This article is an excuse to share the photos that I took on a spontaneous trip to the middle of nowhere. It all started after a back pain, which could be explained by the quarantine itself, between sitting for a long time and while trying to exercise at home, I made a sudden movement. It’s not the first time this has happened to me, and after a rest, we decided to go in the car to an isolated place to walk. In Iceland, unlike the overcrowded Mexico City, finding a corner to walk under the "social distance" norm is relatively easy.
During the last week of April, the arrival of the summer was more visible, the streets, once desolated, begin to jam with people running, children riding bicycles and those people that go for a walk just to get some air. And by Monday, businesses opened with more lax measures. IKEA opened its doors normally. The children returned to the classrooms ... to confine themselves again after a strike by the school workers union. Normality is still far away, but perhaps it’s approaching. Or so we all hope. On the Icelandic news, they reported that further studies are expected to be done on the virus, apparently they want to know if there exist group immunity. As far as we are concerned, we continue to take preventive measures, at least until we know the direction that the pandemic continues to take.
Returning to our sporadic trip, I saw a motel sign, which I had never seen before. Maybe because of the darkness, maybe because of the snow, maybe because I hadn't paid attention to it. We passed quickly, and since I couldn’t take a photo, we decided to repeat the trip, also for the fact that walking into the nowhere did my back good, but this time with the equipment ready for the photos. The road is heading to Reykjanes, a place that recently reported volcanic activity and several earthquakes. Part of its touristic attraction is that the tectonic plates of Europe and America meet there, from which I hope to write about on another occasion. This time we just took photos of the road, the sights, and the sudden change Iceland has once the snow (and darkness) are gone.
Despite the fact that the sun is hot enough, at the foot of the mountain, the gusts of wind are cold, reddening the hands and nose. To this they call it summer. In the middle of nowhere, as expected, there is nobody, if not, that man who fishes in the lake.
As a curious fact, we went through NASKEF, where there are several hotels and car rental services, A. used to work in one of them. The tiny little town seems abandoned, among the lack of tourists and students from the local University. The ghost town sleeps with its scores of cars parked without license plates (so not to pay the relevant tax during this pandemic). Back in Reykjavik, I managed to take the photo I wanted of the Motel sign.
