CosmoCaixa Barcelona Thoughts on a visit

Bele

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Notes on a visit

This Science Museum , some way out of the the city centre , is run by a Charitable Foundation .

The large new building is very impressive . On entry you descend a long spiral ramp , with an enormous tree skeleton in the centre and a continuous thread featuring timelines for Planet Earth .

At the far end of the lower floor an enormous glass rectangle features the reason for my visit , the Amazon Inundated Forest . This can be viewed through windows at ground and higher levels and can also be walked through . There is a lot of living vegetation and several large artificial trees .

Viewing into the exhibit at ground level features a number of pools , the largest of which covers a third or more of the total exhibit . In this large pool is a variety of fish , ranging from tetras to lots of very big pacu and catfish as well as two enormous arapaima . Smaller pools are for more fish , turtles , a capybara ( the only mammal in the exhibit ) , and Cuviers dwarf caiman .

A variety of birds live in the exhibit - whistling ducks , currasow , a group of four curious trumpeters , lots of giant wood rail , sun bitterns , boat-billed herons . It would have been nice to have some parrots flying around but perhaps they would be too destructive .

Inside there are enclosed exhibits for anaconda , leaf-cutter ants , tree boa with poison-dart frogs . Viewing of the pools is from above and below water . There is spectacular rainfall over the large water area .

If this exhibit was in a Zoo I would imagine that quite a few more animals could be shown .

Also on the ground floor of the Museum are a number of tanks for fish , invertebrates and reptiles showcasing evolution and adaptation .

Along with Barclona Aquarium and Barcelona Zoo I was able to spend two very enjoyable days of collection visiting in a city which I first visited over 40 years ago .
 
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