Enjoy midmorning pickup from your hotel in Mexico City, and then sail past the crowds waiting under the hot sun for access to the popular Inbursa Aquarium, located in Carso Plaza near the Soumaya Museum. Your skip-the-line privilege allows you to immediately enter the aquarium’s unique triangular structure. With three of the four levels located underground, the 11,500-square-foot (1,068-square-meter) site features an impressive array of 250 species and 5,000 marine life samples.

Take an elevator down three floors, and deep beneath the streets of Mexico City, find yourself facing a 400,000-gallon (1,514,000-liter) glass tank where green, yellow, blue and orange fish swim peacefully with rays and sharks. At the Sunken Ship exhibit, be grateful for the glass barrier as you watch black-tip sharks circle the massive concrete pillars supporting the aquarium’s construction. At Jellyfish Labyrinth, stand mesmerized before the backlit gallery where these gelatinous marine animals pulsate to background music, their trailing tentacles searching for prey.

Note that as you ascend floor by floor, the aquarium’s 48 exhibits present brighter environments, from tropical reef zones to freshwater and beach ecosystems like those found along the Amazon. Stroll by another enormous tank of undulating water, where crocodiles, small turtles and piranhas coexist.

At the lagoon, get an up-close look at graceful manta rays, and learn about the conservation efforts in place to protect this vulnerable species. In the glass tunnel, pause for a playful moment to pose for a selfie with a ray.

Throughout your tour, enjoy a number of other thematic exhibits spread across the aquarium, all designed to entertain and educate visitors of the different aquatic species and their behavior: Ice Land, Coral Kingdom, Calypso Beach, Forest of the Kelps, Black Mangrove, the Lost Waterfall, Sea Bed and the Touch Pool.

After your day of magical marine wonders, you’ll be transported back to your Mexico City hotel.