Iceland is fun even in the rain

The type of boat we took at Jkulsarlon
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On our third full day in Iceland we decided to take it easy - not only were we staying at the Gerði Farmhouse again, meaning we didn´t have to rush to a new destination, but it was somewhat crappy weather so we were hoping if we waited, the weather would get better.

The places we are staying at include breakfast in the price of accomodation.  It´s nice to wake up and be able to go down to our breakfast surprise every morning - we never know what we are going to get.  Iceland has really good milk so far, and there are always cereal and toast choices.  We especially liked eating breakfast at Gerði because they serve from 8-10am.  Finally a place that serves later in the morning!  Although we got to breakfast at 9:30am, it was probably too late, because they only had small plates left.  There were two large plates left, actually, but as Jubie walked towards them another tourist ran ahead of her and grabbed them.  And they say Americans are rude!  Anyway one excellent thing to eat in Iceland is skyr, their special yogurt.  It comes in many excellent fruit flavors and each container comes with it´s own fold-up plastic spoon, how cool!  Yum, I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dessert!

Svartifoss
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Since we were in the Gerði area for another full day, we backtracked west to some places we missed the day before.  First we went to Jökulsarlon, a glacial lagoon that had so many gorgeous icebergs and icechunks floating around.  Right away we saw a seal swimming around.  We went on an amphibious boat tour there - the boat has wheels, so it can drive on land, and it drives directly in to the lagoon! It was only a 40 ride but very fun (and cold!).  They pull out clear ice for you to eat - mine was good but so slippery I dropped it to the floor of the boat - no more eating ice for me.

Jubie with part of our lunch, eaten in the car as we attempt to wait out the rain
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Next we went to Skaftafell National Park, where it was raining.  We were wimps and sat in our car a bit, hoping it would stop (which it didn´t) so we finally just got out and hiked like we said we would.  We went to Svartifoss, which was a surprisingly easy hike, even in the rain.  We got soaked in the rain as we hiked but it was worth it to see this waterfall.  It pours over these hanging basalt columns that are dark black and very pretty.  The rock formation in pours over is U-shaped and so the entire area felt very secluded.  Afterwards we continued to hike to Sel, a preserved old farmhouse.  Even with the low clouds, it was a great view of the surrounding area from up there, and I learned some about the Icelandic way of building houses back in the day before they could import wood more easily.  Iceland has very few natural trees so they had to build with many other things.  Driftwood was actually really valuable! People would claim driftwood they found and mark it with their own brand so nobody else could use it.