Speechless.

To put it simply, Iguazu took my breath away.

Never in my life have I had so many moments of awe and amazement. However, instead of giving you a boring play-by-play of my weekend I’m just going to describe some of my favorite and most surreal moments from each day.

“La Garganta del Diablo” - literally the Throat of the Devil. This waterfall was our first destination within Iguazu National Park on Friday morning. To get there we took a

short train-ride, then we walked for 15 minutes along bridges to cross the river. Along the way we began seeing the mist and hearing the roaring thunder: the anticipation was building. Then we came around the corner and saw this…

50+ rowdy college kids instantly fell silent. I wish I could explain to you how gorgeous it is. How something could be so powerful and deadly but still seem so soft and gentle.

From there we went to the Upper Trail to see more waterfalls. Except, this time we could see the entire jungle as well. I’ll be the first to claim that Oregon is green, full of luscious trees and nature, but less face it, Oregon ain’t got nothin’ on Iguazu.

Our adventures at the Park ended by taking a boat ride under the waterfalls. Yep. While you were all working and studying on Friday I was feeling the gentle pounding of Argentine waterfalls on my back. During the boat tour we also got extremely close to the shore of Brazil, so close in fact that I’m willing to claim we crossed the border line. So, I pretty much went to Brazil too. Kind of.

That’s one of the neat things about Iguazu - it is the intersection of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. So, Saturday morning we went to view the Three Frontiers monument. With a little practice and a lot of saliva I’m certain I could’ve spit on both Brazil and Paraguay. Or at least chucked a rock across the river.

In the afternoon we went on a rainforest adventure. It started with a hike, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of since the mosquitos loved me, despite 14 layers of “Off.” After the hike though I had one of the greatest experiences of my life: zip-lining thru the Argentine rainforest during a thunderstorm.

The rain and wind actually got so bad that only half of our group got to go, luckily I was in the first half. As I was flying through the trees, feeling the wind and rain on my face I couldn’t help but thank God for this experience and for creating such beauty for us to enjoy.

Once I landed on solid ground the rain turned to tropical rain STORM. So, we all joined hands, danced and skipped in a circle while we got completely soaked. Then we went off and repelled down a small mountain side.

Not exactly your standard weekend, but certainly one I will never, ever forget or take for granted.