about 2-3 weeks ago we began mattanchuk with semi solid foods, today it was the turn of the peach. in the beginning he didn't know what we wanted of him with the new form of feeding but now he is an expert, he sees the spoon and opens wide. but for the peach, he devoured the little box, true he had half on the bib, another half on his face, and another half on the chair. after that he looked at the cap and looked for more peach, so cute. because i gave him yummy food he decided to give me other things.
not sure how he managed to get poop on his stomach!!! he rarely exploded and gets some on his back, but on his stomach, that's new, so i give him a bath, soap him up, dry him and get ready with a new diaper. so he lifts his legs up, i see him planning something but not fast enough to react to stop the stream, back to the sink... wash up, dry and now here comes the spit, gulp of spit, the some of 4th half that went inside... well back to the sink... while i dress him up again, he sneezes, but lucky not enough to justify a sink.
next time he gets pears, peach it too exciting
mean while on day 6...
we had a tour bus at 8 , so we work up early, checked out got some day snack and hopped the bus to the Icelandic desert. this is the highlands, high (well higher) and very dry, this is a desert in the Shadow of the glacier. the tour has very corrective guide. say things like "the next time i speak i am going to tell you about this or that" and soon she does, very organized and precise. we pass next to a half open old volcano that looks like an amphitheatre and the guide says that it was used for that in recent block buster movie, the tom cruise one i think, have not seen it yet, but i can see how it would be a perfect place for that, soon we see a tale mountain, this is the queen of Icelandic mountain and a recent #1 pick by the locals as Iceland favorite mountain, we have good view of this mountain that is usually covered with clouds. we stop by a small waterfall for photo opportunity and a chance to fill our water bottles in pure stream water, cold and fresh. yesterday in myva- they use thermal energy for heat, so the hot water smell like sulphur, you can almost taste it, but they say its safe. safe perhaps, but yuck, this fresh water is so cold and so good.
we get back the bus, this bus like the previous one 4 days ago is very bumpy, the view is arid and after another hour we get to unique lava views and the guys tels about the various types of lava - the types depends on the levels of minerals and they have Hawaiian names - poahoehoe and A'a - one heavy with minerals and is more rugged and spiky and the other is more flowy and looks like very dark ice cream. soon we begin fording some rivers and the bus seems careless by some massive rivers. we stop at a ranger station by a stream in the middle of nowhere and hear a tail of some Icelandic outlaw who lived up here the whole winter for the crime of stealing a sheep (big deal then) he hid in hole and used a horses skin (stealing horses is not a big offense apparently) as cover for his hole, for the entire winter, eating some roots. we ate lunch in this strange oasis. soon we went on the bumpy bus and moved more inland, another hour passed and we reached the edge of a huge volcano, we soon departed and started the hike. this volcano is 55km in circumference, we just walk in the middle and the mountain edges are all around, the inner mountain is tar black with patches of red and snow. its cold today and as we keep going it gets colder and windier, the wind is knocking lava dust in the air that gets in to the eyes and makes breathing hard. not sure what's the deal with wind and volcano, but its 2 days in a row that we suffer from this combination. after 30 minutes we reach another caldera, in the middle of this huge volcano there are 2 things, one is a pretty lake, and the other is another small volcano, actually there was a smaller eruption in the 60s creating another baby volcano. rain water filled it, making a kind of milky white pool. we knew upfront that there is a possibility of taking a swim in this pond and the guide on the bus says its not always possible weather depending and if you do , it is traditional to do so in the nude! since the minerals will make the clothes stink.
the wind on the way was not promising, but it relaxed a bit when we finally got to the lake, the problem was the way down. this pool was at the bottom of the baby volcano and we were at the top and the angle was super steep, nobody went down and i was debating what to do, i hadn't done anything stupid in a long time and i need my crazy fix at least once a year, i don't recall the last one.
a couple began descending and i quickly followed, this was the steep descent, i went on my butt to not fall and a few minutes later i was down. i must admit it is strange to strip in public, lucky the rest were way up there, but i wasn't alone, a few other people from the bus stripped down and soon we were in the water. this is rain water, but there are warm bubble from the ground, if you stand too long in a spot you might get burned, the result is a timid pond, not slimy at all like i assumed a sulphur pool would be, it feels so liberating, what i forgot is the power of zoom, my friends did not see me come down but they did catch on at some point and used a good zoom to take some naughty photos. nothing like a volcano moon. just before stripping, i saw a sock fly in the breeze and disappeared in the milky water, i couldn't find it and prepared to spend the way with one sock, lucky the missing sock was someone else's. after some delightful time we got dressed and i begun the climb up. this was not that high- perhaps 50 meters of elevation but so steep, i barely made it and we begun the walk back to the bus, taking lots of volcano photos and enjoying the hike, this time with no wind.
i love doing stupid things, highly recommended.
the next 3-4 hours were spent driving back the way we came , learning more about Icelandic life from the guide, learning that how stupid trolls are and that every boulder is a petrified troll, they get that in the sun, so when you encounter a troll, keep it waiting till dawn , they you can escape, if not, you will be eaten. Icelandic history like all of Scandinavia is full of trolls and also elves. remember do what elves tell you, to guarantee a good life, except one thing... i forget what it was. kidding, don't follow a female elf when they sing, kind of like the Greek sirens.
we returned to town and we chose, to do tents this night, right by the lake where ducks poop everywhere! went back to the restaurant by the rock garden for some nice asparagus soup- yes asparagus soup was my 2nd stupid thing of the day, but it was good- a new soup to the menu and a burger i think. we had great views of the sunset over the lake. it was late but the night was no over, we returned for a very late dip in the thermal lagoon. it was close to midnight when we returned to the camp site to find Amit's tent broken!
its really fun to discover a broken tent after midnight with duck poop everywhere, lucky it was not my turn to be in that tent.. and amit/shay wrestled with the tent to pack it and were interrupted by a suspicious camp guard wondering if they skip payment of this glorious poop filled camp site. somehow they convinced him and we had little choice but to cramp in my tent, all 3 of us in a brockback mountain tent for 2. lucky that we are all friends.
thus sometimes after midnight in a poop filled camp site, cramped in a tent, day 6 ends.
p.s doing stupid things is good for your health!
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