diving between two continents!
the real reason we went to iceland and got our scuba certifications last year? to dive the silfra fissure. silfra is located in iceland's thingvellir national park, which is a beautiful valley where the north american and eurasion tectonic plates are crashing into each other deep underground. this causes fissures to form on the surface. the water flowing through silfra is from the langjokull fissure and is filtered through lava rock for decades before entering the fissure - this means the water is super cold year round (just a couple degrees above freezing!), and super clean and clear.
the operator we booked through was DIVE.IS, a five star PADI dive center, and i cannot recommend them enough. our guides were super friendly and knowledgeable, the equipment was all excellent quality and in really great condition, and all the staff were super helpful that day getting us into and out of our gear (which is a life saver given how COLD it is!). there are even cookies and hot chocolate after you get out of the water! they take pictures throughout the dive (which is how we got all of the underwater ones in this post) and for a flat fee, you get all of the photos take that day.
james!
me!
the dive itself was amazing and completely surreal. the water is crystal clear, and the twists and turns in the fissure form different rooms as you swim through. the dive was also COLD, and after the first dive, my hands were too cold to do another. while james was on his second dive, i spent some time exploring thingvellir national park (photos at the end). definitely one of the most crazy/beautiful places on the planet.
diving has also completely changed how we look at travel! did you know that part of the great wall of china is flooded and you can dive it? or that there's a ton of amazing wrecks off the coast of japan? that's of course in addition to all the typical places you think of when diving like hawaii, australia and thailand. since iceland, we've gotten our advanced open water, wreck and nitrox certifications, so i can't wait to see what our next big diving adventure will be!
