The West

 The little crater we could see from the big crater rim below.

 One of the glacier trucks coming off of Snaefellsjokull glacier.

 From desert to glacier, Mohammad is enjoying it all.

 Me with Mohammad doing what he does best in the background....

 The mysterious Barnafoss waterfalls.

 The last fjord on the way to Reykjavik.

Porufoss waterfalls.

Tuesday, August 22^nd.

We left our guesthouse at 9 and drove for about an hour to a museum in honour of one of their most famous poets, writer and politician Snorri Sturluson. Then we drove to an old cemetery to see gravestones written in Nordic runes.

We also went to a site where millions of gallons of boiling water flow out of the ground from a super heated celled below ground. Johann had been here a few weeks ago and you could walk around and watch the water, but now it is all fenced off as a woman fell in and died.

We drove to part of the national park where there was a volcano that we could climb. This was a great hike and a welcome workout. When we got to the top, we could see down into the crater and from the edge as we walked around the rim, we could see another smaller crater just behind it. It makes you wonder what it was like when they erupted.

Next we drove through a fjord and up to the Snaefellsjokull glacier. The last twenty kilometres was along a very bumpy steep road to the edge of the glacier. We got out and had a chance to walk on the glacier as it is most flat and safe. The ice here is crystallized and melting fast. Mohammad was amazed as he has never been in this type of environment. We saw some of the huge tourist trucks that drive from here over the glacier to the other side. We stayed for a little while and then headed back down.

The next stop was at Barnafoss waterfalls which are amazing and different from any that we had seen before. The main river roars down a narrow channel and through a rock tunnel. But as the river goes by the Barnafoss falls flow out of the rock on the far side of the river. They are not flowing over the rock, they are flowing through it! I can't imagine where all that water comes from, but it sure is beautiful.

Then we drove through another fjord on our way back to Reykjavik. We made one last stop at the Porufoss waterfall where Johann thought we might see some jumping salmon, but the water was low in the river and they weren't there.

From there we heading back to the city, where we had just enough time to check into the Aurora guesthouse, dump our stuff and walk to the Hornid Restaurant for our last dinner. I had suggested that we all pool our tips together and put it in an envelope for Johann. After dinner I made a short speech to him on behalf of all of us. He was nice enough to say that he didn't feel like he was working this week, but rather traveling and sharing his country with friends.

After that we headed back to the hotel, and headed to our separate rooms for the night.