Blue Lagoon


Blue Lagoon

Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

We just left Iceland, home of crystalline light, inexplicably tasty licorice, and the dreamlike Blue Lagoon. On the day we visited, the water was white-blue and iridescent, like the inside of an abalone shell. It’s warmer than a bathtub, and the steam is a dense fog between you and the people around you.

The salty water makes it easy to float on your back and feel the cool air on your face. It’s so relaxing that you have the urge to drool. Bryan has flying dreams, but I have swimming dreams. Floating there was like living in that perfect hour just before waking, when your brain is set to Happy and you have time to sleep in.

Mate


Mate

Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

Mate is Argentina’s afternoon drink of choice. It’s kind of like tea, but you fill the special cup 3/4 full of herbs, then stick in a straw with a filter at the bottom so you can drink it.

It tastes like a cup of sweet clover steeped in warm, slightly diluted bile. I would ingest something like it again only if a pleasant hallucinatory experience were to follow.