August 9, 2007
Upon arriving in the largest city on Saint Marie, Ambodifotatra, touts fell upon us selling whale-watching boat tours, which were priced in euros. Reflexively, we recoiled. (Not just in Madagascar, but around the world in developing countries, when prices are set in dollars or euros, it is usually because it is overpriced to the point that the amount in the local currency sounds ludicrous. And, it almost always is.) Later, we learned that whales must stop in order to allow calves to nurse (each calf must drink 600 liters a day), and motor boats disturb and relentlessly pursue the whales so the calves can't drink their fill. We were also told the number of whales is declining each year.
Saddest of all, whales are best viewed, not from a motor boat, but from the beaches, where they come as close as 80 meters. Thankfully, we didn't take a packaged tour. We stayed at a resort called Atafana. The people there kindly let us position our tent between two fancy bungalows. We spent the days relaxing, reading, doing laundry (an important part of camping), eating at the restaurant, walking to the nearby village and, of course, whale watching.
Everyday, we saw whales in the distance: massive black towers, which rose in the distance, hung for a long moment, then silently crashed, chipping the sea into two huge white splashes. We also often saw spouts of water. On four of our six days there whales came close. Close enough to easily reach with a Frisbee! Usually, it started with the barking of the resident dog. People shouted happily to each other. Near the beach 6 or 8 whales broke the surface, spouted, grumbled deeply, flapped their tails or smoothly undulated their slick back, sporting only a smallish, swept dorsal fin.
I don't, as a rule, watch my vacation through a video camera, so, rest assured, this video was taking from the hip, which is why it came out a little cattywampus:
For some time afterwords it was difficult to say anything that didn't sound truly inane. So we usually just stayed silent and enjoyed watching the water smooth itself out.
