Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences

October 2006 One weekend that year, I visited the "Bernardino Rivadavia" Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.

This museum is located in Parque Centenario. Around the park, there are several buildings: the Luis Pasteur Zoonosis Institute, the Argentine Association of Friends of Astronomy, the Luis Leloir Research Foundation, and the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences. Although I had visited the park on several occasions, visiting the museum was still on my to-do list.

The museum opens its doors at 2:00 PM. Right there along the sidewalk is the market—there is an antiques market, a clothing market, and a market with book stalls. It was Saturday and starting to fill up with people; the weather was nice and sunny. When I arrived, they were just starting the preparations to open and a few people were waiting, so I took a walk around the park. By the time I was back at the museum entrance, it had already opened, so I went in.

Admission was $3 (this was back in 2006). They make you leave your bag; I was carrying a backpack—very old and worn out from use, but comfortable. Photography is not allowed in the aquarium because the lights harm the fish, but you are allowed to take as many pictures as you want inside the rest of the museum, so I didn't waste any time and made the most of it.

With your ticket, they give you a small map of the entire museum, which is useful and nice.

Then the tour begins with the aquarium, which is the first room to see. In one section, all the fish are from Argentine waters, so I had the chance to see several species I used to catch years ago when my friends and I went to the river. Another much smaller section features tropical fish. It is interesting, and I was left wanting to take notes on some very common ones whose actual names I didn't know beyond their popular nicknames.

The exhibition halls are nice. On the day of my visit, the bird hall was incomplete—or rather, completely empty—it had nothing in it as it was being prepared.

By the time I reached the mammal hall, my batteries had run out; my camera kept shutting off and I hadn't recharged any extra ones. For that reason, I had to give up and leave finishing the visit with photos for another occasion, which makes me plan on going back.

I went on a weekend, and since I like to stroll peacefully, it wasn't the best choice of date. It was quite crowded with some foreign tourists and many little kids running around and shouting. It’s nice to take young ones to see the place—they were amazed by the dinosaur bones, and rightfully so, as they were truly impressive. However, it was a bit uncomfortable for my taste due to all the shouting and the crowd.

The reptile hall had many animals preserved in jars, I assume in formaldehyde.
After spending a few hours exploring—I don't recall exactly, but around two hours or a bit more—I headed back home.