The 2nd Section of the Bosque de Chapultepec lies west of the Periférico. In addition to family attractions, there is a pair of upscale lake-view restaurants on the Lago Mayor and Lago Menor.
Kids will enjoy La Feria , an old-fashioned amusement park with some hair-raising rides. An all-access ‘Platino’ passport is good for everything, including the rollercoasters.
Your children won’t want to leave Papalote Museo del Niño . At this innovative, hands-on museum, kids can put together a radio program, lie on a bed of nails, join an archaeological dig and try out all manner of technological gadgets and games. Little ones also get a kick out of the planetarium.
About 200m west of the Papalote, turn right to reach the Fuente de Tlaloc , an oval pool inhabited by a huge mosaic-skinned sculpture of the rain god by Diego Rivera. There’s more Rivera art inside the recently renovated Chapultepec waterworks building, behind the fountain. The artist painted a series of murals entitled El Agua, El Origen de la Vida (Water, Origin of Life) for the inauguration of the project, constructed in the 1940s to channel the waters of the Río Lerma into giant cisterns to supply the city. Experimenting with waterproof paints, Rivera covered the collection tank and part of the pipeline with images of amphibious beings.
To the north is the beautiful Fuente de Xochipilli , dedicated to the Aztec ‘flower prince,’ with terraced fountains around a pyramid in the talud-tablero style typical of Teotihuacán.
