So Tired!

I find it hilarious that I half expected to sleep this week away due to the lack of sunlight, but instead I have spent more time awake here than anywhere else I've been. Last night was the first time I was in bed before 3 am, and I went to bed a little after midnight, and I have been up by 8 every day, doing tours and exploring. I woke up this morning, and felt as though I needed a day of less stuff going on.
Yesterday I went on the Black and Blue tour, which was very cool, and very cold. We were standing by the lake, watching the sunrise, and freezing in the wind when we looked at the area we would be swimming, looked at each other, and all concluded that we were nuts. It took us a while to get dressed for the snorkel, we had to get on our thermal layer (which is like a sleeping bag with arms and legs), and then fit that into our dry suits. Then get our neoprene hoods, gloves filled with warm water (which didn't stay warm more than 3 minutes), masks, and flippers on.
Once we got in, it was one of the weirdest experiences. There was enough air in the suits that you just floated, though you can manage to get your feet below you and literally just sit in the water completely buoyed. When you looked down in the water, is was completely clear, a huge rock fissure below you with caves and crannies and the weirdest plant life growing on them. No fish at all. Then we floated with the current for a little under an hour to the pick up point. By this point, we were all mostly numb. Especially our faces, which had nothing over them and were under water almost the entire time. One girl had to be rushed up for the vans because she was so cold she was having trouble breathing a little. The rest of us were fine, though also freezing.
Then, just to prove we were okay, we went rock jumping back into the lake once we'd taken off our flippers and masks. Somehow, this felt even colder, though it was extra cool because it was just high enough that you really got the falling feel. And when you plunged in the water? There is nothing stranger than getting a bunch of really cold water in your ears. Especially when your neoprene hood holds it there afterward.
Eventually we decided we needed to warm up and went back to the vans to get dry. It is so hard to get out of a dry suit when it literally freezes on you. As in you can almost not get out because your arms barely bend, you can't bend down cause the waist line is frozen, and you can barely walk because you almost can't bend your knees. And then once we got out, our hair which was slightly wet all froze. We looked so funny though! And we got a lot of hot chocolate to get us warming up again. They took us out for lunch after this too and we had some hot lamb soup with bread.
Then came the caving. We drove out into the lava fields to the tubes, which are 1,000 years old. We had hardhats with lights on our foreheads, which was totally cool, and even though we could all see our breath and had to watch out for ice in the tubes, it was the first time we all felt warm that day. At the very end, we found the lamb skeleton, which they think is about 1,000 years old from the last volcanic explosion there. They call the tubes Leidarendi which means "end of the road" in tribute to the lamb. A little bit past that we all turned out our lights and told stories in the dark, and then sang happy birthday to one of the guys in our group. Somehow Carlos, our tour guide, had learned of it and the guy was shocked when we all started in.
On our way back out, we took a different route. This one was so narrow, that we would literally have to crawl on our bellies for several spans to fit through. Carlos showed us all the different lava activities too, the marks on the floor, the drips on the ceiling, the layers in the walls, and the bigger cave where the temperatures were so hot that you can still see how the rock was melting. He found us the point out that looks like it came from Alien too. Our group was so much fun though. We spent half the time in the tubes quoting Austin Powers. None of us could stop laughing whenever Carlos said magma, because he said it exactly like Dr. Evil.
Eventually the tour came to an end, and we went back to the city. I took a hot shower to thaw, and was about ready to head in early when Jemma came down and said it was supposed to be a 4 star opportunity for the lights that night. So we layered up again and went down to the harbor to try and see the show. We sat out for a little over two hours, before we were just too cold and went back in. Unfortunately we did not see the lights, but I did have to take another shower to thaw out again. I will be nothing if not clean this leg of the trip!
I'm about to head out for the day, but I keep hearing that wind whip past my window and it makes me feel cold just listening to it. Ah well, I can't stay holed up in here forever. Hope I won't get blown away!