Atlantica - 01.09.2007, Page 27

A T L A N T I C A 25
with her husband and daughter to Toronto for three
weeks last summer. “You’re relaxed. You’ve got all the
amenities and you can act like you’re at home,” she
says.
Sigmundsdóttir’s hosts left behind various food
staples and a bottle of wine in the fridge for them.
Back in Iceland, she had left brochures and “a little
dissertation” for her guests. “I enjoyed being helpful
and recommending places to visit.”
Pippa Wells spent almost three weeks in southern
California with her husband and two daughters in
1999. “We really got an insight into the local life and
living as an American,” she recalls. “And there was a
fantastic pool!”
Any difficulties families have encountered on
their exchanges have been shrugged off as part of
the adventure. “For [the family we exchanged with]
driving in the UK was a nightmare,” laughs Wells. “They
weren’t used to roundabouts.” And when the Wellses
returned to their home, they arrived to stale and stuffy
air because the windows had not been opened. They
discovered later that the visitors “were frantic about
keeping the windows shut because of killer bees that
arrived from Mexico,” and had assumed that England
had the same threat.
Wells laughs about this now, as well as the time on
her third home swap in a small Swiss village when her
hosts mixed up the dates and inadvertently locked
them out. “We had to break into the house by climbing
on each other’s shoulders,” she explains. “But the
house was great!”
Some incidents can be avoided by stipulating
ground rules in advance. “Those who come to Iceland
don’t just want to be in Reykjavík,” explains Magnússon.
“They travel around the country. But sometimes they
drive the car quite a bit.” Sigmundsdóttir had the same
experience when she returned from Toronto only to
discover that her car had been driven 4,000 kilometers
in 19 days. The solution next time? Sign an agreement
stipulating a certain number of free kilometers and a
fee for the rest.
Regardless of these small risks, home exchange is
thriving like never before as people travel more and
airfares continue to drop. “The world is so accessible
now,” says Wells. “Anyone can go anywhere so you just
decide what it is that you want. People are becoming
more adventurous in their travel but they still like
safety and comfort.”
The Wells family hasn’t been on a home exchange
in several years, but they’re hoping to possibly head
off to New Zealand for a month when their two
daughters are away at university. New York City is
next on the list for Sigmundsdóttir and her husband.
Both Magnússon and Pálsson would like take their
little ones on another home exchange adventure, but
nothing concrete has been planned.
As for Diaz and Winslet, after their home exchanges
and serendipitous encounters with attractive single
men—Jude Law and Jack Black—they lived happily
ever after. a