Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Malorie Mackey: Hello, hello, hello, everyone.
Welcome back to Mallory's Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory.
[00:00:13] Michael Maldonado: And I'm your host, Michael.
[00:00:14] Malorie Mackey: And we're here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is.
Speaking of weird, we're following up. Michael's making a funny face at me.
We're following up on our podcast from Iceland, which is one of the weirdest places in the world by far.
Very interesting landscape, like we talked about yesterday, and it has a penis museum, so there's that.
[00:00:37] Michael Maldonado: It's the highlight.
[00:00:38] Malorie Mackey: It's your highlight.
[00:00:39] Michael Maldonado: That's enough reason to go there, just to see the penis museum.
[00:00:42] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
But it also has some really cool and exciting resorts you can stay at.
I like it because Iceland, when I think about it, it's lots of adventure all at once. Like, there's so many things you can do that it just totally adventure filled. But then it's also kind of like a resort too. It's a very nice, like, you know, like, Blue Lagoon. You can go and just be like, I'm gonna get away and enjoy spa time.
Take it easy and relax. And there's good places for that.
[00:01:16] Michael Maldonado: There's a lot of that stuff in that south.
The west corner.
[00:01:21] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:01:21] Michael Maldonado: In, like, retrovik area, where most people are gonna probably fly in and stay relatively confined.
[00:01:29] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
Yes. Although, so.
[00:01:32] Michael Maldonado: Because we didn't make it, like, all the way up and around the whole. Which I would love to do at some point, but I've talked with some people that have, and it sounds like the northeast side, the island is just, like, very little, very sparsely populated.
[00:01:52] Malorie Mackey: I mean, I hear it's. It's. I think my boss told me it was part of the Arctic Circle and that it's just like, snowy wasteland.
[00:02:00] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:02:00] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:02:02] Michael Maldonado: So probably not as much resort town.
[00:02:04] Malorie Mackey: Not as much resort town, but there are a lot of resorts. Yes. More adventure, less resort. It's an interesting mix of adventure and relaxing spa resort time.
[00:02:14] Michael Maldonado: Hmm.
[00:02:15] Malorie Mackey: Hmm. I like it.
[00:02:16] Michael Maldonado: I know you liked your relaxing resort time with your multiple face masks.
[00:02:23] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:02:24] Michael Maldonado: Algae mask.
[00:02:26] Malorie Mackey: The algae mask smelled.
[00:02:28] Michael Maldonado: Well, it's algae.
[00:02:29] Malorie Mackey: That's fair. But you think it would be, like, refined to not smell like something died on your face?
Cause, I mean, all the other ones were really nice, and then that one just smelled pretty rank.
[00:02:40] Michael Maldonado: Well, I'm a man's man, so I use the lava volcano scrub.
[00:02:46] Malorie Mackey: Right. Aggressively. Yeah, Only that I saw you use that. Shh.
[00:02:52] Michael Maldonado: I'm a man's man, Mallory.
You're a man's man.
[00:02:56] Malorie Mackey: Chilling with your drink and your silca mask hanging out like, yeah, this is my spot.
[00:03:02] Michael Maldonado: Lava scrub only.
[00:03:03] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:03:04] Michael Maldonado: And then into the heart of a volcano.
[00:03:07] Malorie Mackey: That was pretty great.
[00:03:07] Michael Maldonado: It's my life.
[00:03:08] Malorie Mackey: You got a patch that said volcano man?
[00:03:10] Michael Maldonado: I did. By got, you mean I purchased from the gift store.
[00:03:14] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:03:14] Michael Maldonado: For myself, right? Yes. I awarded myself the volcano man patch.
[00:03:18] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, definitely.
Anyway, speaking of resorts, the reason this came up is because I want to talk to everyone today about Hotel Ranga, which is an amazing place to stay in Iceland.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: You.
[00:03:34] Malorie Mackey: It is kind of out in the vast wasteland of Iceland, which is nice because you feel so separated and cozy and not in the chaos of everything. But it's only like an hour, ish. Like hour 15, hour and 20 minutes out from Reytjevik.
[00:03:52] Michael Maldonado: Yeah. It's not so much that it's out in wasteland as in, like, you're on the other side of the island. It's because most of civilizations on the coast, along the whole island, because the center is mostly park and volcano, right?
[00:04:07] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:04:07] Michael Maldonado: And this is kind of up in a little bit. Like, it's inland a little bit, isn't it?
[00:04:11] Malorie Mackey: But not on the coast.
[00:04:12] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:04:13] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:04:14] Michael Maldonado: There's way less built up.
[00:04:15] Malorie Mackey: Yes. And it's, It's. I like when you. When you turn into it, first of all. I also like that they. They do have options to get people to the resort from the airport as well, so you don't have to drive, which is really nice.
And when you do get there and pull in, there's like a big western ranch, like open.
What's the word? It's a gate, but it's not a gate. You know, like the old school. Like, you drive under the big, like, gated sign.
Like, it's like wooden, and it was. It was very. It was very cool. I don't know, it just. I haven't seen anything like that in a long time, at least. And I'm like, oh, this is fun. Like, you're immediately just in the vibe. Right.
[00:04:58] Michael Maldonado: It looked pretty rancher on that side, too.
It would fit in.
In like the Midwest coast of the U.S. definitely.
[00:05:09] Malorie Mackey: Definitely Arizona. Yeah.
[00:05:12] Michael Maldonado: Yeah. I don't know.
[00:05:13] Malorie Mackey: And when you. When you first walk in the front, there's just a giant polar bear.
And I'm immediately invested because it makes me think of the Explorers Club. That's the only other place in the world I've been where there's another giant polar bear.
[00:05:29] Michael Maldonado: Stuffed polar bear.
[00:05:30] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. Was his name Paul?
[00:05:33] Michael Maldonado: I was just about to ask you what his name was.
[00:05:34] Malorie Mackey: I think his name Was Paul, because I went to. To Dracula in my head. All the guys named Paul. I'm pretty sure that his name was Paul because they had. They had, like, a contest to name it in. A kid named it.
Like, children from the school named it Paul, I think.
[00:05:52] Michael Maldonado: Well, they're lucky they didn't get the Bodie McBoatface kind of joke about Barry McBear bear.
[00:06:00] Malorie Mackey: Barry McBear bear? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:06:03] Michael Maldonado: Barry McBearface.
[00:06:05] Malorie Mackey: Barry McBearface.
[00:06:06] Michael Maldonado: Yeah. Bodie McBoatface. Did you know about Bodie McBoatface?
[00:06:10] Malorie Mackey: I don't.
[00:06:11] Michael Maldonado: Oh, I forget where.
What country it was or where it happened, but they had some. They tried to crowdsource the naming of some special boat. I forget what. I forget the details.
They tried to crowdsource it, and we'll name it whatever gets the most votes. And, you know, people are jackasses in general, but especially on the Internet.
[00:06:31] Malorie Mackey: Oh, no.
[00:06:32] Michael Maldonado: And they just got, like, an overwhelming number of joke entries, and the one that won was Boaty McBoatface.
Because it was so stupid. And it just got, you know, it just got enough viral votes, and they committed. They named the thing Bodie McBoatface.
[00:06:50] Malorie Mackey: Well, I respect that commitment, and I'm sure they were really unhappy about it.
[00:06:54] Michael Maldonado: Boaty McBoat.
[00:06:55] Malorie Mackey: Bodie McBoatface.
Oh, my gosh. I love it.
Well, yeah, I forget the details, but.
[00:07:03] Michael Maldonado: They'Re lucky they didn't end up with Barry McBarface if they're just gonna have a vote for that name.
[00:07:08] Malorie Mackey: I know, but, you know, I like Paul.
[00:07:11] Michael Maldonado: Paul's Paul.
[00:07:14] Malorie Mackey: Paul the polar man.
[00:07:15] Michael Maldonado: That's what we can come up with. I mean, you know, where's the crazy Icelandic name?
[00:07:20] Malorie Mackey: Well, it was an Icelandic name.
[00:07:22] Michael Maldonado: In a land of crazy names. Paul is so underwhelming.
The dick museum guy was Thordor. That's great.
[00:07:29] Malorie Mackey: That's true.
[00:07:30] Michael Maldonado: The elf school was Magnus.
[00:07:32] Malorie Mackey: Okay.
[00:07:32] Michael Maldonado: And then your stuffed Arctic bear is Paul.
[00:07:35] Malorie Mackey: Well, they said it was the Icelandic name. Forepol. I just remember the translation.
[00:07:38] Michael Maldonado: There's gonna be some incomprehensible.
[00:07:41] Malorie Mackey: Yes, yes. I just remembered Paul because.
Yes. Yeah, something like that. Right?
[00:07:46] Michael Maldonado: Like the volcano name.
[00:07:48] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, yeah.
Anyway.
[00:07:51] Michael Maldonado: What's that volcano name again?
You were asked to say it.
Brian Dunning asked you to say it.
[00:07:58] Malorie Mackey: He did.
[00:08:02] Michael Maldonado: Crushed it.
[00:08:03] Malorie Mackey: Totally crushed it.
[00:08:06] Michael Maldonado: That one's for you, Brian.
[00:08:07] Malorie Mackey: Yep.
Anyway, Hotaranga. It was amazing. I really liked that.
We're gonna put our interview in here with the owner so you guys can hear his story from him, which I think is the best way to hear it. But He. He took a lot of.
[00:08:26] Michael Maldonado: That was cool that he made the time to come and hang out with you.
[00:08:30] Malorie Mackey: Oh, definitely. He was so nice and excited to like, share all the rooms. And, you know, he really got into the theme, which, I mean, everything has to have a good theme. Right? So it is very kind of explore y and almost like rustic. But then the suites are all themed.
[00:08:49] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:08:49] Malorie Mackey: And they're. They're themed very well.
They're the main, like, big suites. So there's main suites down at the bottom that have all, like, bathtubs in them that are really nice. And then up above them, there were, I believe, seven different suites. So they were each given a continent to be kind of themed after or, you know. So there's the South America room that we saw that was very cool. That had, you know, the art everywhere. They had artifacts, we should probably say.
[00:09:31] Michael Maldonado: Also, the interview is also a video interview, which we'll have out at some point, with footage of some of these rooms.
[00:09:40] Malorie Mackey: Yes. And you can see it in weird World Season 2 as well, which will release in the fall.
The North America room had a giant buffalo head, which I thought was great.
[00:09:52] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Malorie Mackey: Or bison head, I guess. Bison. It's a bison.
There are no buffalo, at least now in North America.
[00:10:00] Michael Maldonado: Were there?
[00:10:01] Malorie Mackey: They're bison.
This was a Marissa rant. I have to. I have to look this up.
[00:10:05] Michael Maldonado: You can't trust that.
We can't confirm that.
[00:10:10] Malorie Mackey: Let me here. I can. I can. Are there buffalo?
[00:10:14] Michael Maldonado: Because they were called Buffalo soldiers and Buffalo hunt. You know, was it just a misnomer? Were they all actually bison?
[00:10:22] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, pretty sure that is. No, no, no, stay. Signed up.
Everyone has to do Buffalo Soldier. I know.
[00:10:30] Michael Maldonado: Bison soldier doesn't have the same ring to it.
[00:10:36] Malorie Mackey: No, that's. See, that's not right. It's buffalo versus bison. Hold on.
This is like.
[00:10:41] Michael Maldonado: Nothing makes for better podcasting than actively Googling some information mid talk here.
[00:10:48] Malorie Mackey: While buffalo and bison were often used interchangeably, especially in North America, they refer to distinct animals. The North American animal is scientifically classified as a bison.
In parentheses. Bison. Bison.
Bison.
[00:11:02] Michael Maldonado: Scientific name is bison. Bison.
[00:11:04] Malorie Mackey: Bison. Bison.
[00:11:04] Michael Maldonado: That's like Rattus rattus.
[00:11:06] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:11:06] Michael Maldonado: Which is the.
[00:11:07] Malorie Mackey: While the term buffalo more accurately applies to African and Asian buffalo species.
[00:11:15] Michael Maldonado: So they were bison soldiers.
[00:11:16] Malorie Mackey: They were bison soldiers. Bison are known for their large shoulder humps, shaggy coats, and short, sharp horns.
[00:11:23] Michael Maldonado: Well, that song's dead to me now.
[00:11:24] Malorie Mackey: Buffalo have smaller humps, smoother coats, and longer, curved horns.
[00:11:29] Michael Maldonado: Bison soldier.
[00:11:31] Malorie Mackey: Just not the same.
Which is funny, because think about how much we Put buffalo with, like, Native American ideology and. No, it's actually bison.
[00:11:41] Michael Maldonado: You're all, bison, bison, bison, bison.
[00:11:45] Malorie Mackey: So anyway, it had bison head. A bison head on the wall.
And it was very. It was very, interestingly, like, rustic, but almost Canadian. It felt like. Right? It was very.
[00:11:57] Michael Maldonado: Yeah, it would have been northern style North America. Like northern North. Like.
[00:12:03] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
We didn't get to see the Antarctic room.
[00:12:08] Michael Maldonado: They had the nice, cool knives. Looked like some bowie knives.
[00:12:11] Malorie Mackey: Oh, yeah, the knives were great.
I like the knives, Jim.
[00:12:14] Michael Maldonado: Billy. The Billy knife.
[00:12:17] Malorie Mackey: I didn't get to see the Antarctic room, and I was sad because it was penguin themed.
[00:12:21] Michael Maldonado: Someone was living in it.
[00:12:23] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, I know.
The penguin themed room.
And the other one that was just all the rage was the Africa room.
[00:12:32] Michael Maldonado: That was cool, too.
[00:12:33] Malorie Mackey: Yes. The Africa room was great because it was. I mean, just full in, like an African hut. And I think Kim Kardashian stayed in that room.
[00:12:43] Michael Maldonado: Oh, wow.
[00:12:44] Malorie Mackey: I know. I'm not. I'm. I don't quote me on that, but I saw stuff on that when I looked it up online. Wow.
[00:12:49] Michael Maldonado: I don't keep up with the Kardashians.
[00:12:50] Malorie Mackey: I don't either at all. I do not. I do. I. I unfortunately had to admit, when I worked for fashionizers for the fashion.
[00:12:58] Michael Maldonado: Stuff, it was work.
[00:12:59] Malorie Mackey: Really. It was work.
[00:13:01] Michael Maldonado: What a job.
But my employer would like me to keep up with the Kardashians.
[00:13:07] Malorie Mackey: Right.
[00:13:08] Michael Maldonado: It's not for me.
[00:13:09] Malorie Mackey: Right. Not for me. But it was very cool. The care and meticulous planning and design and detail that went into those rooms was spectacular.
[00:13:21] Michael Maldonado: Yes.
[00:13:22] Malorie Mackey: And.
[00:13:22] Michael Maldonado: And we were in the Iceland.
[00:13:24] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, it was the master suite, which was Iceland. Like the Iceland suite. And our. Our comforter was a giant sweater. It was the world's largest sweater.
[00:13:33] Michael Maldonado: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:33] Malorie Mackey: I was obsessed.
Yeah. It was so cool. And we had that really nice, like, Icelandic rocky. Just the bathtub.
[00:13:40] Michael Maldonado: The bathtub alone was enough reason to get that room.
[00:13:43] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:13:43] Michael Maldonado: It was, like, made out of volcanoes. Like the black volcano stones.
[00:13:47] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:13:47] Michael Maldonado: Just sitting in the middle of the room.
[00:13:49] Malorie Mackey: Yep. And they gave us a special scrub that was in there, which was awesome.
[00:13:55] Michael Maldonado: For a man's man.
[00:13:56] Malorie Mackey: For a man's man.
[00:13:57] Michael Maldonado: Lava.
[00:13:57] Malorie Mackey: Rough scrub. You used that scrub. Like, wow, I feel so smooth now.
[00:14:01] Michael Maldonado: No, you mean I feel rough and tumbled with hands that have been building stuff. Building stuff.
[00:14:07] Malorie Mackey: That's not what you said. When you're there.
[00:14:11] Michael Maldonado: I have an image to project.
[00:14:14] Malorie Mackey: Okay.
[00:14:15] Michael Maldonado: Publicly.
[00:14:15] Malorie Mackey: Okay. All right.
[00:14:17] Michael Maldonado: People know me as a man's man. Mallory.
[00:14:19] Malorie Mackey: Right.
Okay.
Volcano man.
[00:14:23] Michael Maldonado: See the patch See the patch?
[00:14:25] Malorie Mackey: Volcano man.
And they had a whole, like, work area, table, and cute little sitting area with, like, snacks. And the floor rotated like it went in a circle. It was like a circle in the floor, and it just rotated in a circle. In case you wanted to, like, you know, look outside while you're sitting here.
[00:14:45] Michael Maldonado: Well, I think part of it is also because.
What, three. Three of the walls were open.
They had blackout curtains.
[00:14:54] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:14:54] Michael Maldonado: But you could open them, and they were mostly glass. You can see three of the walls, basically, you could open to see just fully glass outside.
[00:15:02] Malorie Mackey: We were like a peninsula.
[00:15:04] Michael Maldonado: Depending on when you go, there's either no sun or never sets the whole time. So I think you can kind of keep up with the light, where the light is by rotating the floor.
[00:15:15] Malorie Mackey: Pretty cool.
[00:15:15] Michael Maldonado: It was cool.
[00:15:16] Malorie Mackey: It was very cool.
And I don't know, it was just. And then the bathroom, too, had a giant, like, horse picture, which, I mean, come on, who doesn't love horses, right?
[00:15:27] Michael Maldonado: I mean, they're man extenders.
[00:15:28] Malorie Mackey: Right? Right. Yeah, exactly. I learned from Ken that horses are just male extenders.
[00:15:33] Michael Maldonado: It's a man's man. A man's man's best friend.
[00:15:38] Malorie Mackey: Right.
And you walk in the bathroom and the light just comes on on the horse. It was, like, censored. There were also floor lights that came on, too. I don't know if you saw that. It was pretty. It was pretty neat.
It was very unlike any hotel room I've ever stayed in, which I've stayed in a lot of hotel rooms. I can say it was exceptional.
And I also liked that he did say in the interview, too, that they don't have to heat up water because it all comes from the natural springs.
[00:16:10] Michael Maldonado: It's all natural geothermal heat. That's true of almost the whole country, right?
[00:16:15] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
So, you know, the hot water coming out of our tub was just, you.
[00:16:20] Michael Maldonado: Know, a man's man's volcano.
[00:16:22] Malorie Mackey: Exactly. And it had, I believe, three spas outside that were all also just.
[00:16:29] Michael Maldonado: That was cool. They're just basically in the backyard, and you can just walk out of your room.
[00:16:35] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:16:35] Michael Maldonado: And they're built into the ground because they're just taking geothermal volcano water, spring water into the tub.
[00:16:44] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:45] Michael Maldonado: It was cool.
[00:16:45] Malorie Mackey: It was cool. And every room on the bottom floor there has that patio, so you can just leave from your patio. And they give everybody the robe and slippers, and you put them on. Just walk out to your little geothermal tub.
[00:16:59] Michael Maldonado: It's got a great view, too.
[00:17:00] Malorie Mackey: It does.
[00:17:01] Michael Maldonado: Open landscape in a lake for miles. In a lake.
[00:17:06] Malorie Mackey: It was pretty nice. And wasn't there swans that had babies in that lake?
[00:17:10] Michael Maldonado: There were swans, yes.
[00:17:12] Malorie Mackey: That was cool.
And the restaurant there was incredible, too. It was so good, the restaurant. I mean, it was. It was like a five star. Oh, yeah, it was very nice. Fancy restaurant with, you know, the, the wine pairings and all the exceptional special meals.
[00:17:28] Michael Maldonado: Mallory ate exclusively. Reindeer was just like, I can't get enough Rudolph. I'm going to eat Rudolph every night. You. The first night we were there, you ordered the reindeer appetizer and then followed it up with the slab of reindeer for your entree.
[00:17:45] Malorie Mackey: When in Iceland.
[00:17:46] Michael Maldonado: Just all.
[00:17:47] Malorie Mackey: When in Iceland. Well, to be fair, I had reindeer once before.
[00:17:52] Michael Maldonado: No, I'm going to have reindeer followed by reindeer. And then maybe if you could smoothie me some reindeer for milk.
[00:18:00] Malorie Mackey: I liked the reindeer milkshake for dessert.
[00:18:02] Michael Maldonado: I just want reindeer.
[00:18:04] Malorie Mackey: Right. They're really nice. Just like sauteed. That was just raw reindeer.
[00:18:09] Michael Maldonado: It was raw, right? I didn't know that. I wouldn't have tried it.
The reindeer, that was the appetizer, right?
[00:18:15] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:18:15] Michael Maldonado: And then you had like a slab of reindeer cooked reindeer for your entree.
[00:18:20] Malorie Mackey: Yes. Which was no different than if you.
[00:18:23] Michael Maldonado: Told me that was beef, I would have just totally believed it. It looked like beef.
[00:18:26] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:18:27] Michael Maldonado: And it tasted like beef. And I would never have known the difference.
[00:18:29] Malorie Mackey: Right. But that, you know what? The raw reindeer was really good.
I'm not, you know, I'm not a raw meat person. But it was so thinly sliced.
[00:18:39] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:18:39] Malorie Mackey: With the cheese and the lettuce on was really good.
[00:18:43] Michael Maldonado: I couldn't tell. It was very good.
[00:18:45] Malorie Mackey: It was great.
[00:18:45] Michael Maldonado: But I would have definitely gotten hung up on if I had known ahead of time.
[00:18:48] Malorie Mackey: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I thought you knew. So I'm glad I didn't say anything.
[00:18:53] Michael Maldonado: I'm not a. I don't know. I'm not like a food food guy. I mean, I like eating some food, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to cook food.
I don't know what the fancy words mean. I'm not a fancy. I'm a man's man. I'm not a fancy guy.
[00:19:08] Malorie Mackey: You know, I like the mushroom soup.
[00:19:12] Michael Maldonado: I'm not a mushroom guy.
[00:19:13] Malorie Mackey: I know.
[00:19:14] Michael Maldonado: I'm not a fungus person. I don't eat fungus if I don't have to.
[00:19:18] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. You know, I didn't used to like mushroom. And then one day it just.
[00:19:21] Michael Maldonado: The texture thing. I don't like the texture.
[00:19:23] Malorie Mackey: I don't like the Texture either, but somehow, I don't know. It depends on the type of mushroom and how it's sliced. Not only fungus I understand, but yeah, it was. And I had the risotto one night too. That was also delicious.
[00:19:36] Michael Maldonado: Mm.
Yeah, very good.
[00:19:39] Malorie Mackey: It was great.
The food was exceptional.
The ambiance was great.
[00:19:43] Michael Maldonado: I'll have the reindeer followed by reindeer and a prosecco.
[00:19:47] Malorie Mackey: I overdid the reindeer.
[00:19:49] Michael Maldonado: Your standard meal.
[00:19:50] Malorie Mackey: Reindeer and reindeer and a Prosecco, please. Thank you. They did it. They also had.
[00:19:55] Michael Maldonado: And like we mentioned in the last one, we went to visit that fishing village, and you had to poop yourself. Like, I wonder why. Oh, no, because you've been eating raw reindeer all week.
[00:20:05] Malorie Mackey: I mean, I've never come closer to.
[00:20:08] Michael Maldonado: I don't know what's going on.
Oh, my God.
[00:20:11] Malorie Mackey: I don't know why.
[00:20:12] Michael Maldonado: I don't know what's happening. I do.
You ate eight meals of raw reindeer in a row.
[00:20:19] Malorie Mackey: Twice in my life. I almost went to the bathroom.
Not in a bathroom. As an adult, that was a particularly.
[00:20:29] Michael Maldonado: Bad place to be. There was literally nothing.
Not even leave. Like you wouldn't have been.
It was lava rocks. Yep, that's it.
[00:20:40] Malorie Mackey: Yep.
[00:20:40] Michael Maldonado: For miles.
[00:20:42] Malorie Mackey: I did have toilet paper in my. Wait, that wasn't my car.
[00:20:44] Michael Maldonado: No, we didn't have your car.
[00:20:45] Malorie Mackey: No, I sure didn't.
[00:20:46] Michael Maldonado: And we didn't bring the car because it wasn't gonna make it on the road.
[00:20:48] Malorie Mackey: Nope, you're right.
[00:20:50] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:20:50] Malorie Mackey: Yep. Just no bueno.
[00:20:52] Michael Maldonado: That was about to be a very weird world adventure.
[00:20:55] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
The. The only other time that's happened to me, it was not. It was not number two. It was number one.
[00:21:02] Michael Maldonado: That's not as fun.
[00:21:03] Malorie Mackey: Was when I was in line going into Shanghai Disneyland.
Because I didn't realize I would have to wait an hour and a half to get into the park, because who anticipates the line getting into the park being an hour and a half long?
And I had to pee so bad, I didn't think I was gonna make it by the time I got in.
Yep, yep.
But anyway, good story. Great story. There's also a cool little, like, game room upstairs in the hotel, too. In Hotel Ranga, they had settlers of Catan. They did.
And there's, like, a little. Little lounge with, like, a piano and a little, like, event space. Dining hall. It was really nice.
[00:21:48] Michael Maldonado: Look at. People get married there pretty regularly at. A lot of.
[00:21:51] Malorie Mackey: That would make sense.
[00:21:52] Michael Maldonado: I see that. Yeah.
[00:21:53] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. It seems like a good wedding venue, but you guys should definitely check it out.
Be sure to do that.
We are going to drop in our interview here now so you can learn more about it firsthand.
And I choked on myself there.
I'm dying.
[00:22:17] Michael Maldonado: What a professional.
[00:22:18] Malorie Mackey: Enjoy.
All right.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: Okay then.
So what do you want to talk about?
[00:22:25] Speaker D: I would love to hear about your vision for Hutalanga and how it came to be your vision for Houturanga and how you conceptualized it.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: The vision for Houturanga. I had been in the fish industry for 30 years, spending 200 nights a year for 30 years in hotels all over the world. I pretty soon found out that small hotels are, in my opinion, much nicer than big hotels because the service you get and so the just the attract, you know, the attention you get is totally different. So my vision was that if I would take this over, as I did as a very small hotel, expanding it and all, that I would concentrate on three service, activity and friendly atmosphere. And whatever way we could do it, because that's what you want if you're traveling and have had fantastic stuff in solar key. So we seem to have succeeded because what we are known for is the service and friendly atmosphere.
[00:23:34] Speaker D: Can you tell me about the continent themed rooms as well?
[00:23:37] Speaker C: The continent theme? Well, it was like this when I started the first extension.
We built one suite and finally I got the number zero on that suite.
Nobody has seen number zero in any room in any other hotel in the world, I'm told. So that's pretty funny.
The suite sold out immediately. I didn't know at that time I was in the very beginning how much interest there would be in Swedes.
So when that was obvious we would have to do something more.
I immediately wanted to make it a little bit sort of different.
So, well, honestly, it ended up in more or less like coincidence. We said, why don't we go for the continents?
That turned out to be quite pretty difficult at first. But then the Internet helped us a lot.
Plus very good companies and people we were working with in other parts of the world.
[00:24:35] Speaker D: And why did you choose the spot in particular?
[00:24:39] Speaker C: This spot here was not my decision.
It was first there was a guy who built seven rooms in the beginning as a lot for his clients. Horse lovers, horse breeders who would come to Iceland to buy Icelandic horses. He owned this spot and so he put up this little lodge here and it turned out to be a fantastic location.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: The hot spring springs here too, are those actually from the natural hot springs in the area?
[00:25:11] Speaker C: Yes, it's a good question. Of course, our hot water is from natural geothermal. And just for you to know and for everybody to know that 99%, 99% of all houses in Iceland, whether they are living houses or industry houses or whatever, are heated by geothermal water, which is totally unique and saves us a lot of money too, because it's a very cheap and good heating.
And the same goes for the hot tubs, of course, that's geothermal.
[00:25:45] Speaker D: Do you work hand in hand with.
[00:25:47] Malorie Mackey: Local activities as well to help people.
[00:25:49] Speaker D: Kind of figure out what's in the area, kind of setting up the ideal trip for them?
[00:25:54] Speaker C: Yes, I do. This is in reality my retirement hobby.
I like what I'm doing. I'm an old son of a farmer.
And so it was obviously in the old days that the farmers, if they stopped working, they just drop dead. I'm not afraid of doing so, but nevertheless I feel what I'm doing is my. It is my hobby really. And I like to be here at night talking to the clients, to the guests.
And they appreciate, hopefully most of them that I do. And I think I have learned how to see if they like it or not.
And of course we talk about what they did during the day and what they are planning to do tomorrow, if they have any plans. And we help them a lot in that respect. The same they do. Also the people in the lobby, they have been trained as concierge in a way, and they are very, very helpful and people appreciate that incredibly.
[00:26:54] Speaker D: Now do you feel a lot of people, at least from the States where we are, have not been to Iceland and the activities must be very different from the summer to the winter because you get almost no nighttime in the summer and a lot of nighttime in the winter, I guess. How does that affect people when they come out here? Just a different crowd, I guess, from different seasons.
[00:27:19] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: Of course, in the wintertime people come here mainly to see the northern lights.
And that is something that so many people are dreaming. They're dying for it. They're dreaming to see them.
And fortunately they can quite a lot see them from here because we have no light pollution.
Secondly, we discovered that people who were very interested also in stargazing.
So that's why we built the observatory with two big telescopes. So sometimes at night, when even we have fantastic starry night, but no northern lights, we take people out there nevertheless, and they enjoy.
We call it a sky tour. 9 o' clock and 10 o' clock at night.
So that's something that in the wintertime is the main attraction. In the summertime, I should say all kind of activities is.
Is open for everyone, honestly, in the wintertime they are more or less all open too. And some of them are even nicer in the winter than in the summer. Even if we have snowmobile tours in the summer, they're even nicer in the wintertime. Could be more action, could be more adventure, more maybe wrong weather, bad weather or something like that. The night being very short in the middle of December, for example, if somehow our guests, they make the most of it, they start driving. If they're going somewhere, they start driving in the dark early in the morning and they use then the daylight, the four or five hour daylight in the shortest days to see what they were planning to do. And then they drive back in the dark in the summertime. We have, of course, different, different thing because then we have, we have 60 days where we have official daylight, 24 hours.
And some people find that pretty difficult to sleep when they see that, when they know, well, there is a daylight outside. But of course we have blindness and all that. But nevertheless, we get quite a lot of funny stories about people are thinking, why on earth am I sleeping now? It's daylight outside.
I love art.
And what we do, we have painted murals in every room. So all the rooms are in that respect, different. There are 17 different artists painting one or two walls in all the rooms, both the standard and the deluxe and whatever.
So. And plus we have bought quite a lot of very nice paintings from other or artwork from other people. So we have about 200, 250 original artwork in the hotel. So in a way we could call it art hotel.
[00:29:51] Malorie Mackey: Thank you guys so much for tuning into the Weird World Adventures podcast today.
Be sure to check out Weird World Adventures on Amazon Prime. We have six episodes of season one available now, and the next 10 episodes of season two will be available in the fall of 2025. So this fall, follow us at MallorySadventures.com at MallorySadventures on Instagram and Mallory Mackie on TikTok.
[00:30:25] Michael Maldonado: Oh, yeah.
[00:30:26] Malorie Mackey: And Michael, what's yours?
[00:30:28] Michael Maldonado: I'm not really on this stuff.
[00:30:31] Malorie Mackey: Wow.
[00:30:32] Michael Maldonado: I don't, you know, I'm so not a social media guy that you asked me that. I'm actually not sure what it is. I do have those.
They do nothing really.
[00:30:42] Malorie Mackey: You can find Michael on Weird World Family.
[00:30:45] Michael Maldonado: That's true. I think my Instagram's Maldonado MD3, I.
[00:30:51] Malorie Mackey: Think it is too.
Yeah, it is. Okay, okay, okay.
[00:30:56] Michael Maldonado: She's telling me it is.
[00:30:58] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:30:58] Michael Maldonado: So I think that's what I'm at.
[00:31:01] Malorie Mackey: Well, thank you guys for tuning in today.
[00:31:04] Michael Maldonado: I'm your host, Mallory, and I'm your host, Michael.
[00:31:07] Malorie Mackey: Michael is not a social media person.
[00:31:10] Michael Maldonado: That's M A L D O N A d o m d3 on Instagram.
And I'll be honest, I have no idea what it is on.
[00:31:18] Malorie Mackey: It's like Michael Maldonado 3 on TikTok or something.
[00:31:22] Michael Maldonado: If you find her, I'm one of the.
One of the friends. Maldonado.
You're a Maldonado now. I turned you into one.
[00:31:33] Malorie Mackey: You did?
You did, yeah. Now I'm a Maldonado.
I have to say it like that because that's how the solicitors used to say it.
Mm.
[00:31:45] Michael Maldonado: Yeah. It's good to not be able to pronounce your own last name.
[00:31:47] Malorie Mackey: That's great.
[00:31:48] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:31:49] Malorie Mackey: Although you say Maldonado, so can you really pronounce your last name?
[00:31:53] Michael Maldonado: I know anytime I talk to somebody, like, with actual Hispanic credentials, it's Maldonado. Maldonado.
[00:32:02] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:32:02] Michael Maldonado: Oh, that's how I see you say my name.
[00:32:04] Malorie Mackey: Yep.
[00:32:05] Michael Maldonado: That's how I should be saying it. Okay, I'm gonna continue to say it. Like plebe United States.
[00:32:14] Malorie Mackey: Exactly. Yep.
All righty. Until next time, everybody stay weird.
