of the Caribbean Sea, huge canyons and dense jungles and you have an invigorating cocktail of culture and landscapes.

Mexico City is one of the largest in the world. Congested, polluted and gloriously manic, the capital was originally founded by the Aztecs, and the remains of Templo Mayor, the pyramid at the heart of their city of Tenochtitlán – ‘place of the prickly pear cactus’ – today lies beside a massive modern plaza, lit by the glow of neon lights.

Beyond the capital, the pace slows. Colonial cities, founded on the wealth of silver mines, rest assuredly on their architectural laurels. Within easy striking distance of Mexico City, the lakes and volcanic hills of Michoacán are another world: people quietly go about their business as they always have, fishing, farming and producing crafts for sale at the local markets. Two hours south of the capital, the town of Taxco has a sterling reputation for refined silverwork and, further afield, there are Indian markets in Oaxaca and around the beautiful town of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Chiapas highlands.

Adventurers flock to Mexico to climb the volcanic peaks, to descend into the deepest potholes or to spill down the white waters of the Antigua and Pescado rivers. The Caribbean offers superb diving off the Quintana Roo coastline while on the west coast surfers ride the giant rollers beside the beautiful beaches of the wild Pacific and Baja California. Inland, in northern Mexico, the Copper Canyon attracts hardy climbers and is the start of the famous Chihuahua to Pacific Railway, one of the world’s great train rides.

In the far north-west, the Sea of Cortés is one of the planet’s richest marine feeding grounds, where you might spot hammerheads, dolphins and California grey whales. In the far south is the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve – a savanna, mangrove and marine habitat hosting hundreds of species including big cats, crocodiles, monkeys and manatees.

And surely no one in their right mind could resist a well-mixed margarita cocktail, could they?