Iceland and Greenland Day 3 - Silfra Fissure and Puffins

Today we woke up after a glorious night of sleep. We were both jetlagged yesterday, but we managed to stay up late enough that we both slept through the night. We woke up tired, but knock on wood, we are well on our way to getting past jetlag. 

Our main activity today is scuba diving. We drove to the Þingvellir National Park. It is a ~45-minute drive from our hotel in Reykjavík. We arrived at Þingvellir and found a place to park when we were met with an unpleasant surprise - we were swarmed by small winged black bugs. At first, we thought they were mosquitos and we were kicking ourselves for not bringing our head nets (we bought some to take with us to Greenland). Then we found out they were not mosquitos, turns out Iceland is one of two places in the world that is completely mosquito free. Regardless the bugs were super annoying, but our scuba guide, Matt, had some head nets to lend to us. 

We put on our wetsuits and got our gear set up. Then Matt gave us an overview of the dive. He told us about Silfra, which is a fissure between the North American and European tectonic plates. He did dispel the biggest Iceland myth, which we had heard - that you can touch the walls of both tectonic plates under the water. This is nonsense as the tectonic plates are about a mile apart. Silfra is located in a lava sheet between the tectonic plates so we were diving in a kind of no man's land. We planned to spend 30-45 minutes in the water and go no deeper than 60 ft. We learned that the water in the fissure filters in from the Langjökull glacier and takes ~30-100 years to get to the fissure. By the time it arrives, it is crystal clear with a visibility of over 100 meters. It is also freezing cold (~37 degrees Fahrenheit). Once Matt had given us this information we carried our gear to the starting point. 

We had to wait at the starting point for the snorkelers ahead of us to clear out (snorkeling is much more popular here - they also wear dry suits because it is so cold). Once it was clear we entered the water. I had a hard time getting down and Matt had to add some more weight to my setup (I was carrying more than 30 pounds of extra weight). Once I had the extra weight I was able to descend and we headed out. The water was cold, but the dry suits protected us except for our faces and hands. We were wearing hoods and gloves, but they weren't designed to keep those areas dry, it just kept them from freezing in the frigid water. The water was amazingly clear. The colors are also incredible - the deeper you look the more blue everything appears to be, while higher up the sun filters through the water creating colorful effects on the fissure walls. Diving here is like entering a surreal vivid and ethereal world. There are a few very shallow areas that we had to navigate. Getting through shallow areas (only a couple of feet deep) is fairly challenging because of the changes in buoyancy. Buoyancy is already hard enough in a dry suit, but to add in moving from depth to extremely shallow and back again, makes an already challenging dive, quite difficult. We managed to navigate it and stay with our guide. Despite the challenges, diving in Iceland was well worth it, as it is one of the most unique and memorable diving experiences we have ever had. 

Once we got out of the water we had one more challenge, there was a long walk back to the setup area wearing the BCD, weights, and dry suit. It was a tough walk, but we made it. We took off all of our equipment. Alison's dry suit kept her dry, but mine actually allowed in some water. I was damp, but fortunately, I wasn't too cold even in the freezing water. We finished pulling off our equipment and then we bid Matt farewell. 

We drove back to Reykjavík. We wanted to clean up at our hotel. After that, we would have almost half a day left. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous because diving took quite a bit of our energy. I wanted to go on a puffin tour and Alison agreed. So Alison signed us up while we were driving back. 

At the hotel, we showered and got cleaned up. When we were ready to go the sun was shining and it felt good so we decided to walk through Reykjavík to the meeting point for our tour. It took a while, but it was a nice walk. We walked through the city and then down next to Faxaflói bay. There is a pleasant path next to the bay dotted with art installations and viewpoints. 

We met up with our puffin tour and they loaded us into our boat, the Skulaskeid. We rode out to a small island, Akurey, ~15 minutes away. This island is home to a colony of a few thousand puffins. Puffins are normally solitary when they are in the ocean, but every year they come back to their colony to breed. While they are in the colony they are social. We saw tons of puffins. We saw them flying, in the water, and sitting on the island. Puffins are quite small and hard to photograph because they are fast. It is pretty easy to spot a puffin when it is flying because its wings flap so fast. It is easily recognizable. We learned that a group of puffins has a great name - a circus or an improbability. Both of which are quite apt given their nature. We watched the puffins swim fast and low across the water. We saw a couple of puffins catch fish. Once they get a fish they have to move fast to avoid the seagulls and other birds who try to steal their catch. I loved this tour. I loved learning about puffins. I loved seeing the other birds and I loved seeing the view of Reykjavík from the ocean. I would highly recommend it. 

By the time the tour was over we were famished so we walked across the street from the old harbor to Reykjavík Fish Restaurant. We both had the fish and chips and they were excellent. Fish is a great choice when you are steps away from the ocean. After our dinner, we meandered through Reykjavík exploring until we made our way back to our hotel. 

It was another great day in Iceland. We have thoroughly enjoyed Iceland. We are kind of sad we only have a couple more days here - we would come back in a heartbeat