B-day trip: The whalesharks of Sorsogon

Other people celebrate their birthdays by having a party, I celebrate by traveling to a new place each year. For my 24th birthday I chose Sorsogon where you can swim with whalesharks. Whalesharks, Rhincodon typus, is the largest fish in the sea, some growing as big as 12.65 metres and weighing as much as 25.1 tonnes.

I remember it was a few months shy of December and I was already thinking of spending my 24th birthday in Sorsogon to see the whalesharks. I skyped two of my office buddies and introduced the idea of swimming with whalesharks and got no for an answer. One wanted an out of the country trip, the other one didn’t want to be swallowed whole by the whaleshark.

“Silly, the whaleshark won’t eat you, unless you taste like plankton,” I reassured Gail, and then sent her links about swimming with whalesharks and how gentle these giants are. My enthusiasm over whalesharks didn’t convince Gail but caught the attention of Arlyn and Yen, my Boracay buddies. Arlyn, although not a swimmer loves to travel and Yen is game for almost anything.

So I purchased the tickets to Legazpi online during a seat sale and kept grinning for hours even though the trip was still a month away. Swimming with whalesharks has been on my bucket list for years next to swimming with great white sharks (some of the items on my list are way crazier, teehee!) and it felt good to know that it’s going to happen in a few weeks.

This is it, pansit!

 I woke up first the next day and badgered my travel buddies to hurry up. As expected, the girls took their sweet time preparing so I went out to snap a few photos outside. I hate waiting (who doesn’t?) but when you’re traveling with Arlyn and Yen (specially yen! ) you have to adjust. If I want us to leave at say, 10am then I’ll usually tell them that we need to go by 9am. I’m the travel coordinator in the group and they usually just follow whatever is in the itinerary that I prepared. They don’t even bother to read the itinerary at times which is mildly irritating because then I get asked with the same questions over and over again.

Our driver finally arrived and after a quick breakfast at a roadside karinderya we were off to Sorsogon. 3 hours later we arrive at the Butanding Whaleshark Interaction center, where we register and pay the fees. Gray cloudy skies and a light drizzle didn’t stop the boats from looking for butandings but you could tell that some of the spotters were worried. Darn tsunami and bad weather.

Tourists need to register first and pay the necessary fees. We paid P100 for the registration fee and then P500 for the 3 hour Butanding interaction fee. The boat can accommodate up to 6 pax excluding the butanding interaction officer and the spotters. Foreigners are charged much higher by around a hundred bucks more or so.

Kuya Salit, our butanding interaction offficer, patiently explained to us what’s going to happen in the next 3 hours. I learned later on that Kuya Salit was one of the first butanding interaction officers and has been doing this for almost 10 years now. The fishermen used to kill the whale sharks for their meat till conservation efforts took place. What they used to kill and sell for meat now brings in thousands of tourists to the area, specially during Butanding season which is from March to May.

20 minutes into our boat ride the spotters see a whaleshark and Kuya Salit asks everyone to get ready to jump. My heart was beating wildly, so excited that I wanted to jump in the water already. Kuya Salit finally said the magic word and within seconds we were in the water, trying to decipher his hand gestures. It was disorienting at first and I was wondering where the whaleshark was when all of a sudden the biggest fish I’ve seen ever materialized in front of me. If I could jump I would have, instead I let out a soundless shriek, forgetting for a few seconds that I was underwater. Haha!

It was big…as in really really big and even though I knew a whaleshark’s diet didn’t include humans, the biggest mouth I’ve seen ever in my life kinda worried me a bit. Actually, not just a bit… teehee. I was swimming frantically to get out of the whaleshark’s way which really didn’t matter because my first whaleshark who was as big as a bus passed right under me. I was panicking for nothing. Haha.

We all had our moments but I have to hand the crown over to Dex, who really panicked and ended up pulling Yen’s bikini top loose. He wasn’t a swimmer and wasn’t as comfortable with the water as most of us were so he had an excuse. But it was really funny, more so when his head bobbed out of the water, his mask filled with water, eyes wide open. LOL!

The next dive was much easier and though I was still in awe I didn’t freeze and stare like a loon anymore. We swam with the whaleshark for as long as we could. For such big animals they sure can swim really fast and the fins are really a must if you want to keep up. During the third dive Arlyn and Dex begged off from seeing the whalesharks and stayed on the boat and took photos instead. (If they hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have photos to post here. I tend to forget my camera when I’m near the ocean.)

Luis had a water proof camera and managed to take a few photos of the whaleshark. There were 3 good shots only (it ran out of battery fast) and they all looked alike but we were happy. At least we have photos of the butanding which meant… bragging rights! Never mind if most people will ask what’s that?

We saw 6 whalesharks before we went back to shore. The whole activity lasted for 3 hours but it was one of the best 3 hours that I’ve had this year. I’m hoping I can do this again and maybe next time I’ll bring a waterproof camera with me.

Another item crossed off my bucket list, yay!

Notes

1. Fastest route to Sorsogon from Manila is to fly to Legazpi. It’s a 45 minute flight and budget airlines offer daily flights to Legazpi. A much cheaper way is via bus but travel time is much longer at 8 hours.

2. Snorkel, mask, and fins are a must! But life jacket and fins is a bad idea. A group of K_____  were in the water with us wearing fins and life jackets, and we got slapped not just once but twice by their fins that were up in the air. Not funny when you’re at the receiving end, especially when you know that they were not supposed to cut us off because they were from another boat.

3. Do not chase another group’s whaleshark, wait for a signal from the boatman.

4. Easiest way to see the whaleshark is to swim right beside or behind your guide.