Part 6: Selva Magica - October 23, 2018

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​The next morning started with a visit to Selva Magica, one of the parks that was featured in the TPR Mexico Tour. This park was one of the more anticipated stops for this trip as there were two coasters that I needed, one of which was closed during the tour stop, and the other which was a new addition to the park since the tour.

One thing that I forgot was quite common for some theme parks in other countries, a park’s opening time may not necessarily reflect the time that the rides will be open as some of them would start testing a bit after the gates opened. This gave me a chance to do a little bit of walking around to see what all had changed at the park since the last time.

The first thing I found was that they had a show for Lucha Libre that was in collaboration with the major Mexican Lucha promotion known as AAA. This is one of the premier wrestling organizations in the country, and has been a launching pad for several wrestlers that would go on to have successful careers around the world, including those who would appear in the like of WWE.

While there wasn’t a show that day (I would imagine that they are a bit more periodic if they are featuring wrestlers from the promotion), it was still neat to take a walk through the entry hall and see the variety of photos and costumes worn by different wrestlers on display. There was also a hall of fame to pay tribute to some of the biggest stars of the company, some of whom I had seen at shows back in the United States like Rey Mysterio and the late Eddie Guerrero.

The other big change to the park was the addition of a Plaza Sesamo area. While not quite to the scale of Parque Plaza Sesamo from a few days earlier, it was a nicely built area that was really colorful and offered a few different rides. The downside was that the renovation appears to have led to the closure of a rather bizarre attraction called Alicia, which was a walkthrough of a large woman, which was ultimately an anatomy lesson of the human body. It was such a quirky and neat attraction, seeing that it was gone was a shame, but as with any amusement park, sometimes favorites are replaced, and I would imagine that parents would prefer this Plaza Sesamo themed area over Alicia.

As the rides opened up, it was time to enjoy a few, unfortunately, two of the park’s five coasters were closed for maintenance on this day, and one of them was the coaster Catarina, which was one of the two at the park I still needed the credit on. The other, Tornado, was a disappointment to see closed on this day as it’s a really fun Schwarzkopf Jet Star style coaster. Unlike Catarina, however, I had ridden that one during the Mexico Tour.

The other two coasters I had ridden before at this park were open, so I took a ride on Jubilé, a Pinfari Zyklon style coaster, and I took a few laps on the rare Titan, a relic from the old Boblo Island park in Michigan and a rare Japanese designed coaster in North America from the Sansei Yusoki Company. Titan was interesting to ride as it had been given the VR treatment that seems to still be a popular trend for theme parks and their roller coasters. This VR experience centered around a family that would morph into different horror-style creatures as they rode a roller coaster, and the scenes blended pretty well with the experience of the coaster. What was interesting was that the coaster had speakers installed on the train, so you may be riding without the VR headset, but could still hear the audio that was made for it as you rode.

​While it was unfortunate that one of the two coasters that I needed to ride at this park would be missed, the one I was anticipating riding the most was open, and it did not disappoint! The coaster was Bullet, which has had a number of homes over the years, including having been in Europe as well as North America for its previous homes. What was neat about getting to ride it was that when we were here on the TPR Tour, the coaster was in storage as they were awaiting permits and approval to build the coaster. As we were there, the park managers took us for a sort of behind the scenes tour where we were able to climb onto some of the pieces and get an up-close and personal look at them. It was neat to have seen in this state, then come back five years later to see it assembled.

The coaster is a launching shuttle ride that uses powered tires for the propulsion, and the force with which it creates makes it one of the more intense riding experiences I can recall having. As the train is sent backwards up one of the two spikes for the sake of gaining momentum, as soon as the tires change direction to make the train go forward, you have the sensation of being on a slingshot and pressed firmly into your seat as it goes the opposite direction. As you travel through the course with a large fan turn into a vertical loop that goes around the ride station, you then go up the other spike, and then the tires send you back in reverse through the same course, and with as much intensity. The ride was a blast, and may be my favorite roller coaster designed by Anton Schwarzkopf!

After doing some re-rides between Titan and Bullet, I went ahead and began making my way back to the Airbnb, but before making it back on the Uber ride, I spotted what I thought was a carnival with rides. I know that I saw at least one roller coaster, so I quickly marked the approximate spot on my google maps app to hopefully track it down a bit later. As luck would have it, it was only about a twenty minute walk away from where I was staying while in Guadalajara, so I decided to take a stroll over to see what the story was. As I investigated, I found that it seemed to be more of a permanent amusement park than a carnival since it had entry signs and everything.

The park is called Parque Los Valentinos, and features a variety of flat rides as well as a spinning mouse and wacky worm style coaster. While I was excited to have found a park that had not previously been listed on Roller Coaster Database or Coaster-Count.com, I would be disappointed to find out that the park was only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays……and this day was a Tuesday, plus I was getting on a plan to head to Cancun the next day. So it would have to go on my list of parks to visit in the future, but still neat to stumble upon the park.

Upon returning to the Airbnb, it was time to get ready to enjoy an evening of wrestling!

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