This isn't my picture, I don't have an underwater camera, but this is what they looked like!
On our last day of vacation we did the one thing
that I have been looking forward to and was terrified of since I first started
to look into the Philippines. Whale Sharks! They are the biggest fish in the
world, and completely gentle however their size is still something to be
concerned about.
Before I left for the Philippines my sister and her
husband gave a gift of the Lonely Plant Philippines to aid me on my travels.
One of the fist sections of the book were the top 10 things to do while there.
The picture that immediately caught my eye was that of people swimming with the
whale sharks. People dwarfed by these massive creatures, and apparently it was
perfectly safe...
So as I've done my traveling slowly things from the
top ten list have been crossed off the list, but the whale sharks still
remained. So at 5am we set out on a bonca boat, leaving behind Bohol, heading
to Oslob, Cebu to experience the whale sharks. Our boat was filled with two
people from Germany, an older Irish man who had left his wife behind on Bohol
for the day and a young couple from Singapore. It was a 2 hour ride to get
there, it was rather peaceful as the sun began to rise and take full force on
to the day. By the time we arrived at 7am to our destination the you could
already tell that today was going to be hot.
We made our way to another smaller bonca where we
paddle the grand 5 minutes down the beach to the main station where were given
the rules, no touching, keep 4 meters between you and the whale shark, make
sure to stay away from their tail and don't wear sunscreen. The other rules
were all about safety, the sunscreen didn't make a whole lot of sense to me,
especially considering what other pollution went into the ocean i doubted my
SPF 50 would really do much damage to the whale sharks. So all though I didn't
put any more sunscreen on, I didn't shower off the sunscreen I had already
applied that morning.
We paid our fee, got our gear, then set out to see
the whale sharks. They were close to shore and were attracted by the once man
in a bonca throwing krill into the water. As we got out there you could see the
large black shapes that would pass you under the water. Then a head would
emerge. It had a moth like a giant cat fish, minus the whiskers. I was one of
the fist ones from our boat to jump in, and as I turned behind me I saw a 20
foot long whale shark, pass beside me. Everywhere I looked I could see them I
was in a middle of the group. They're friendly and do not attack humans,
they're rather indifferent to us, but it is their size and getting hit with
their tail that you have to be careful of. At this point I was clearly not
following the 4 meter rule at this point. So I tried to move away from the
pack, which I was clearly in the middle of to what I would consider safer
water.
It was at this point that I noticed that the mouth
piece to my snorkel was not working correctly, it was way to large for my mouth
and therefore I kept getting in mouthfuls of salt water and krill, which makes
it more salty and disgusting. So I swam back to the boat dodging whale sharks,
and managed to swap out my gear for a better fitting one.
I began to explore breathing freely and enjoying
the view, the largest whale shark the I saw was around forty feet, the smallest
around twenty. They were all breath taking. I would swim around and see one
watch it for a while, trying to stay the safe distance, but i feel like I was
always around 2 meters away, despite my best efforts. Then i would look to my
left and realize that there was another whale shark headed straight for me,
mouth open looking for krill. As fast as I could I would swim away. But this
became a constant problem given the number of whale sharks around us. I was
entrance by them, following them through the water. I lost tract of time and
another bonca boat driver had to get my attention, apparently it was time to go
back. Everyone else was back in our boat and ready to go. Feeling bad for
making them wait, but also feeling cheated out of whale shark time I swam back
our boat and head back to shore, where I finally got a chance to shower off and
we started the next part of our journey, the bus ride to Cebu city.
We went onto the road and had to flag down the bus
to Cebu. It was a holiday weekend and we were in the province so there was
little room and no air conditioning. The bus took us along the coast through
amazing scenery, stopping every now and then to pick up more people or drop
some off. The seats were full and soon there was no standing room left. Still
the vendors still managed to squeeze on trying to sell their pork rinds and
green mango with shrimp paste. It took us three hours to travel 100 km and when
we arrived at our destination Dad and Terri were both relived and frustrated.
We grabbed a cab to the airport, first going through the MacDonald's drive
through to get a snack before we flew back to Manila.
In Manila I left Dad and Terri behind so they could explore the city for
a couple of days, and I then headed to bus terminal where I managed to just
miss the last express bus to Subic and instead took the milk run to Olongapo
city. I lucked out without having anyone sitting beside me, I was able to sleep
for most of the 3 and half hours home. After a trike, then a taxi I managed to
get home at 1 am where I checked my email and then went to bed knowing that the
next day was going to be long, but the whale sharks were well worth it.
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