The fish farmers in this area revere the whale, and belong to the whale cult.  If the fisherman spot wales around this cove (Whale Island is on the migration path every May.) it signals a good season.  Whales – plankton – fish.  Guess it makes sense.  If a whale is beached, and dies, the farmers honor the whale by bringing it on shore and burying it.   Then 3 – 5 years later the grave is dug up and the bones are transferred to a temple where they the fisherman can  pray for a good harvest.  There are two temples at this site, but there are more scattered around the island.

The real exciting part was how we got there.  The boat eased to a stop and tied onto  the end of a large wooden platform.  Sticks really – tied to a flotation device.   About 20 people in our group, along with us, noted the shore was 30 feet or so away.  Mmmm.

We climbed off our nice sturdy boat on onto this raft, then they detached the boat and we realized one end of the raft was attached to a rope the the other to a tree onshore.

A little muscle later the shore was a hop away and we began our hike to the temples.