Ocean Adventures By Brooke Hanson from Winnipeg, MB

I have been lucky enough to work with the Elding Whale Watching company during my family stay in Reykjavík.* I have been out on tours 6 times in 5 days, and each time has been an exhilarating and unique experience. On my second day I was sent on an Express Whale & Puffin tour with Whale Safari, and it was SO MUCH FUN! These tours are on RIB boats, so they go much faster and are much smaller than the large whale watching boats. These boats also allow passengers to be much more "up close and personal" with the animals.

                  Once I was dressed for the outing (flotation suit, life jacket, 2 pairs of gloves, hat and goggles) it was time to head over to the boat, which docks in the Old Harbour and allows for a great view of Harpa. The guide told us to put our phones and cameras in our suits to keep them safe and dry, so without thinking further I dropped my phone into the abyss that was the internal cavity of my suit. We set off, and were bouncing along to an island where Puffins settle in the summertime. (Side note - Puffins are TINY! For some reason I had expected them to be at least double their size.) It was there that I realized that my phone was no longer where I had dropped it, and was probably loose in my suit - if it was even there at all.

                  I had actually convinced myself that my phone had fallen out of the leg of my suit and had bounced into the Atlantic Ocean, but I was having so much fun that I was at peace with that sequence of events. Unfortunately, without my phone I was not able to take pictures of the Puffins, the Minke Whales, the Harbour Porpoises, nor the White Beaked Dolphins. You'll just have to take my word that I saw them on a wonderfully sunny day, with the Reykjavík skyline and mountains in the background, and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

                  On the way back to the harbour I felt something slide down my leg: my phone! I contorted into the weirdest, least comfortable position so that my phone would not slide out of my suit. Luckily this worked, and now my gorgeous/not at all embarrassing selfies can be shared with the world.

                  I am so grateful to be here in Iceland with the Snorri Program. This particular adventure, in conjunction with a little bit of luggage drama, has made me feel less tied down to all of those material items that I thought I needed to survive (dramatic, I know). It also brought me within meters of a Minke Whale, which was SO COOL! 


*Brooke stayed in Ísafjörður in the Westfjords with her relatives for one week