While we were in transit at Lisbon airport from Madeira, we ducked out for 2 hours to do a quick tour of the Oceanario do Lisboa. This is the second of two videos I(Chris) shot at the Oceanario in Lisbon.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wWALqucGEk?rel=0&w=510&h=287]

Penguin Carousel is a three minute video shot while I was standing on a viewing platform above a pool, which was full of penguins, swimming in circles … some disappearing under the platform on the left and then reappearing moments later on the right.

At 1:28, watch them all vanished under water.

It would be really mesmerizing if I could pair this sequence with some Philip Glass’s minimal repetitive music.

The other video I shot is Otter Foot Massage. Click link to see it.

On top of the main tank are several habitats for birds and marine mammals. There are about 20-30 penguins in total, each named and tagged for recognition, and many belonging to the same family.

The aquarium had two exhibits: a permanent exhibit – the 5 main tanks, and a temporary exhibit which contains giant turtles. Due to the shortness of time, we decided to skip the turtle exhibits.

Close-ups of the tiles that made up the mosaic sealife graphics.

Beside the main tank, there were many smaller tanks which housed a variety of animals.

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After a frentic 1.5 hours running through the aquarium, we got back to the same spot where the taxi dropped us off earlier (see photo below). But now, there is hardly any traffic, let alone a taxi. We panicked a bit … what if we cannot get back to the airport … 10 minutes passed, a taxi came from the other side, so I(Chris) ran across the street to hail it – a sport that I had plenty of practice in NYC.  In the end, we made the flight home even with a bit of time for duty-free shopping.