Mexico City has another top-class attraction to delight locals and visitors after telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim cut the ribbon at the capital’s first large-scale aquarium last week.
The world’s richest man has plowed almost 20 million dollars into the project, which he says is on a par with world-class aquariums such as those in Atlanta, Dubai and London.
Located in the Nuevo Polanco neighborhood, close to his Soumaya Art Museum, Aquarium Inbursa was designed by his architect son-in-law and covers 3,500 square meters on five levels. The innovative structure currently features 230 species and 5,000 individual examples of marine life, a figure that is expected to double in the coming months and years. The five huge fish tanks use 1.6 million liters of water, much of it trucked in from Veracruz. More than 20 tons of sand have been imported form Florida.
Like other tourist aquariums around the world, Aquarium Inbursa features glass tunnels through which visitors can walk as different marine species such as sharks, manta rays, sea horses, jellyfishes, crocodiles swim alongside and overhead.
There are 48 other individual exhibits, interactive screens, as well as a large pond containing a variety of species, where visitors can view feeding session. By December, the aquarium will have two penguins among its residents.
Cost of entry to the aquarium has been set at 129 pesos, although Alejandro Nasta, the facility’s president, hopes to offer future discounts so that people living on slender resources may also enjoy its charms.