Pai Pai Ecotourism Park — Attraction in Ensenada

This was single-handedly the best experience I've had my entire cruise. Yoze was a phenomenal guide (spoke fluent English, for those worried), and she checked in with us whenever we happened to cross paths (and also helped us plan our time so we could hit up all the activities in the allotted time); a lot of the caretakers only know a little bit of English but are good at still getting their point across, fyi. Buy the packages on their website for a significant discount; some of the activities aren't a part of the packages and cost extra though; I highly recommend splurging on the baby big-cat experience in the tigerland area (I don't have the space here to argue ethics)

Recommended Park Improvements:

Many of the animals could use more enrichment, like toys.

The smaller enclosures (like the monkeys) could do for more frequent cleaning or substrate changes.

It seems like the current animal caretakers are stretched kind of thin, so increased staffing/volunteers.

Larger enclosures for certain species is a must (particularly the monkeys), and frequent intervals for them to go outside if they're confined indoors (again, the monkeys).

New water boots for the lemur experience; there must have been a small slit in mine, because my socks got a little damp. Also, that underwater walkway definitely scared me and I kept expecting to slip and fall since it was hard to see (a small handrail just for the steps would be safer).

Feeding the hippos something bigger than pellets, especially since it's hard to toss a bowl of tiny pellets into its mouth.

Reptile Experience! I'd love to be able to hold/pet an iguana/tortoise/alligator. Even a Bug Experience with tarantulas and hissing cockroaches would be cool.

**Now, I want to address the concerns and criticisms that I've heard online, but I don't have the space to get into ethics or anything.

The animals you interact with AREN'T DRUGGED, they've been heavily socialized. In the case of the baby big cats, they are indeed still "wild animals", which is why their handlers are very vigilant and close by, to make sure that you remain safe; believe me when I say they like to rough-house (just like they would with a sibling, so no claws or hard bites), and even though they are good about not drawing blood when they chew on you, you WILL likely get bruises since you're a soft squishy human. In the event that an animal is given a sedative or relaxant (so that a vet can examine them, or because they have anxiety/behavioral problems), you will likely not be allowed anywhere near it.

The animals DO breed, but they are NOT being deliberately bred or encouraged. The park does seem to try and limit breeding where they can (separating males and females), but for some species it's not feasible (like with the tigers, they're used to having a companion and wouldn't do well suddenly not having one, and unless they were raised together, keeping 2 males together isn't a good idea). It would be better to have them on birth control, but that can get costly, especially for a non-profit.

Some animals are rescues, some are bought, and some are born on site. Apparently any animals born on site stay there for the rest of their lives; they are not sold. Their main goal is conservation education and taking in animals, not rehabilitation and reintroduction to the wild.

Yes, some of the animals need better/bigger/more enclosures and more enrichment/companions/handling/non-handling. They're doing what they can with what they got, and if you still can't accept that, then I recommend making a large donation with the stipulation that it goes to a particular animal or for a specific cause.

TLDR: Just go to the park. If handling captive-born "wild" animals is against your code of ethics, then don't pay for those experiences; if certain experiences aren't generating money, then there's no need for the park to continue offering them. Paying the admission price and buying a souvenir will still help the animals...

We have been wanting to check this out for years since we go to Rosarito every year for vacation. Finally got around to doing it. It was about a 2 Hour Dr. from Rosarito but was a Beautiful drive.

Pros: lots of little playgrounds around for our one year-old. Beautiful and clean scenery. We spent four hours here and the time went by very fast. Lots of animal encounters. Got to feed baby raccoons, hold a baby bunny, pet baby goats, pet guinea pigs, pet exotic cats, and hold a baby lion, cub and pet turtles. Some of the employees were very knowledgeable and were fun to interact with. Some of them spoke wonderful English, which made it a little easier for us. Cons: A little pricey. For a family of six, we paid almost $500 for the ultimate package which allowed us like eight extra animal encounters. Looking back it might’ve just been better to pay for the actual encounters that we wanted. When you buy the ultimate package, a lot of the animal encounters are every hour on the hour You either need to stay a very long time or you have to pick and choose which ones you want to do. It would be better if they just had them open all the time and you could walk up to them at Yoir leisure. Also, we did not feel comfortable getting in the Jaguar cage. It was included, but there is no way that I’m going to let my one year-old and five year-old and even my two teenage daughters in a cage with a full grown leopard. That leopard was amped up! Some of the employees seem stressed around the animals which made the encounters a little bit more stressful. For example, when we were in the guinea pig cage, we only got about two or three minutes, which I felt was kind of a rip off. When we were in the monkey cage, the worker seemed very stressed out. I understand It might be a stressful job, but maybe not the best place for that worker to be then. I had read the reviews about the food being great. I did not think it was that great. It was pretty standard burgers and pizza and chicken nuggets and french fries. Nothing to get excited about maybe the restaurant with the buffet is much better but I did not feel like the café food was very good. Some of the cages were a little small, which was But then there’s a giant Africa area that I feel like they could let some of the other animals have a little bit more space like the Highland cow. The zip line looked really cool but just made me a little bit nervous so maybe next time.

We will definitely come back! However, next time we will just buy the animal encounters that we want to do and fill up on food before we get there. Holding a baby Lion was one of my daughters life goals and seeing how happy she was was...

I have a large family (8 children and my husband and I) and we went to Pai Pai not knowing exactly what to expect. They have different packages that cost different amounts depending on what you want to do activity wise and how many animals you want to interact with. Not knowing how it was set up before we arrived made it a bit time consuming trying to stay within budget and still get my kids to do some things of what they wanted.

My husband, 16 year old son, and 10 year old son rode the ATV's on the course 5 times. That was $30 per ATV and each ATV can have two people in it. My 10 year old was able to drive with my husband in the ATV so that was a highlight for him.

My other children ranging in age from 14 to 1 year old went into the animal area. It was $30 for children and $35 for adults for the base package and then we added on one animal interaction for $15/person. So we spend $45 and $50 for the kids to go through the park. We couldn't just pay Ala Cart and pick what we wanted to do, we had to buy at least the base package for the animals and then add on as we wanted.

They do give you a personal tour guide and she showed us around first then took us to the different interactive stuff. She was really nice, but it felt like they wanted to make sure we knew where all the gift shops and restaurantes were located.

In the animal area there are 3 or 4 different types of monkey's, 4 or 5 different cats (tigers, jaguars, lion etc.) a snake and then farm animals. Plus raccoons. They were all in clean pens and looked to be healthy and well taken care of.

I felt it was a bit pricey and with all the packages it was hard to figure out what to do, I was trying to get 10 people through the place with a reasonsable amount of money. We ended up spending $325 for two hours at the place. As you go to each section they mark your ticket off so I don't think you can go back a second time. It is not like a zoo where you can wonder around on your own and go back to see the animals again.

They were nice, apologized for their English which was pretty good, and my children enjoyed the animals. I will say, doing one animal encounter was all they really needed.

I would recommend it, but for a large family it is a bit pricey. Defiantely a...