“Stop being perverse. It’s amazing. It’s epic. It’s out of control. It never gets old. Most people spend thousands to fly here and then spend more money to do it everyday for a week. You’re already here, you didn’t even have to pay for the flight, the least you can do is go one time.”
It’s June, and we have been in Tonga’s northern group, Vava’u, for a week. We arrived via sailboat. We are sitting outside in a drizzle at a traditional Tongan feast, and a professional photographer is adamantly telling us we MUST swim with the humpback whales while in Tonga. “I used to be a photographer for African safaris. People pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to go on safari, and they do it to have an intimate, un-catered wild-life experience. This is better than any of the safaris I was on. You will get closer to these animals than any animal on a safari, and a humpback is one of the largest creatures in the world. In the wild. For 200 dollars. Where else can you do that?”
