Iceland review - 2013, Qupperneq 46

44 ICELAND REVIEW
look, you can see the fish change color,” Elías Guðmundsson,
who was born and raised in the West Fjords village of
Suðureyri, says, gesturing towards the bowl of cod marinat-
ing in a mixture of lemon and lime juices. Next he adds red and
yellow peppers, cucumber, chili and a touch of agave syrup.
Elías is teaching the 16 men huddled around the kitchen bench
how to make the South American dish ceviche. It’s men’s night out
in Suðureyri, population 264, and they’re enjoying a glass before
they prepare for tomorrow’s mid-winter feast.
FISHING VILLAGE WITH A TWIST
Placed in a long, steep fjord with magnificent views, Suðureyri’s
rugged beauty is typical of the westernmost part of Iceland. Like
other coastal villages, Suðureyri is a village built on fish.
And its residents have done well for themselves. One company
has been exporting fish by-products to Nigeria and Denmark
for 15 years. The industry has attracted foreigners to the village;
nationals of the Philippines, Thailand and Poland are among those
who make up the community’s roughly 20 percent foreign contin-
gency (double the average in Reykjavík). “They’re just part of the
community. They start families here and buy houses. The school is
very international,” says Ársæll Níelsson, a 29-year-old actor who
moved back from Denmark to his home turf three years ago to
take a part in a movie, Vaxandi tungl, filmed in town.
While fishing is still a mainstay of the local economy, times are
changing in this village as locals look to the prospects for tourism
in the area. This summer 42,000 cruise ship passengers—a 25-per-
cent increase over last year—are expected to visit the larger town of
Ísafjörður, the unofficial capital of the region. With Ísafjörður only a
20-minute drive from Suðureyri, some are looking to tap into that
potential.
Elías, for example, has been marketing the village as a center for
food travel through his travel agency Fisherman. This year, he plans
to offer daily classes at his fish cooking school, spotting the potential
some years ago when the local council put a derelict building up
for sale in 2000. He snapped it up, paying just ISK 50,000 (USD
395), and turned it into a guesthouse. And since, he’s continued with
buying and restoring old buildings, giving them a new purpose. He
owns the restaurant The Talisman and a soon-to-be-opened bar and
café, which houses the cooking school, and runs year-round guided
culinary and history walks of the village.
Once isolated from other parts of the West Fjords by the rough
mountain passes which wound up and over the 13-km (8-mile)long
fjord Súgandafjörður, the village has been connected to Ísafjörður,
where some of the locals travel for work, by a tunnel since 1996.
“Before that, it was very difficult to get here. We were sometimes
stuck here for weeks at a time during the winter,” Elías recounts,
adding that there has also been much less snow in recent years. “But,
we’re still a bit out of the way. People don’t just come here to fill
up on petrol. They come here because they have a reason—it’s a
different crowd.”
With its young and
dynamic population,
Suðureyri no longer
fits the description of a
sleepy fishing village.
By Zoë roBErT
PHOTOS By ÁSlaug SNorraDÓTTir
West Fjords
Way oF LiFe