After two days spent at Legazpi and visit around (including its shopping mall and movie theatre), we decided to go to Donsol.
I have to say that the major interest in this small city, located one hour by road away from Legazpi, is whale shark. You can swim with them, if you are lucky enough to see some…
Indeed, the feedback we have had since we left Boracay was not really positive… Over the last three weeks, no one see them.. Where the hell are they?
Fortunately for us, the last feedback was positive. Some people have seen some on Tuesday. The rain has stopped (it did rain for the last week every day), so the visibility underwater should be much better and so we should have more chance to see some… (A lot of “if”)
As we have been told , whales sharks are underwater (so far so good) but we sometimes don’t find them because of the weather.. wind, lack of sun don’t help at all..( so how are you looking for whale sharks? you are not using any special electronical devices?) And recently, a new typhoon was from the east coast of Philippines…
From Legazpi,we took a mini-van (8 peoples fit in) we had to wait two hours to be full before leaving. During the trip, we met Orfir, a traveller from Israel, coming to Donsol for the same reasons than us. We left our hotel by 8am and we finally got to Donsol by 1pm… (and Donsol is only one hour away…, but one hour is quite long in fact)
Here we go in Donsol…
and I have to say that Caroline is more than motivated…
Most of the boats are gone and came back already…Usually, you rent a boat with 5 other people to share the cost.
But today, at this time, everyone is gone, so it is only the three of us… On the other side, the weather looks very good with almost no wind. So we should give it a try. Which is what we do.
20 minutes we are on the boat and wouah… already we can spot a whale shark.. (we didn’t spot the whale shark, but this guy did it)…. and he will stay on that position during three hours…
Everybody threw himself to the water (so the three of us)
We swim with this massive shark (8m in lenght) for almost 15 min… The visibility is ok.
Below, a short video done by Caroline and myself…
That is it.. The whale shark has dived deeper.. We get back onto the boat and will spend the last 2 and half hours looking for more whale sharks… Unsuccessful..
Although, everyone looked for more…
Yes, everyone.
But finally, one is better than nothing.. That would be good for today!
We decide to spend the night at Donsol so we can give it a go the next morning. Apparently, the conditions are always better on the morning.
A few pictures of our backpacker…
We talk with the locals.. We never know, maybe we can get some good tips on how to catch these whales sharks…
The swimming pool by the beach…
We eat local… (at Marie place). Good diner for 5 dollars AU.
We play local too. We need to bet on the color the ping-pong ball will fall onto…
Caro won, but I didn’t. (I never win)
Next morning, at 7am on the deck. We are, this time, 6 on the boat, but we will spend the three hours on the boat without seeing one whale sharks.. So disappointing…
Although we had three spotters who didn’t move during the three hours trip… impressive!!
Our activites will be nap and discussion with our neighbours (Canadian living in South Korea)
So lucky that Caroline pushed us yesterdayt to go on the afternoon.
Finally, we found another one, but smaller…
We go back to Legazpi in the afternoon with a mini-van for 8 people, but this time we were 12…. and it took us 59 min to get back.
However, we really like the car radio tape device, Pionneer, coming out from the 80’s
The same evening, we going back to Manila.
This time, we choose a luxury bus with WIFI and only three seats per row you can almost fully horizontaly tilt. We slept well even if they switch the air con to 15 degrees…
And not too crowded..
We will spend the two last days of our trip in Philippines in Manila. Thursday 17th and Friday 18th before flying to Sumatra Island of Indonesia on Saturyday morning.
Tagged: bicol, buntanding, butanding, donsol, legazpi, philippines, whale shark
Went there last year. It took us two days of trying. But it was all worth it!
Swimming with these gentle giants is definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I can still remember the big smiles of the other tourists I was with on the boat when we got the chance to meet face-to-face the beautiful creature.
Glad you were able to swim with Whale Shark! 🙂
Thank you Miguel.
Yes, I agree a very good experience, and I should add that we have been quite lucky to see them!!
Wahou! These whale sharks are just amazing! Lucky You! Profitez Bien! bisous!