Day 36 June 11, 2011 St Andre – Day off

11 Jun

Flying penguins?

The shower I had this morning was the best I’ve had since the trip began. Or maybe it’s just been so long since I’ve had a proper shower.

Majid awoke long before me and by the time I made it down for breakfast he had already walked around St Andre, found the local church, helped paint the side of the church, and had one of the church workers offer him the use of his ATV, and all this before 9:30am.

Breakfast, like last nights dinner, was delicious. I had two.

I tried to update my blog but soon Majid had us walking to the local church where one of the parishioners gave us a tour and then gave us his ATV to drive out to where they baptise people. It wasn’t a long drive, but it was fun, and it was nestled at the base of a waterfall with the altar carved into the rock face.

Kamouraska was a short 7-minute drive from St Andre and the town where we met Pierre, our whale watching guide. He told us that while he couldn’t promise that we would see any beluga whales, as he had yet to see them this year, that we were for sure going to see penguins on one of the nearby islands. It was really windy out on the water as we set off towards some of the local islands. We quickly found the penguins that Pierre was talking about, and while they certainly looked like penguins, they were flying. I don’t think penguins can fly. I don’t know what kind of birds we saw. What we did see was beluga whales. Lots of them, both adults and calves. They were curious and came close to the boat to check us out.

The tides in this area are so large that at low tide, a number of the islands are connected to the mainland and so those who live on the island can drive back and forth.

After lunch at a local café in Kamouraska I finally managed to make it in to Riviere-du-Loup to photocopy the rest of the documents I needed for my research study. The difference between a colour photocopy and black and white at the French equivalent of Staples is absurd. I almost considered opening my own photocopying shop it was such a racket.

Again I tried to find time to work on my blog but what started as a 10 min skype with Sarah, her sister Kate, and mum Pat, turned into about an hour. By that time it was dinner and time for Majid and I to once again heckle Mike. Genevieve had driven in from Dejelis to visit Mike and have dinner with us again. Majid was as subtle as ever and dinner, like every meal at the B&B was delicious. In fact, like breakfast, I had two dinners.

The patron of the B&B had done our laundry and had even folded it, something that my running gear doesn’t deserve, and managed to get it all smelling better than it has since this trip began.

The night again ended with Majid and I leaving Mike and Genevieve to themselves but not before I said my awkward goodnight to Genevieve. She went to do the standard French double cheek kiss greeting, but I didn’t know what she was doing and instinctively went to make sure she wasn’t on my deaf side.