The wave is to have fun, now”, proposes the slogan in the entrance arch to the Beach Park, the largest water park in Latin America. Crystal clear: after taking the group photo at the water fountain, walking the path made of glass bottles and crossing the entrance turnstiles to the playground, there will be no time to lose here.
On the first tour, it is noted that the concept of fun is broad: from the dips in the “Aqua Circus”, a kind of soft water square for the little ones, to the Insano, a fearsome 41-meter-high slide, the range of options seems endless.
The Aqua Circus.
The next stop on the extreme experiences tour is the Atlantis, a wide slide that simulates the rapids of a mountain river. It is traveled in a rubber boat for four people seated in a circle. The plus is seeing each other face to face when the emptiness of three consecutive falls, one after another, transforms the faces into the most ridiculous grimaces. Another rule of the place: here everyone laughs at everyone. It is so.
Much further up the scale of vertigo appears the Kalafrío, a space similar to a skate park where one falls perpendicular to the ground (literally, no joke) and then must wait for the pendulum movement of the rubber band to end, go up and down back and forth, over and over. Here are the maximum decibels in the park’s screaming concert.
Some say that the experience is as extreme or more extreme than that of the Insano, the great star of the place. Or better yet, the attraction that turns those who dare to screw themselves into celebrities (well, at least it’s nice to believe it for a while). In high season (from December to Carnival, and in July), you have to stand in line for up to 15 minutes before it’s your turn to jump.
During that time you can enjoy the landscape from above: the palm trees on the edge of the turquoise sea, the luxurious resorts of the Beach Park and the weekend houses on the slopes of Porto das Dunas, the resort that grew at the pace of a tourist complex that in 1988 was just a beach restaurant with a water slide for children, and that this year expects to receive, between its four hotels and the water park, more than a million visitors.
In free fall In the formidable viewpoint that is the Insano, it is advisable to gaze into the distance, never downwards. Better not realize that 41 meters are equivalent to more than 10 floors, and that one is there, precisely, to lower them almost in free fall, at 105 kilometers per hour. There are not a few who, with some excuse of the type “I have to operate on my menisci” or “I already threw myself and I have it filmed”, go back down the stairs. Then they will listen to the others tell the details.
“The most complicated thing is when you feel that your back separates from the slide and it seems that you are going in the air, at a very high speed”, sums up Luis, a father from Rosario, whom his family followed carefully from below, in front of the LCD that shows the intrepid in the previous instants.
For those who prefer to go slowly, Beach Park has an important variety of less extreme games, although they are not a boat ride on the lakes of Palermo.
Beach Park.
In the Tchibum there is a slide full of curves and reverse curves that you go through upside down on a rubber mat. The Moreia Negra is one of the funniest; a wide and dark tube that, of course, splashes water in the face in several sections of the route: the funny thing is that you never know when the next curve is coming. In the Hupa e Hopa, another moderate option, two short and very steep slides expel a couple of meters through the air to those who are thrown, who fall into the pool before the attentive mirrored glasses of the lifeguard.
A good BA plan for those who prefer to protect themselves as childminders (if there are no children in the group, there is the option of assuming the role of family photographer) will have a stay with less vertigo, but not more calm. It is likely that they walk from here to there, to the rhythm of the zapping that children tend to do when they have so many options. The Aqua Circus concentrates no less than 52 games between seesaws, cannons that shoot water, rain devices and bicycles that release jets when pedaling.
For those who do not exceed 130 meters in height (the minimum imposed by the jogos radicais) there is also the Treasure Island, with its water snake and routes that enter and leave the water. Noah’s Ark offers a whole fauna of small slides.
And the Aquabismo, a slight slope several meters wide, is ideal for jumping seated and with the family. But the “must see” of the children’s category is the Aqua Show, a ball-like tour from which there is no way to come out dry. It includes soft slides and an attraction for all ages: every ten minutes, at the top, a large bucket is filled to the brim and rotates on its axis to dump 1,800 liters of water on those who settle just below, waiting for the bath. 
Aquabismo.
Tidal wave in sight From time to time, a fat horn is heard throughout the complex. It is a “tidal wave” alert. Moments later, the calm waters of an artificial lagoon begin to ripple. It’s not a tsunami, but the boys like to jump the waves and “the oldest in charge” can perhaps take a break and do the plank for a while.
