Day 3: Ice Caves and Waterfalls

Most of the house slept through our first night in Iceland just dandy, when we woke up, we found that we had a dusting of snow overnight.  

On the one hand, it was beautiful.  On the other, it was just a taste of the precipitation to come.  We had a quick breakfast and were on the road by 8.15 am.  The morning drive was sleety and spitty. Our first stop was Vik, where after we stocked up on equipment and had a warm snack, we embarked on our Ice Caves tour.  It was rainy and windy when we piled into the SuperJeep for the 40 minute trek up the glacier.  These vehicles hold 12 people, require a stepladder to get into, and have real-time pumps on each tire so that the driver can adjust the air pressure to accommodate for terrain changes while driving.

Alex (our driver and host) has been leading these tours for a few years, in between gigs acting as an extra in movies that shoot in Iceland.  On the drive up the glacier, he told us stories about the geology, the people, and the history of southern Iceland.  

When we finished the drive up, we parked the SuperJeep, grabbed helmets, put on crampons (the Icelanders sometimes call them 'mini-spikes,' and started walking into the glacier.  The rain had turned to snow, and while the plateau of the glacier was very windy, once we got over the first ridge, the glacier itself blocked most of the wind.  

The ice cave tour changes rapidly, as new caves are constantly being formed and old ones are melting out.  First he took us to the remnants of an ice cave that he was using for tours just a few months ago:

After that, he walked us towards the current ice cave.  Along the way we passed raceways of water that will eventually form new ice caves, careening through corners as it sped down the hills. 

The cave was big enough for us to stand up, and it was maybe 500' deep.  We walked in along paths notched into the sides, holding onto rope handholds that had been driven into the ice walls.

Alex was a great guide, knowledgeable and payful, and along the hike, he and the kids had a snowball fight!  

After the hike, we ditched our helmets and crampons and drove back down into the rain.  We said farewell to Alex, grabbed a bite, and then headed back north.  We had been planning on going on an Aurora tour this evening, but the cloud cover led the guide to cancel on us.  So, instead of making our way to Reykavik, we stopped at four different waterfalls instead (Skógafoss, Kvernufoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Gljufrabui).  All were pretty close to the main road, and each was unique.  My favorite was Gljufrabui, the waterfall that lived inside a cave accessible by a narrow slot canyon, but they were all beautiful.

S in front of Kvernufoss.

Hiking out of Kvernufoss.

After the last waterfall, it was pushing 7pm. S and I zipped back to town to pick up some pizza dinner, and CC and his crew met us at home for late meal and then bed.  No Aurora tonight.  Bummer.

 

Day 2: Arrival in KEF, then to Hveragerði

We landed an hour early at KEF, which would have been annoying if we had been sleeping on the plane.  But, we weren't, so landing early was delightful.  Customs and immigration was easy, and we met the K fam at baggage claim (they flew in from Boston).  We collected our bags, shuttled to the car rental, and let them head to the airbnb while we began our adventure.  

We picked up our car from Blue Rental and started driving south from the airport, stopping every few miles to check out something interesting.  We crossed a significant geologic threshold at the Bridge Between Continents, 

checked out the Gunnuhver Hot Springs, 

and hiked the short trail to the Brimketill lava rock pool.  

Next, we stopped at the Blue Lagoon, we took a dip in a geothermal pool.  The whole experience was lovely - we had mask treatments, delicious juice, waterfall cascades, a sauna, and a steam room.  After a hard overnight, it was a welcome relaxing start to our day.

From there, we drove on to our airbnb in Hveragerði, a small hamlet in the SW of Iceland.  We settled in, unpacked, and spent the afternoon catching up with the K's.  CC and I bought groceries and we cooked a hearty dinner of lamb shank, salmon, fish balls, and salad.  And a pizza for the less adventurous eaters.

The view from our airbnb.

Early to bed!  Big day tomorrow!

Day 1: ONT->SEA->KEF

S has been wanting to go to Iceland for many years, and after hearing friends and family rave about the scenery for so long, we finally booked a trip.  We’ll be traveling with cousin C and his family.  We’d invited cousin J and sister D (and her family), but they weren’t able to go. So, it’s just our two groups!

H and I woke up at 5am this morning to start to adjust to a new time zone.  The three of us managed to be packed and ready and out the door in time to meet the Lyft driver, who shuttled us to ONT airport for our flight.  We’re flying business class for this trip out of consideration for S’s back, which means that the first leg of our trip, an Alaska Air flight to SEA, was in first class.  While we were at the airport, we facetimed with nephew R and his mama.  Then, off to SEA!

Safe arrival in SEA, and we got to the gate for the flight to KEF with about 15 minutes until boarding.  We grabbed a quick snack in the lounge and then boarded the plane.  Over the north pole and 7 hours until we arrive!

Day 10-11: Vanilla and Traffic; a flight home

Our last full day in Costa Rica started with an early wake-up and check-out of the hotel.  On the way out of town we stopped at Villa Vanilla (LINK), an organic spice/herb/vanilla farm.  Our guide Joyce gave us a terrific tour, showing us aspects of growth and harvest of vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, hibiscus, coffee, passionfruit, cardamom, ginger, kefir lime, chocolate, clove, and turmeric. Some toucans came to visit and snack on bananas.  We saw a big blue morpho resting on a leaf, and when we had our cameras ready, Joyce approached it to try to get it to open its wings.  It did, but it flew right into Joyce’s face before fluttering away!  Towards the end of the tour, we saw a mama hummingbird sitting in her nest protecting two eggs. We also tasted traditional bitter chocolate drinks, ice cream flavored with spices from the farm, and we got to taste a cacao seed.  The sun stayed mostly hidden behind clouds, so it wasn’t as hot as it could have been.

Vanilla beans drying in the open air

Cinnamon bark drying

mama hummingbird

Blue morpho butterfly

Peppercorn!  We got to try one. They were hot!

After that, things went downhill fast.  

At 11.30am, we got in the car to drive to the airport hotel (which had been estimated at a 3 hour drive), the GPS told us that it was suddenly four hours.  Not a big deal, since we had read about how you have to build delays into your car trips in Costa Rica.  So, we left the farm and turned left on the road out of town.  In about a mile, the road became unpaved.  No big deal – we had driven on lots of unpaved roads in our car, and we had 4WD and full insurance coverage.  But, what we expected to be a few km of unpaved roads turned into about 20, including deep mud, crossing creeks, steep climbs and drops, tight switchbacks, huge ruts, narrow lanes and steep drops.  It was 90 minutes of white knuckle driving, and by the end of it, the muffler was dangling 3 inches off the ground.  Every time we hit a speed bump, we’d hear it scrape.  Drivers would honk at us and gesture to let us know that we had a problem.  Once we were on the pavement, we tried to find a mechanic to tie the muffler back to the chassis, but it took us two towns and four attempts before we found someone who could do it.  

Back on the road and mostly complete, we immediately ran into a 30-minutes standstill on the highway, where traffic was clamped down to one lane (alternating directions) while workers repaired a section that had washed out in the rains.  After that, we stopped at a restaurant to eat and use the restroom.  By this point, it was about 4pm, and we were still 2 hours from the hotel.  So, we canceled our dinner reservations in San Jose, called the rental car company to let them know that because we’d be arriving so late, we’d have to return the car in-person (they offered hotel pick-up if we arrived before 5), and buckled in for the last leg.

As we got into San Jose, the traffic got gnarly.  Costa Rican driving is messy and chaotic everywhere, with cars weaving on the road to avoid potholes, motorcycles zipping every which way, and pedestrians and bicycles that are both on the road and not wearing reflective gear.  But, when you add to that the congestion of the city, it gets terrifying.  Not nearly as bad as the 25+k off-road experience, but close.  We finally got to the airport hotel, and I helped S & H get our stuff into the room.  Then, I jumped back in the car to drive the 3k to the car rental office. 

When I was about .5k from their offices, I got into an accident.  A motorcycle and my car collided, and the rider flipped over my car into the street.  Per Costa Rican law, we left both vehicles in the street where everything happened and got to the side of the road.  The motorcyclist (Rick) was very lucky – had had some abrasions on one shin and a cut on his thumb, but was otherwise fine.  He was a nice guy, and we chatted while we waited for an insurance officer, the transit police, and some agents from the rental car company to come down and inspect.  I had to fill out reports for each of those groups, and 2.5 hours later, I was able to leave the scene.  I followed the rental car folks back to the office, where I turned the car in and caught a shuttle back to the hotel.  By the time I got to the hotel, H was already asleep.  I showered, calmed down chatting with S, and then knocked off myself.

Wednesday morning brought a 5am wake-up.  We caught a 6am shuttle to the airport and got to our plane on time.  I’m writing all of this from the plane, flying back to LAX, where the fires are very scary!

LATER:  As we were flying into LAX and getting ready for landing, S grabbed my arm and told me that some of our dear friends lost their home in the LA fires.  So, instead of having a calm afternoon settling back in, doing laundry, etc., we quickly unpacked our bags and then went to where they were staying, giving them some support in their time of need.  We got home later than we wanted, got H to sleep, and then collapsed in bed ourselves.  I slept well for about four hours, but then anxiety dreams woke me.   So, I’m up!

We're home, kind of unpacked, terrified and heartbroken for our friends, but we're safe.

Day 9: Parasailing, teaching, and another night hike

Today was hot and sunny, perfect weather for this morning's adventure: parasailing!  We started with breakfast on the beach and then a walk down the shore to the parasailing company, Aguas Azules.  

We met them at their pop-up on the beach, where they were running a pretty efficient operation.  Melanie and her husband were the owner operators, and they had three parachutes and boats that they could run at a time.  Each boat had a crew, plus there was a beach crew that got passengers kitted up, a crew that ran everyone through what to expect and helped us launch, and a guy on a jetski who retrieved us after we splashed down.  H and I went up together and got a tour around Puente Catedral.  It was really amazing.  We both felt totally safe.

After getting back to shore, we hung at the beach for an hour before I had to go to teach and have appointments.  Today's the first day of classes, so while I was teaching, S and H had fun on a zip coaster and at the pool.  

When the afternoon was winding down, we all reconnected, got cleaned up, and headed into Quepos (the town just north of Manuel Antonio) for dinner and yet another stupid beautiful sunset.

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One of the things that I'm missing in Costa Rica is an inventive and culturally rich culinary culture.  The tropical fruit here is outstanding - everything is five times better than what you can get in the states, but outside of every restaurant doing a version of Gallo Pinto (Costa Rica's rice and beans dish) and more ceviche than you can shake a stick at, there's not really much to the food culture.  Even the 'nice' restaurants we've gone to have been just ok, food wise.  We've had some amazing bites (tortillas, here, grilled octopus there, and Manuel Antonio's cocktail scene is on point), but nothing that lives up to hype. We've enjoyed what we ate, but I think that Costa Rican restaurants are graded on a curve.

After the dinner (another highly-rated restaurant that served food that was 'fine,' we met our guide Kevin at Biophilia Natural Reserve for another jungle night hike.  Unlike the one that we did in La Fortuna where we were part of a group of around 12 people, and our group was one of 4 wandering the grounds, we were the only group in the reserve and we Kevin all to ourselves.  He showed us a bunch of great animals, and we were all three astounded at his eye. He could pick out tiny animals at such a distance!

The first two photos are mine.  The others are ones that Kevin took with his iphone mounted against his nature scope.

Croc.

This little guy was the size of a quarter, and H found him!

Wandering Spider eating a cockroach. Good riddance.

Don't be sad for the bug-covered sloth.  Kevin says this is a symbiotic relationship.

Apparently it is rare to see the Camron climbing salamander.

Beautiful half-moon!

After we said goodnight to Kevin, we came home to pack a bit and go to bed.  We've got one more sweaty adventure tomorrow!

S and I both feel like we're ready for this trip to be done.  It's been a packed adventure, but we're ready to get home and resume our lives, sleep in our beds, etc.