Weeknotes #139: missed views, found falls

Adventures, airports, waterfalls, and re-entry — travel tales beautifully grounded.

Week commencing Monday, 15 September 2025

Tour boat full of tourists wearing orange life jackets approaches the base of Iguazu Falls, with massive waterfalls cascading over tiered basalt cliffs surrounded by lush green vegetation and mist rising from the churning water below
Tourists aboard a boat excursion approach the thundering cascades of Iguazu Falls on the Argentina-Brazil border, where getting soaked is not just likely—it’s the entire point.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 6/7. (76 %). Total steps: 77,891

Life

  • The week started back in a Patagonian national park with a hike up for a view that was lost in the clouds. The other English speaker on the bus didn’t seem that interested in the tour.
  • In the evening, I ate my steak while one of the local strays laid his head on my lap for as long as the steak was on my plate. As soon as it was gone, he lost interest. Nobody seemed concerned. Can you imagine the health-and-safety implications in the UK?
  • Tuesday was a fly day: fly back to Buenos Aires but don’t leave the airport before taking off again bound for Iguazú. The views from El Calafate Airport were great. In Buenos Aires the lounge was packed, and it was dark by the time we landed in the north.
  • PY’s ‘bucket list’ used to include a trip to see the Iguazú Falls. It’s not on the list anymore as we crossed it off on Wednesday.
  • So much to say about the majesty of the falls: panoramics from Brazil, close-up encounters in Argentina. The boat ride, or ‘Grand Adventure’, was stunning, and you really appreciate the power of the cascades.
  • My diary entry for Thursday’s return to Buenos Aires is entitled Three countries, two beers, one perfect pizza. The Tripoint is very impressive, the restaurant with the river views was a find I wish we’d made a day earlier, and the pizza experience at Pizzería Güerrín on Corrientes Avenue seemed authentic.
  • Friday was a return flight. Iberia seats were more exposed to the aisle so I didn’t sleep well. Or maybe it was the hours of turbulence that kept me awake. I was very ready for the landing.
  • Related, on Saturday morning we were almost first in the lounge and first in the shower queue. I had a little bottle of plane wine on the last leg of the holiday back to London, even though it was only 10 a.m. It felt like yesterday.
  • Sunday brought a gentle re-entry to London life. In a bid to keep busy, we decided to visit the This is Oxford Street event, where the street was closed to traffic and given over to music, food, fashion pop-ups, and other entertainment — a glimpse of what full pedestrianisation might mean.
  • Related, if this is what it means, it’ll be a bonanza for the retailers: the place was packed.

Media

  • I finished The Janson Directive and can confirm that it was meaty enough that the other books were unnecessary baggage.