Our blue dot shows we’ve docked in the fishing town of Isafjordur.

In spite of its relative isolation, the town is known for its rather urban atmosphere, flourishing cultural life and rich heritage of music and art.

We started our shore excursion with a scenic bus drive bus drive to a hike.  This is the first shore excursion that really required boots.  The hike was fairly flat but we had to cross several small streams.

At the end of our hike, we discovered a waterfall named Valagil.

On the way back to our bus, we had our first close up encounter with Icelandic horses.  These are small horses – the size of ponies, but they are true horses. They apparently have an extra, unusal gait, but we didn’t have an opportunity to ride one.

Next, we drove to the Arctic Fox center.  This is mainly a research center, but there are two foxes living here.  They were found as orphaned cubs.  Now that they’ve become accustomed to humans, they can never be returned to the wild. They seem happy, though.

There are two color “morphs” of artic foxes. The white ones are very white in winter and live mostly in the hills.  During the summer, their coats are more tan.  The two foxes we saw are called “blue”  and that type  lives mostly at the coast.  During the winter, they become lighter brown.

Before dinner, San Simeon Travel hosted a cocktail party on the bridge.

After dinner we had a surprise visit by whales. The tail flukes below are humpbacks, and the dorsal fins are orca (killer whales).

More to follow tomorrow…