Day 6 Tuesday May 17, 2016

I slept like a rock. I woke up at 8:30am, and I had a great shower and good breakfast. Our first stop of the day was the Bjarnarhöfn Shark Museum right outside of Grundarfjördur. It was a little farm house by the grassy mountains complete with sheep, lambs, ducks, chickens, and a excited border collie. We learned how sharks are caught and prepared for human consumption. The Greenland shark likes cold deep water. People have been hunting shark in Iceland since the fourteenth century. The shark is cut up and put in a wooden box for six weeks. Then it is hung to dry for four months. By then the toxins have leached out and people can eat it. The industry sounds a little fishy to me by how they "accidentally" catch sharks when fishermen catch fish, and it is not known how many sharks are actually caught through bycatch. Nevertheless we each tried a tiny sample of the squishy salty tasting shark meat.

We went back to Grundarfjördur for lunch, and then meandered through the town. Our big adventure of the day was a hike on the Egilsskard trail up the Helgrindur mountain right behind our hostel. As we started walking, there was a woman walking down the mountain with her dog. It is surreal that just outside of her house are beautiful grassy mountains towering above. The path turned from rocks to the thick straw grass covering the hills and mountain. The expanse of land was again stunning. I felt like I was in the Sound of Music climbing every mountain. "The hills are alive!" We reached a beautiful waterfall which most of the group crossed. Emily Anderson found a geode stuck in a rock, so we went exploring for pieces in the pyroclastic debris. It reminded me of hunting for geodes in Quincy, Illinois by my Great Grandmother's house. Happy memories. I also found an awesome rock with possibly silica inside and some kind of blue copper carbonate. A little piece of moss was growing out of it. We also climbed up high and sat enjoying the view of the waterfall. The majority of the group had continued climbing to the ridge. Eventually we walked back with Dr. Suresh to start the vegetable chili dinner. Yum, yum, yum.

Geode!

Home sweet hostel