It is a dangerous place full of dangerous animals.

 

Bloodthirsty turtles and vicious iguanas wait behind every corner. If you don’t tip the taxi drivers generously they drag you to the sting ray pool and feed you to them.  : )

 

Well, not exactly… Do you remember Godzilla? The iguanas in this area missed the radiation and are still peaceful reptiles with surprisingly clever eyes.

 

If you are scared enough I can tell you more.

   

Actually this is the loveliest aquarium with the friendliest staff I have seen.

 

They allow you to touch the fish, birds, iguanas. It is one of the biggest too.

 

You go into the observation tower

 

and the ocean is your aquarium. You just see all the fishes minding their business.

 

People dive around you. You can dive too in their own coral reef. I was sincerely impressed  

My favorite bit is the feeding. We fed the sharks and we got so excited we forgot to make pictures. A lovely lady pulled out of the pool a baby shark and offered us to touch it.

 

Hesitant initially the crowd approached and few seconds later the poor creature was about to endure the not so gentle attention of a dozen evolved primates. The fish was a stoic and got a tasty reward.  Hopefully it will make it keep good thoughts about humans when it is a 15 feet killing machine. And by the way the sharks do not have us on the menu. I believe now more people than ever respect and love them. You must have a rudimental coordination and brain to keep equilibrium to be safe in aquarium. The same lady asked everyone not to put hands near the mouth of the fish and two children and 3 fat ladies tried to do exactly this. One even explained she wants “to check if they have teeth when they are so small. You can’t help thinking that if you are a wild animal you will be someone’s dinner if you are so dumb.   There is another attraction. You can jump inside the pull and swim with them sharks. If you don’t do stupid things you will be coming out in one piece.  

I personally new close to nothing about the rays. Well, I am aware that one killed Steve- my all time favorite TV personality. We thought there are 3 creatures in the pool. Few seconds after they realized that the food is here the water was boiling. Where did they all come from?

 

Judge for yourself. It makes you look in your legs when in the water. If you step over them, the creatures think you are trying to kill them and stick their barb in your foot. The other danger is the serious vacuum they create trying to suck in the food.

Occasionally your hand can get inside their mouth too. So please, let go!

  

Feeding the iguanas proved to be even better. I have never done it before. They really like their lettuce.

  

  

We fed the green turtles and even tortoises. The green turtles are huge animals.

 

Those on the pictures are young. The old ones are double the size. They can’t fight back and their panzers are soft from below.

 

They can’t even hide their heads and limbs inside. The only weapon they have is speed and stamina. They are very fast swimmers. Hm, difficult to believe…

  

This spiky friend is the sea urchin.

I am seeing a lot of people who stepped over one of these. Recently I received a mail asking me what to do when stung by jellyfish. Keep on encouraging me and I might extend the content with useful tips about the hazardous sea life. Like this ugly fellow.

 

This is a stone fish or scorpion fish. Another thing you must try to avoid stepping on. 

If you get tired or bored between the feedings, you just go free of charge to the beach. Oh yes, the aquarium has its own golden beach.

 

I personally like it and if you want you could look for Vincent to teach you how to dive and become certified.

 

I can hear you saying that there arent any really dangerous animals around. To prove you wrong I made some pictures of this “real” shark which recently attacked a surfer, bitting a huge chunk of his board.