Iceland

Nearly a year since my last post, I'm getting around to blogging again. My first task is to update the site for my trip to Iceland last summer, August 2007. I spent three weeks on the island.

I enjoyed my Iceland trip, but not as much as I thought I would. It was beautiful on sunny days, and misery on rainy days (it didn't help that the high costs of the country necessitated that I sleep in a tent every night of the trip). And, in a way, it felt like "wilderness lite", after visiting Patagonia, Canada, and even parts of the USA. I can see how it is so attractive for Europeans, though, since the choices for true wilderness travel are much more limited on their continent.

Highlights of the trip included: the drive across the interior of the island along the Kjoler Route, puffin watching on the beautiful Westmann Islands, and the two sunny days of hiking I got in at Skaftafell National Park.

Lowlights of the trip included: whale watching in Husavik (paled in comparison to whale watching I've done in other places), extraordinarily high food prices, and the weather.

I'm so glad I went to see Iceland but I don't think I'll go back, mainly due to expense of getting there and the fact that the raw nature in North and South America is more spectacular.