From the start it wasn’t unlike one of those 3D interactive ride experiences at Universal or Disney World. We waited with the throngs of society to board the first part of the ride. Through the big bay window in the front of the bus we watched a strobe light show on all sides. Flashes in the night illuminated a black and white negative of rolling country landscapes that gave way to an ever more dense jungle. Water effects dripped down the windows and onto our laps in our moving amphitheater, maybe as as a precursor of what was to come.
Once inside the park, shady taxi drivers offer us different alternative endings including forays into restricted zones and illegal border crossings. Instead we choose to follow the painted yellow footpath deeper into the heart of the park. We putter down a rickey track on a miniature open air train and step off onto a maze of metal grated gangplanks. We follow them over lazily flowing rivers, past little islands, and sunbathing turtles. There are no lines today, we’re the only guests here. Out of the blue sky around us, a soft sweet mist paints our faces. A minute later the mist becomes a spray and shortly after that we’re standing at the edge of a thundering waterfall pulverizing the earth far below. It sucks at the air around us attempting to swallow as much as it can as fast as possible. Even sound is pulled away over the edge. In return it tosses up rainbows that ripple like ribbon dancers.
We follow the metal maze down to the the side of the river below where we board a jet boat. It blasts up the river towards the hurricane at the base of the falls. Down here the air is thick and the water feels sharp. Ahead of us the sound explodes like a perpetuous grenade. The falls smash down and then erupt upwards with all the fury of a ten story tidal wave. Still closer the conductor drives. Just before the bow of the boat slips into the whitewater he cuts the engines. Like the moment at the top of a rollercoaster everything slows to quarter speed. An interminable second later the jets roar and everything goes white.
