Because it is home to the international airport, Reykjanes Peninsula, to the southwest of the capital, will perhaps be your first encounter with Iceland... and it comes as a shock! It is a vast desert of lava flows growing with silvery moss, purple lupines and fumaroles that give away an intense geothermal activity. The inhabitants, living on the few spurs of land around large fishing ports, see tourists making a beeline for one of Iceland's gems: the Blue Lagoon.