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Published: August 5th 2007
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volcanoes to the left of me
volcanoes to the right,
here i am , stuck in the middle with you. Ahhh, its been a long time, where do I start?
Ok, well we didnt get stung by scorpions in Maumere, thats a good thing.
We left the island of Flores on the 19th of July, we caught a bus going to Larantuka, went to the harbour and left on the boat not too long after headed east for the island of Lembata.
It was a beautiful boat trip and only about 3 hours long, so not long enough to get bored.
When we got off the boat in the quaint little dusty town of Lewoleba.
That night was a bizarre one, not much sleeping going on. There was so much noise; boat horns blasting, the harbour masters voice booming on the loud speaker, music blaring at the empty restaurant next door and on top of it all Guillaume and I were positive that there were Giant Rats walking on the roof and in our room....but now that I think about it they were probably just normal sized rats. Nothing to worry about.
The next morning we got up, not exactly refreshed, and it was boiling hot already at 8am!
We headed to the centre of town to catch a ride to
Lewoleba
not a bad setting for a dusty little town. Lamalera. It was an incredibly hot, stuffy and slow ride there. There were 9 of us stuffed into the back of an enclosed pick-up truck with many, MANY bags of rice and corn...which means ZERO leg room.
At least there were'nt any chickens or pigs in there with us.
We were happy to get a flat tire halfway through the journey so that we could get out of the truck and stretch our legs.
We finally got to Lamalera, on the Southern coast of the island, at about 3pm.
The village has the most spectacular setting and our guesthouse is perched atop a hill at the end of the bay, so we have a great view of it all.
Its incredible here, the way the people live.
There are just 3 things going on in the village:
whale hunting, the barter market every Saturday (where they trade the whale meat for fruits, vegetables, rice and corn), and the 200 (or less) tourists that come every year to check it all out.
Oh ya..and Jesus...they sure love him here.
The Losmen (homestay) where we are staying is called Guru Ben's , recommended by Lonely Planet (latest edition 2007). They say that
Shiny
The lovely polished ceramic tiles of the cemetary at night. Guru Ben is a gracious host and speaks good english...well we arrived to find out that Guru Ben died 4 years ago...thanks for the tip, Lonely Planet.
Dont let me forget to mention the smell. This town stinks. It permanently smells of meat (whale meat to be exact) because every family receives a piece of the whale that is caught and they all hang the meat outside of their houses to dry it out.
We havent seen any whales yet, but our friend Marek desperately wants to go out to sea with the fishermen to watch the hunt. Yesterday he did go out to try to hunt dolphin with them but no luck for them (much luck for the dolphins).
I thought that maybe I would like to go out on the boat with them as well, but after hearing the stories (Guru Ben's son died 2 months ago hunting dolphin) and seeing the photos I know that I dont want to be a witness to that bloody and insanely dangerous affair.
Ok now...
next day..
the whale situation has turned around.
We woke up on Monday morning to the usual sounds; roosters, dogs barking and rock music, but there
Bug Patrol
Somone had to do it...the place sure was crawling with them... was something unusual about the morning, there seemed to be an air of excitement to the day. And then we could hear them...the villagers screaming and shouting
"Baleo, Baleo!!" And we already knew what that meant. One of the fishermen had spotted a whale way off-shore.
SO we got up in a hurry, just in time to see all the fishermen taking their boats out of the little boat houses, racing them over the beach into the water and then off they went.
12 boats set off to the horizon, with about 5-10 men in each boat plus one Czech man, named Marek.
We could feel and see the excitement throughout the village during the next 6 hours while the boats were out.
Women waiting anxiously in their front doorways, kids playing more loudly and agressively than usual, and of course the massive group of people sitting on the beach, waiting for any sight of the sails returning home.
Then at about 3 o'clock, the boats starting coming into view and one-by-one pulling onto the beach.
The first ones back were the boats with motors (used to pull the row boats far out to sea and also for safety reasons),
Good luck
the boats going out for the hunt with a czech man in tow. including the boat carrying Marek, so of course.we went down to the beach to get the full story.
During the day they had attempted to harpoon a hammerhead shark and 2 sperm whales. The shark was a miss but the harpooner had successfully stabbed one of the whales.
What happened then was that since the harpoon was now stuck in the whale and the harpoon was also attached to the boat...when the whale dove down into the ocean to try to escape ... the boat followed and went down into the water as well.
Nobody was hurt, except of course the whale, and they all climbed right back into the boat once they got the water out of it.
We were told that it can take hours for the whale to die (really to bleed to death) so that's when they send most of the boats back to Lamalera.
We only had to wait on the beach for about 2 hours for the boat, with the 10 meter long sperm whale in tow, to arrive.
There is so much commotion on the beach when they bring back a whale. The beach fills up with people all chatting, smiling and laughing.
return
the boats coming back from 6 hours on the hunt It truly is a happy time for the village as they know that they now have food for the next couple of weeks.
They leave the whale in the water until high tide when they can bring it onshore.
Until then they tie it up and the local children play on it, jump off it and generally just have a really great time with it.
This is about the moment when we looked at each other and realized how far away from home we really were.
That night we watched a documentary made by the BBC about Lamalera, their whaling traditions and Greenpeace...trying to stop them.
We chatted after the film with a fishermen who told us that some people from England are coming into the village and want to stop them from whaling and to start giving whale watching tours to tourists instead.
As imagined, the village is not so thrilled about this since it is their way of life, their pride and their heritage.
That is when he stopped talking, listened for a moment and then announced to us that he heard the boat coming in with the second whale.
Second whale?
yes, second whale.
So we all
whale meat
hanging to dry...and what a smell it leaves in the town....
look out schwartz...i sense a new wave of sandwiches about to break through.... went down to the beach, this time it was 9 o'clock and dark already.
But when we turned our flashlights on we could see that the 2nd whale was much larger, and the water was then awashed with blood.
We left town the next morning, expecting to catch a boat to the next island, and everyone told us that we were crazy for leaving town before the "cutting process" the next day.
But we left because
1. I had definately seen enough whale corpses and blood by then and
2.we had a boat to catch to Kupang, West Timor.
So we left...only to find out later that
1.the boat to Kupang had been cancelled and
2. the day after we left they had caught 6 MORE WHALES!!
6 more whales?
yes, 6 more whales.
Which then brought the year-to-date count up to 20. On average they catch about 15-25 per season. Though last year they only caught 2 whales all year. Which they believe was due to some mistakes that they had made in the village that year. Also, whenever someone dies out in the ocean while whaling, they believe it to be because of something that was not right
Play time
dont you remember playing on whale corpses when you were a kid? in that mans life at the moment. The fishermen are never supposed to go out to sea unless everything is good in their life at the time.
So that was our experience in the incredibly fascinating and wonderfully friendly village of Lamalera.
I dont even want to know how badly the town smelt after catching those 6 other whales.
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Marek
non-member comment
Czech ver.
Ostrov Lembata, vesnice Lamalera. Jedno z mala mist kde se lovi velrybi tradicnim zpusobem. Vesnicane pouzivaji pouze male, deset metru dlouhe lodky a harpunu. Lovecke lodky nemaji motor. Pohani je pouze padla a plachta. Harpuna je takovy ocelovy hak na dlouhem provazu. Harpunar ho nasazuje na bambusovou tyc a s tim skace po velrybe. Vesnicane maji nekolik clunu se zavesnym motorem a tak nektere lovecke cluny k velrybe odtahnou. Potom je pusti. Samotny lov je ale jenom na lidske sile. Nektere jedou k velrybe pouze s plachtou uz od pevniny. Takze velky rozdil oproti komercnimu lovu Japoncu. Zde se podari chytit maximalne 25 velryb rocne. Minuly rok vsak pouze dve. Je to taky dost nebezpecna prace. V kvetnu se tady utopil kluk pri harpunovani delfina. Lano se mu zamotalo kolem nohou a delfin ho tahl pul hodiny pod vodou. Ve vesnici jsem byl uz sest dni a velrybu jsem ani nevidel. Az sedmy den rano se ozvalo "Baleo, Baleo". Nekodo z vesnicanu zahledl na mori fontanu vody. Vsichni z vesnice se zacali schazet na plaz a z bambusovych pristresku se strechou z palmoveho listi zacali tlacit cluny na more. Nekolik loveckych clunu me nabyzelo abych jel s nimi, ale nakonec rekli ze ne. Nakonec se ukazalo ze to bylo dobre. Tak jsem aspon chytl posledni motorovy clun. Po pretlaceni pres plaz a probojovani se pres priboj jsem vzali do haku jednu loveckou lod a jeli jsme na otevrene more. Tam jsme vypli motor a cekali az se velryba znovu vynori. Hlidkujicy cluny operovali na obrovskem prostoru a nektere se uz stracely za obzorem. Najednou se kousek od naseho clunu vynorila ploutev. Byl to zralok, kladivoun. Odpoutali jsme loveckou lod. Chlapi zacali okamzite padlovat ke zralokovi. Az byli dost blizko vzal harpunar bambusovbou tic s harpunou na konci. Pak skocil po zralokovi, ale netrefil. Lod jsme znovu privazali a jeli dal. V dali se objevila zpenena voda. Pry od rejnoka. Nez jsme tam dojeli byl samozrejme pric. Tet mijime jednu lod u ktere se objevil delfin. Borec po nem skocil, ale netrefil. Snad po hodine se objevuji tri gejziry vody. Velryby. Jsou to Vorvani. Nez k jedne z nich dojedem je uz u ni jedna lod. Podarilo se jim harpunovat a tet je velryba tahne zasebou. Vorvan je obrovska. Jsme docela blizko. Oproti ni jsou desetimetrove cluny jak hracky. Poustime nasi loveckou lod. Padluji k ni. Velryba se ale neustale potapi a meni smer. Nedari se zapichnout dalsi harpuny. Velryba straci hodne krve, ale porad ma dost sily. Tet ji to asi prestalo bavit a zacale se potapet. Najednou koukam a clun se zacina potapet s velrybou taky. Prvne predek a hned potom pekne cela pod hladinu.Vsichni chlapi vyskakali a nalezli na druhy lovecky clun. Nekteri do naseho. Clun je tet vzhuru nohame a velryba ho tahne porad za sebou. Jeste jednou se vynorila, znovu se nepodarilo harpunovat. Nakonec z ni harpuna vypadla a velryba zmizela. Chlapum se podari clun obratit a kyblikama z neho vylivaji vodu. Lod znovu stoupa na hladinu. Pak se z hladiny pozbyraji padla, plachta, harpuny a ostatni veci. Pripoutame nasi loveckou lod a jedem zpatky. Dalsi motorovy clun bere potopenej a polamanej clun a jedou taky. Po osmi hodinach jsme znovu na pevnine. Za dve hodiny prijizdi nektere cluny a tahnou za sebou jednu vorvan. Za tmy potom zbytek a dalsi vorvan. Druhy den rano velrybi zmerily. Maji 10 az 11m. Velky ale na fotce me tady ukazovali vorvane pres dvacet metru. Zacina porcovani. Velryba se rozrezava a pomoci velkych nozu, lana a haku. Kdyz uz je skoro prvni hotova, znovu "Baleo, Baleo". Nekdo zustava aby porcoval, nekdo jede na more. Vecer se vraci, tentokrat pet vorvanu a zadna potopena lod. Toto byly pro vesnicany velice stastne dny. Krome toho ze velrybi maso jedi tak ho taky vymenuji za ryzi a ovoce. Velrybi maso jsem mel nekolikrat. Bylo starsi na slunci ususene a potom tepelne zpracovane. Melo dost silnou chut. Me chutnalo. No a po uspesnem lovu jsem mel cerstve. Nemelo tak vyraznou chut a bylo vyborne taky.