– a candid shot of ratna: iceland’s coolest guide as we were heading back to reykjavik -

during our recent travels in iceland, we had the privilege of meeting someone whom i personally think could be iceland’s best guide.

his name is ratna and he’s from a tour company called bustravel iceland.

ratna has figured quite prominently in some of my south coast iceland blogs and there is a reason. the guy knows his stuff (and more) beyond the back of his hand.

resembling ian mckellan in some strange way, ratna reminded me of ian’s ‘gandalf’ character from tolkien’s fantasy novels.

– ratna reminded me of ian mckellan in his looks and personality -

a witty sense of humour, generous in his delivery of information and an impressive knowledge of global affairs and international history that were all spewed out in a wizard-like, thoughtful, raspy voice, it was very hard not to think of him as some kind of grey wizard traipsing the landscapes of iceland in his bus bringing us visitors on his daily ‘quests’ and adventures.

while pointing out the sights and scenes around us, ratna would splice in interesting bytes of icelandic history including the country’s invasion during the second world war, weather phenomenon in iceland, as well as its attempt to grow bananas and more. (yes, the local national university is big on tropical fruit research with banana cultivation being one of the country’s top priority research endeavours.)

he could’ve just asked me to bring a few dozen bunches in from my country, really. we have LOADS of ‘nanas.

but i’ll stop here for now and let ratna fill you in on the wool industry in iceland and a little on the village of vik in this video here – mostly me recording the all that i see on my way to vik while ratna rattles on.

ratna, as of this writing, works as a guide for bustravel iceland. ask for him if you’re doing any south coast tours and tell him i said ‘hi!’