Swimming with the Whale sharks

While researching for possible places to visit in the Philippines, I found Donsol, Sorsogon as one of my top destinations. Donsol is a feeding ground of the largest fish in the world, the whale sharks, locally known as butandings. I originally planned to go solo but a 5-hour delayed layover in Taiwan got me to buy my cousin a ticket to come with me. I'm so glad she came coz it wouldav been a bit difficult being on my own.

We landed in Legaspi airport around noon and caught a shuttle to Donsol (1 hour drive south of Legaspi) with 4 Dutch visitors. We searched for accommodations when we got there. Ours turned out to be a very interesting one. Hahaha. Oh Lord.


Despite the heat, I managed to take a 4-hour nap here in this makeshift bed. =P I told my cousin that we should keep tight on budget because we can. Haha. We boycotted the resort's overpriced food and opted to buy bread and cheese spread from town. (We managed not buy any other food for the rest of our 2-day stay in Donsol)

We then got into this small boat for a night firefly tour. The river was very dark and peaceful. Sadly, no camera could capture the firefly party going on in this Talisay tree. However, our guide successfully got a firefly and brought it to us.
Thankfully, the sleep was uneventful despite the openness of the cottage. When we woke up, we hurriedly made breakfast - cheese spread by a ruler on the bread we bought. Lol. We then proceeded to the tourism center to get started on the swim.

When I planned this trip, I didn't exactly think much about what the real swim entailed. Hahaha! I failed to realize that the swim involves jumping into open water and chasing after a huge animal. On our first jump, I was scared to death. I do not like using snorkels at all. Lol. I also forgot how salty seawater can be. Hahahaha. During the second jump, my cousin and I stayed in the boat. I was sorta depressed coz I came all way out here and I can't even muster the courage to do it. All that hassle and money for nothing? Ugh.

Good for us, Kuya Henry - our Butanding Interaction Officer (BIO) offered to take us on his buoy one at a time. Seems so lame, right? But what choice did I have? Hahahaha. The first time I saw the butanding, it was cruising 1 meter below me. It was breathtaking. Amazing. Out of this world! After that, I told Kuya Henry - I'm good. I could go home right now with a smile on my face. I went on to see 4 more with the last being the largest at 8 meters long.

We shared the boat with the same 4 Dutch visitors and 1 Israeli diver who had an underwater camera. (Credits to Yuval for these pics!)

try to find its eye. they say butanding in bicolano means small eyed :)