Today, I got to discover the new Amazon.
Recently the Graham Amazon Gallery at the Vancouver Aquarium has been transformed to include bewildering new animals and experiences from the most species-rich area of the world.
For the occasion, a group of lucky kids from a local school, and some also very lucky press people like me were invited on a guided tour of the Amazon gallery at the aquarium.
Before the journey even begins, we get introduced to Bee-bop, mascot of the Vancouver aquarium. Bee-Bop, a 6 foot tall fluffy beluga, is playing with the kids while I watch them and wonder: “Where do I sign up to get this gig? That looks like an awesome job.”
Finally, after a few minutes, the real visit begins and the first stop of the visit is the 4D theatre. Yes, 4D!!! The Vancouver Aquarium has the only 4D theatre of the Canadian West coast and if you thought James Cameron was impressive with Avatar in 3D, well you're in for a treat. Here, you get to enjoy the amazing Dora & Diego's 4D adventure ( March 19th to April 30th.) Take that Cameron! For those of you who, like me, were born sometime in the 20th century, 4D means that not only you get to embrace the experience of the movie in 3 dimensions, but you also get the smell of the roses and get a little bit wet when the dolphin hits the water. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but if you go and see Dora and Diego, be prepared to see some serious bubble action. I am not afraid to admit that at first I felt a little bit too old for this movie, and that I had no clue who Dora was (to everyone's surprise), but after 30 seconds I got sucked in and ended up loving it. Did you know that Dora speaks Spanish and English at the same time. How cool is that !? After being shaken, sprayed, bubbled, and even “bananaed” for about 10 minutes, the visit continues with the actual amazon section of the aquarium.
In this gallery all the conditions are in place to recreate an Amazonian climate. It's wet, it's hot, it's full of loud coloured birds, butterflies, snakes, monkeys and sloths. And if you look very close you'll also find some tarantulas and piranha. If it weren't for all the kids' screams of enjoyment, you could close your eyes and imagine being in the real Amazon for a few minutes.
Growing up close to the sea, I learned at a very young age never to look up when you are surrounded by birds. And today even if I had to snap photos of my surroundings, my instinct kicked in and I stayed focused on the horizon level. And of course I got rewarded with a bird letting go of what looked like its breakfast and maybe dinner on my nice green jacket. The colour of the warm dropping actually matched my jacket so I smiled, said thank you and kept going. Remember kids, when surrounded by birds....never look up.
After saying hello to Kristen and her butterflies (coloured butterflies are released daily in the gallery) and to “Hurricane” the sloth (named that way because he destroyed all the trees on his first night at the aquarium), the visit continued to the latest part of the Amazon section where the kids and I got to taste some nice and tasty fried crickets that Melissa, our Amazon expedition leader, prepared for us today. According to Austen, who actually asked for seconds, it tastes like popcorn.
To finish the visit we got to discover the lovely caimans. As reptiles, they don't get fed everyday, but luckily for us, today was feeding day. On the menu, chickens. With a crushing power of more than 2000 pounds per square inch in their jaws, you can imagine that not only the chicken were whole (don't need to remove the bones), but also that the two persons responsible of feeding the beasts were not joking around anymore (as they were with the butterflies and parrots) and are in focus mode using big sticks to deliver the meal.
All in all, the visit lasted about an hour (the amazon gallery is just a small part of the huge aquarium) was very instructive and fun, the kid in me enjoyed every moment of it, between, monkeys, birds, sloth, dead fried crickets, butterflies and caimans, I could only admire all the wonders that nature holds. Even if I now have a massive bird poop on my favourite jacket...
