ANYWHO when we all arrived we were taken to a hostel near the Keflavik airport, and it was pretty bare bones.
After settling in a bit we went off to the Svartsengi geothermal power plant. The manager gave us a tour but I honestly have no idea what he was talking about for a majority of the time. By far the best part of the plant was it's architecture because it looked like a futuristic top secret bunker on Mars.
At the plant they take the steam and water from the hot springs and use them to supply the area with hot water, as well as energy. It's totally clean but there are mineral residues when the steam is sent through the system. At first they were discharging this mineral water into a lava field so that it would soak back into the ground, and then they could reuse it. Because of the minerals in the water it formed a plaster on the rocks, and ended up making a huge natural hot tub. Some guy decided to start bathing in it...and years later we have the Blue Lagoon! A huge spa in the middle of nowhere.
At night we had some bbq and then played a viking game called Castles (or something much more complicated in Icelandic). Surprisingly I actually played this game in America before...so I explained the game and became referee for an intense 3 matches. (Forgot to take pictures, it was cold!)
The next day we went to another, much bigger, geothermal power plant...but I can't remember the name at all and if I did I probably couldn't type it. But they had cool giant interactive boards! And they produce most of the energy for the island. The day we visited they were actually completely shut down (which is apparently extremely rare for a power plant to ever do) because they were installing a new piece to the energy grid.
When they create a borhole, which is a big big well at the hotspring, they have to let the area release a lot of pressure before they can cap it and utilize it as an energy source. The steam billows out and creates a low rumbling noise in the area. Once it's capped they install these little igloos to harness and distribute the steam and water.
After the power plant we stopped in a geothermal park where hot springs puddles and rivers constantly release steam. It's very dangerous if you go off the marked paths because the ground could collapse and the water is hot enough to seriously burn very quickly.
Our final destination for the day was a sustainable community called Solheimar. Solheimar is predominantly a haven for independent adults with special needs. They have workshops where they can create art, weave, make soap, sculpt, etc., and they also have a greenhouse for their produce, a wind turbine...etc...you get it...
It's 11pm here but it looks like 7pm at the latest...Either way I should go to sleep...
Amazing! Do you have any sense how expensive things are there? I'm nervous about spending too much if I go out there.
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