Thursday 9/8/16

We left Selfoss just after breakfast and thankfully, Dave is feeling much better today.  We went to visit a local horticulturalist.  He had a series of greenhouses and plants only flowers for cutting: Gerber daisies, roses, lilies, etc.  The whole operation was more complicated than I would have thought.  They are trying to be as green as possible so use geothermal water to heat and sodium lights to extend the days in the winter.  They don't celebrate Valentine's Day here, but Woman's Day.  Mother's Day is another big time for cut flowers along with June for graduations and christenings.  Surprisingly, weddings do not use a lot of flowers, but lilies are used for funerals.  It was quite an operation.  All of the flowers are sold at the local markets - none are exported.  Their competition is from Holland and some roses that are grown in Africa, which was news to me.  They are having great luck with growing the daisies in lava rock - plenty of that here!  Our next adventure was a river raft ride on a category 2+ river.  Ten of the fifteen of us suited up (Dave stayed on the bus, very wisely) in wetsuits, life jackets and helmets.  We drove for a ways up river and then hopped on the raft.  It was raining today (our first soaking rain that we have had here), but as we knew we were going to get wet anyway, it didn't make any difference.  What I didn't count on was how cold we would get, even with silk long underwear under the wetsuits.  The only thing to keep us warm was the paddling and for long stretches we couldn't paddle - we just let the current carry us down river.  Some of the rapids were a bit rough and we had to hold onto the OS (Oh, Shit) line quite often.  We had a lovely Indian guide named Ravi who was very entertaining.  The best part of the trip was when we went through a canyon - very narrow with steep basalt rock sides.  At one point, the basalt formed hexagonal columns, which was very cool.  There was a boatload of young Germans in one of the other rafts (there were three all together) who were pushing each other into the cold water - BRRRR!  We stopped at one point so that those who wished to could jump from a cliff into the water.  Several of the people from their raft did it, but to no one's surprise, none of the "old folks" were interested.  We were quite cold enough without submerging ourselves in the river.  When we got to the landing place (an hour and a half from our start) we had a short bus ride back to our starting point.  I couldn't wait to get out of the rafting gear and into the hot shower and then the sauna.  I was chilled to the bone, but the heat of the water and the sauna helped to raise my body temperature.  We had a late lunch at a bakery - soup and bread.  It was located in a small shopping mall and there were a few shops as well as a post office, grocery store and a library.  We also enjoyed a photo exhibit of the 2008 earthquake in this area.  It was a 6.3 and there was quite a lot of damage.  The display included a wide crack in the floor covered in plexi-glass and lit down below with red LED lights to simulate lava.  One side of the crack was labeled North America and the other side, Europe.  It was really quite interesting reading all the personal accounts of people who lived through the quake.  One woman made a collage of all of her broken china and glassware - quite an interesting piece of art.  Our last stop of the day was to Iceland's largest geothermal energy plant, cleverly named ON.  We had a guide who explained the whole process of generating energy from the thermal waters above the magma layer of a nearby volcano.  We then got to look into the turbine/generator room.  It was all quite interesting that they have been able to harness the natural power that abounds in this country.  We are now back in Reykjavik at our original hotel.  Dinner was on our own tonight so we walked up the street to a local restaurant for a light meal.  Tomorrow is our last full day here.