Visit to the Museum

There are not too many museums around here worth visiting so when Father told me that a friend of his friend was going to be at the Ayala Museum to personally walk visitors through his fossils collection, I jumped at the chance to bring the kids.

MacGyver dropped me off with GI and MyGirl at the Ayala Museum last Saturday. RD happened to be sick last weekend so he had to stay home.

Fossils are the remains of living organisms that have been preserved in stone. Their color is derived from the minerals found in the area where they are located. The fossils on display were amazing and quite beautiful. Most of the fossils on display were from Arizona. There were a lot of pieces from Madagascar that were beautiful. There were a couple of pieces from the Philippines. There were fossils of trees, dinosaur bones, dinosaur poop, ammonites and more. I particularly liked the ammonites which are extinct nautilus-like creatures of the sea. There were pieces on display that were over 210 million years old!

(This picture of an ammonite by Bobby Wong)

I found Larry Gotuaco to be a good-natured man with much passion for his collection. He also has a great sense of humor. At the exhibit, he pointed out a huge piece about the size of a basketball. He explained that this was dinosaur poop. He said, "Can you imagine the size of that animal to come up with something that big?" One of the children touched the fossil being discussed and Larry said, "If you touch it, you have to kiss it." (The kid moved away quickly.)

Mr. Gotuaco had a talk and a slide show in one of the conference rooms beside the exhibit. We got to see other pieces of his collection and other fossils he'd seen.

The kids enjoyed themselves a lot. Since RD was unable to join us, we bought a book entitled JURASSIC FOSSILS Wood and Dinosaur for him. (If I'd known they would let us take pictures, I would have brought my camera. Thank goodness my Sony Ericsson has a camera.)


This was MyGirl's favorite piece.



Here we are with Larry Gotuaco himself.



(IMAGES IN STONE will be open for public viewing until 30 November 2008 at the Ayala Museum. If I heard correctly, there will be a special session for children on October 04 called Fossils are Fun. )