iguazu

I look up into a curtain of water, plummeting over 250ft into a chaotic white abyss just a few feet in front of me. My face, hair, shirt, leggings, all are already drenched. All around is just white, white, white. I feel like a helpless ant under a faucet. The roaring water relentlessly showers us from all directions, paying no care to my high pitched screams of "enough!"

That's when I remember the water isn't coming from a hose, a water park ride, or any human controlled pump device for that matter. I'm in a speed boat directly below Iguazu Falls, and there obviously is no off handle. The boat driver must have messed up, we shouldn't be this close. Back up, back up! Death seems imminent. I think of the faces of my family, thank god for a blessed life and ..... VROOOOM he guns it into reverse! The shower becomes a spray, and quickly reduces to a calm mist. The driver turns the boat around and we head back to the dock. Sopping yet safe. But absolutely sopping.

Iguazu Falls is apparently one the the 7 natural wonders of the world. This aquatic masterpiece wasn't dreamed up by architects, drawn into detailed plans and constructed by crews. Mama nature did all of it: the 1.7 mile edge divided into 275 separate falls, the breath and umbrella-taking Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) where about half of the river's flow is concentrated in a narrow, U-shaped gorge 700-meter-long, and the breathtaking beauty from so many angles.

We hiked the upper trail along the top of the falls, the long bridges connecting islands that finally brings you right to the top if Garganta del Diablo, hiked the lower trail along the bottom of the falls and then got in a speed boat and did this crazy boat ride into the falls. And to think I used to be too scared to ride Disneyand's Splash Mountain...


The experience of Iguazu was like nothing I've ever seen/done/felt. The feeling of being completely awestruck with the planet Earth, mother nature and the beauty of life that I get every time I look at waterfalls, combined with thinking I was going to die for about 30 seconds, combined with seeing a toucan made for quite the experience. Pheeeew!