Whale Watching!

Today we went whale watching off the coast of Gabon and it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  A woman who lived in Gabon for two years and is now currently living in Benin gave me the name of the captain.  She and I exchanged a few emails earlier this summer when I was trying to get information about places to go and things to do.  Our captain was the first white Gabonese person I’ve met.  His name is Arnauld Duffy and he had a really interesting story about how his Irish dad came to live in Gabon as a scientist, met his mom here and never left, so he was born and raised in Gabon.  He actually went to the same high school that Landry did, but he’s about twelve years older, so they wouldn't have crossed paths.  He’s trying to bring more tourist options to the country because they’re so limited right now.

Whales migrate up the coast of Gabon during the summer and the prime viewing opportunities are in August, so we were right on time with the first of the month.  We saw TONS of whales, culminating with our final set that were jumping way out of the water like what you see on Discovery channel or something.  I’d never seen anything like it.  The photos tell a far better story than my words.

The boat, after it was pulled out of the water of course.

Us with our captain, Arnauld

On the boat, heading out to sea

Looking and waiting

The tail of one of our first whales

And for those of you who have been following the luggage saga, still no bag as of today.  It's been two weeks now, which, number 1, I can't believe two weeks have already gone by and, number 2, I'm now so used to not having my bags that I'm not letting it impact the trip at this point.  Hopefully it will arrive before we leave!