Elena Vasquez · May 7, 2026
Woodsmoke and strong coffee, a hen making her opinions loudly known across a gravel yard, steam rising off a mug someone pressed into my hands before I’d even asked for it — that’s the 7 AM I remember from a farmhouse kitchen somewhere between Vík and Höfn, and it’s the exact moment I realized what … Read more
Elena Vasquez · May 3, 2026
“Just wing the season, Iceland’s stunning either way” — I heard some version of that from at least three different backpackers before my first trip, usually delivered with the confidence of someone who’d only ever seen the place in July. It’s terrible advice. I’ve had a family picnicking on rocks beside me at Skógafoss at … Read more
Elena Vasquez · March 3, 2026
“You won’t need anything special for the waterfalls—just bring a rain jacket,” a fellow traveler told me before my first Iceland trip, and I believed her right up until I was standing at Skógafoss in June (Iceland’s version of summer) getting worked over by what amounted to a horizontal hurricane aimed squarely at my face. … Read more
Elena Vasquez · February 27, 2026
Eight percent — that’s what the battery icon on my phone read, flashing red, while the map app still counted off 47 kilometers to the next town. I’d landed on a nameless stretch of Route 1 between Egilsstaðir and Mývatn, up in Iceland’s northeast, on a piece of road that stops feeling like a road … Read more
Elena Vasquez · January 10, 2026
I never took a gap year. I went straight from high school to college to a career, doing every sensible thing in the right order — and somewhere around 32 I realized I’d been meaning to see the world since…
