Readers who made it to the end of the past post may have noticed that we planned to go on a puffin viewing tour. Theses small marine birds are very popular with tourists such as ourselves. In fact, the ship completely sold out its puffin tour (people in the upper cabins got first pick and took all of the available spaces before we got a chance). As a result we had to go with a tour company that we found ourselves (Viator). As we waited and waited for our tour bus to arrive we were questioning whether our choice of tour provider was a good one. The bus finally arrived over 45 minutes late. But once we got loaded onto the bus it was just fine. Our tour guide, Eva, was super knowledgeable and cool and she even sang an Icelandic children’s song to us while we drank tea and ate kleina during an afternoon break in a village community center. And most important of all, we saw puffins. Many, many puffins. It was another “peak experience” of the type we’ve become accustomed to on this fabulous trip to Iceland. They really are photogenic little guys. And they make this sort of mooing sound that is pretty funny which you can hear right at the beginning of the video below:
Here are just a few of the literally hundreds of puffin pictures we took on our puffin tour:
Puffins nest in holes in the ground or in small caves on rock cliffs. This puffin is standing in front of a nest.
I could go on posting these photos forever. But you get the idea. They are super calm, not at all afraid of humans. In fact, I was going up a stairway and what did I see but a puffin coming down the stairway right in front of me. Thanks to Bill, who caught this interaction and, along with Cath, also took several of the photos shown above.
On our way back from seeing the puffins we stopped and saw a waterfall that was just a mile or so from our ship. What a beauty this was:
Here is Sheila photographing someone at the waterfall:
And here are Noreen and Tom there too.
Álfaborg (The Elf Rock), pictured below, is believed to be the home of the Elf Queen and her retinue. Iceland has long and storied history of elves, trolls, hidden people and other mythical beings. And apparently this rock is considered to be a very special place in Elvish history. So here it is, along with their special temporary guest, Bill. I believe he speaks a smattering of Elvish.
Today we are anchored in the bay out side of Djúpivogur, a tiny fishing village in eastern Iceland. The weather, which up until yesterday was sunny and beautiful, has changed to clouds and mist, in the 45 degree range. But it didn’t slow us down when we visited the puffins, and we will be fine today since we are planning to enjoy a day on the ship, something we haven’t had a lot of time to do during the days so far. Today, those who want to go ashore must use the tender.
