Garopaba
BRAZIL
Whale Watching in Garopaba
By AARON
Friday, October 22, 2010
So it seemed as though Lyndi and I were getting the hang of Southern Brazil. Once we figured out the bus systems and realized that everything in every resort town would be closed, we started to accept these things and just go with the flow. Having bought a fresh gas canister in Florianópolis of propane/butane mix for our stove, we set out from the bus station further south to the town of Garopaba. Known for its whale-watching excursions, Garopaba’s season was a bit different in that yes, their summer as well didn’t start until November 1st, but their whale-watching season ran from July to November.
Finally! Something to do in a Southern Brazilian town! As we pulled into the small bus station, things were already starting to look up as the lady behind the food counter selling salgados had her friend offer to drive us (a rare luxury) to our campsite, Camping Lagoamar.
Once we pulled up, holding true to the “off season” theme, the place looked like an abandoned camping park. All that was there was one RV, of which the owners told us they had gotten there that day and just decided to “let themselves in”. Following suit, we thanked our driver and proceeded to walk in right past the sign on the gate that mentioned that Lagoamar would not be open for business until November 1st. Big surprise.
Having basically the entire place to ourselves, we set up camp in a nice area, close to the huge cooking building and bathrooms. Thoughts were already springing into our cheap heads of “free camping”, and well, free camping. Located right on the beach, Lyndi and I decided to head out there for a bit and explore the town.
To our surprise, there were actually restaurants open and people out and about. We also went that day and asked about the whale-watching excursions with the 2 local companies that offer them. One didn’t really seem too keen on working- at all, but the other said if there was a minimum of 6 people that they would head out. Signing up for the next day, and being without a phone or e-mail, all we could do was show up at the right time, and hope that 4 other people had signed up. If not, then we would sign up for the next day, and so on and so forth.
Turns out we had to wait 2 full days, which was spent exploring the town, laying on the beach, and going for walks along the beachfront where we were treated to views of beautiful houses (one belonging to Miss Brasil) and even spotting a pod of dolphins. Yes, seeing dolphins were nice, but we were there to see bigger mammals- not referring to the many overly large Brazilian women in way too tiny thongs- no, we were there to see whales.
So from the start of Lyndi’s and my travel, we’ve had this curse where whenever we decide to do an excursion of sorts, we somehow have the keen sixth sense of picking the day that also includes a student field trip. From 100 6th graders running past us on the live volcano in Guatemala, to 30 4th grade girls at Copan Ruins in Honduras, to a mixed class of junior high kids at the “Museum of the Sea” in Uruguay, kids just seemed to know when and where we would be. So it was to no surprise that as we went to the office for the third consecutive morning that we should be greeted by the office lady… and about 60 15-year olds.
Regardless of the kids, we were greeted with good news- today there would be whale-watching. In fact, contrary to the 2 days beforehand, about 80 people had signed up for today; so much that they had to use both of their boats to go out.
Luckily enough, they put all the kids on the big boat, and after dressing us out in our yellow sea jackets, put the rest of the visitors on the smaller boat. This area of Brazil had become famous for its whale-watching when it became a protected site for “Right Whales”, who were in danger of becoming extinct at one point, but thanks to the conservation efforts, were now turning those numbers around.
Back in the whaling days, Right Whales were easy to hunt for 2 main reasons: (1) They were really slow swimmers (2) They were a very curious species that liked to spend the majority of their time near the shores, not out in the open sea like most whale species. So if you’re a whaler, of course you’ll pick the slow, curious whales that live no more than 1Km from the coast as opposed to the faster, timid whales that lived out on the open sea. It’s almost as if nature picked these gentle creatures for extinction long before they had a say in it.
Now that they were protected by the state of Santa Catalina and the nation of Brazil, they could use their curiosity to reward many a whale-watcher with actually seeing a whale. I’ve heard that whale-watching is just a bunch of people standing on a boat looking disappointed. I mean, you can’t control nature, and if the whales just don’t show up that day, then there’s nothing you can do about it, right? So heading in with low expectations, Lyndi and I, amongst the other enthusiastic tourists, were ecstatic to see about 8 whales in total over the course of an hour.
Snapping photos like paparazzi outside of Lindsey Lohan’s house on “free cocaine night”, Lyndi was in charge of still shots, while I was in charge of video on my camera. With our powers combined, we were able to secure some great memories as one of the whales swam within 5 feet of our boat, and another raised his head out of the water and exposed his “filter teeth”- even more rare a sight than the whale fin you see in so many pictures.
All in all it was a successful journey, and it was also the first whales Lyndi and I had ever seen in the wild (sorry Shamu). Oh, and the camping? Not free, but the owner turned out to be a really nice guy and only charged us R$20 total per night there, which is R$30 less than our original campsite wanted to charge.
So as we left Garopaba, we left with a good taste in our mouths about Southern Brazil and the possibilities when things are actually open. I’m sure in its peak season, Southern Brazil competes with resort beaches all around the globe, but along with that comes high prices, and being the budget travelers that we are, we decided it was best to leave Brazil on a high note, and spend the next 18 hours getting to our next country destination- Uruguay.
