Puffins on Westman island.
Sunset at Snaefelnes peninsula. This was around midnight and I drived around like a maniac trying to capture the sunset. This was the one of those moments when I started to worry that I might get hurt for driving so crazy.
Minerals in the water create blue waters that spring up in random areas. There are numerous hot springs throughout the country but some of them are actually burning hot so you need to jump in with caution. Swimming pools in all the towns use hotwater heated by volcanic steam and for about 5 dollars you can swim in the pools, jump into hotpots of various degrees of heat, and steam and sweat in steam rooms and saunas.
Puffins in Westman islands. Located at the most southern island of Iceland the town was once the thriving center of the icelandic fishing industry. After a volcanic eruption in the 70s the people population has been falling as the fishing industry has also been slowing down. The puffin population however, is extremely big and you can get very close to the puffins on this island. Because of all the active volcanos on the island, Iceland is actually growing bigger, not smaller. Its also a geological hotspot where you can almost study the history of the earth with all of its nature intact. Puffins find their partners and live together for life. They also live deep in holes in the ground and actually build their bathrooms within their tunnels. As a result the land around where they live is clean.
The golden rainbow falls. When the sun is out, all the reflections and water works together to create several rainbows. It was pretty cloudy when I was there so I didn't get to see the waterfalls, but the size of these falls feel like niagra falls but a little smaller and completely less developed. Several companies had tried to turn the falls into powerplants but numerous companies either failed or were rebuffed by a strong willed farmer's daughter who swore to throw herself into the waterfall if they tried to build things. In the end, her protection of the falls allowed it to remain un-scathed and become part of the national park. Part of the Golden Circle in southern Iceland.
The strong willed farmer's daughter, casting a stern look at the water falls.
A tremendous elephant shaped cliff in the Westman islands.
Underneath this hill there was half of a town. The volcano eruption in the 70s hit the Westman island's by surprise, but nobody was lost in the eruption.
My mother and father at the blue lagoon. The lagoon itself is man-made leftover water from a factory next to the lagoon. When we got there we were amazed to see how nice the facilities were with spas, saunas, steam rooms, mineral masks and nice relaxation rooms at the lagoon. Apparantly these are very recent developments and initially the blue lagoon was just a random pool of water where they locals would change in their cars, hop in, and swim about. Now you pay an entrance fee, get lovely mineral mud masks and lotions and can get hot showers on the premises.
My former co-worker and friend Vally. I don't think she ever expected someone she knew from the NY to come by and visit her. Vally was extremely kind and helpful to me in helping me get rid of my rental car and answered alot of my questions about life in Iceland. An interesting fact is that Icelander's actually don't have last names. Their lastnames are actually icelandic equivalents of daughter of "father's name", or son of "father's name". As a result the telephone books list your name by your first name. The lord of the rings and their entire, son of so and so references suddenly make sense by visiting the land of the vikings in Iceland.
Every day there are 150 earthquakes in Iceland. As a result, all the houses need to go through extremely tough stringent housing regulations. Each house has steel rods going both vertically and horizontally each way, surrounded by concrete and has additional steel supports going on the outside. A rippled sheet metal also covers the outside of the houses to prevent corrosion. There is no such thing as bribing building inspectors to overlook bad construction as if a house goes down, the building inspector is responsible for paying for the reconstruction too. As a result, the houses are practically steel cages and very tough against the rough lands of Iceland.
Hotsprings tend to spring up in random places.
Sunset in Snaefelnes peninsula.
The volcanic crater on Westmand island. It was really steep. Once again, you can't tell how steep it was until you actually climb it with a camera and slippery shoes. The stones were also still warm up here.
Geysir eruption in the Goldern Circle area. There were two geysirs in this location but the big one only blew up every four hours. Since I wasn't aywhere near the big one to explode, here's a picture of the smaller one that blew every 15 minutes. Apparantly this geysir wasn't working for a while because visitors used to throw stones in, trying to force the water to erupt. When they did it too many times, the hole was filled up and it took a big volcanic eruption for the geysirs to regain their abilities. The tourism board is reconsidering pulling in their volcano drills in order clear up all the debris that remains in the geysirs.
caves off the cliffs of westman island. On the entrance of these caves, several sea birds had made their homes and you needed to make sure you looked up with your mouth closed and your hands prepared, lest you get a lovely gift from up above.
Icelandic landscape from my airplane window.
1 comment:
thanks for posting. it makes my 2 hour meetings go by much faster when I can surf and view your pics instead of paying attention. :)
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