Iceland + Puffins = Winning

While I was in Iceland last year, the group really wanted to see some puffins. The problem is, we didn't do any research beforehand. We pulled into Egilsstaðir, checked into our Airbnb, then did some research about where to find puffins. There was an article on the internet about this woman's travels on the ring road and she mentioned a tiny fishing village named Borgarfjörður Eystri where there was a small "island" with lots of puffins. Since it was only an hour away from Egilsstaðir, we headed that direction. We went over this beautiful mountain pass, I don't know the name of it but it reminded me of my short time in Glacier National Park! It was stunning! 

We were going by this small bay and we thought that we saw whales out in the bay, I pulled the van over immediately and we all jumped out full of joy and excitement. Turns out, we saw a large of large rocks that from a distance, somewhat look like whales.

Alas, no whales

We headed to the "island" outside of Borgarfjörður Eystri and all around us are stunning views of the Icelandic coastline. The day before was some of the worst weather I had ever encountered, so seeing the coast on such a calm and peaceful day was a real treat. We were told that the puffins would be arriving in an hour or so, they were out fishing apparently. After a few hours, there were puffins everywhere and hardly anyone was around; it was spectacular! We were able to get pretty close to the little fellas, even though they are quite skittish. Their movement can only be described as; slow and lumbering. Puffins are remarkable swimmers and are very quick in flight, but walking is not their strength. Overall, this was one of the most fun days we spent in Iceland and one that I will remember for the rest of my life. We spent 5 hours in Borgarfjörður Eystri and those could have been some of the best 5 hours that I had in all of 2017.

We even crafted an inside joke about puffins and their love of tractors. Spending 8 days with 5 strangers will invariably lead to hilarity, we joked about making a children's book about the tractor driving puffins of Iceland.