“Brad Pitt has visited the Biomuseo. What are you waiting for?”

With that kind of tease, how could we not visit where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have visited, walk where they have walked, seen what they have seen? We were in!

The Biomuseo was designed by Frank Gehry.  You are probably familiar with his other designs such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. Why build in Panama? Well, Gehry married a Panamanian woman, and so far, that is all the answer we have.

 

Although construction is far from being complete, tours are being offered every Friday. Before entering the construction site, we were given an overview of what the final product will be. Of the seven future galleries, we think the two most interesting will be “Océanos Divididos”  and “Panamarama.” “Océanos Divididos” a place to compare the marine life of the Caribbean Sea and the other will showcase the marine life of the Pacific Ocean. They are constructing two floor to ceiling aquariums nearly side by side. Believe it or not, although only about 40 miles of land separate the two bodies of water, the aquatic ecosystems are quite different in each.  The “Panamarama” gallery will be a display of Panama from the depths of the ocean to the cloud forest. Visitors will be transported through the exhibit virtually as a series of different species.

We got to put on hard hats and orange vests and tour the work in progress. We are looking forward to coming back and seeing the completed project. Although it will be too bad that most of these geometrically intriguing structures will, by then be walls!

If you’d like to see more diagrams and pictures or to read more, go to Biomuseo

Some pages on the website can be found in English.

Here are more of our photos: 

Biomuseo - Frank Gehry