Stuck on Stykkishólmur

The CELL group ventured to the exciting western coast of Iceland this past weekend! By the way, the reason we travel mostly to coastal areas of Iceland is that the middle of the country is much less habitable than it's border. The Icelandic Highlands cover the vast majority of Iceland's interior and consist mostly of volcanic desert. Plant growth is inhibited here because the porous ground allows precipitated water to flow deep into the earth, out of reach of surface organisms. Back to the west, we stayed in the Harbor Hostel for two nights in a town of one thousand people, called Stykkishólmur (pronounced sticky-solmer), located on the northern end of Snæfellsnes peninsula. This is a truly beautiful place. Some call it a microcosm of all of Iceland, with incredible mountains on the horizon as well as nearby volcanoes and glaciers. The hostel we stayed at was right on the harbor, bordered by a gorgeous cliff that overlooked the entire city from atop. It was a suddly welcoming place. Very homy with a funky style and maintaining an exceptionally clean feeling. Young adventurers from all over the world were staying in this hostel on their way to other exciting places. We shared our stories and love for travel.

The CELL group visited the Volcano Museum in Stykkishólmur, which is a geology professor's private collection of art and geological specimens open to the public. Here, we learned that volcanic hotspots stay in the same location on the earth and that techtonic plates move over those hotspots. In an ocean, this normally creates Islands, like Hawaii, but in Iceland's unique position of being on the ridge between two techtonic plates (North American and European), which are gradually spreading apart, the volcanic activity fills in this widening gap with new land, causing Iceland's landmass and area to grow!

Another excited place we saw was a geothermal powerplant generating electricity solely from boiling water and steam that naturally explodes from the earth, unique in its lack of need for deep wells to access the geothermally heated H2O.

In the west of Iceland, we encountered several astoundingly beautiful beaches and met a little bit of Icelandic wildlife! While sitting on a grassy patch, looking across a feild of crumbly-looking rocks and bright green moss, and adjacent to the shimmering water, a small, grey-blue eyed arctic fox approached a few of us, peered over a nearby rock, making eye-contact. It hopped over the rock and scampered in front of us, stopping to roll around and evaluate our behavior. What a beautiful expreience to stare into the eyes of a stunning, undomesticated animal from a few feet away.

We visited a goat farm too! Tiny goats, friendly goats, GIGANTIC goats with horns bigger than arms, teeny tiny baby kittens the size of my hand, adorable doggies, a few sheep who were raised by goats and thought they were goats, chickens, and some very kind people as well. What an adventure! We were all sad to leave the awe-inspiring Snæfellsnes peninsula, but excited to get back to our activities in Sólheimar.