Swimming with Whale Sharks

Up well before the sun thought about rising, I witnessed it's beauty from my
bus window on my way to Oslob on the Island of Cebu.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

The soonest flight from Cebu that I could board was three days after my volunteer work completed on Leyte. With a three night stay booked in Cebu City, I planned to enjoy my clean hotel room, get some much needed quiet sleep and rest, catch up on the news, repack my luggage, and make use of the free WiFi in my hotel room.

It wasn't until I checked into my room that I realized how much I needed some quiet time and some space. It was pure luxury to spend time in my pristine room at the Mandarin Plaza Hotel (that was still in its "soft opening" phase) by myself.

An underwater selfie with a whale shark.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

I couldn't squander the little bit of time I had left in the Philippines, and put some time into researching some activities that I could do in my final three days. I settled on swimming with the whale sharks and determined that as much as I wanted to sleep in the next morning, Monday was going to be the day I trekked down to Oslob, a small barangay (municipality) on the southern end of the Island of Cebu.

Whale shark eating krill. They are very friendly to humans, but a person
could definitely fit in that mouth!
© 2014 Andrea Rip

I woke up at 3:30am to gather my belongings and catch my prearranged taxi to the bus station. The taxi driver helped me find my 4:something a.m. bus and I prepared to pay the P120 fee (~$2.75USD) for the two to four hour air conditioned, WiFi enabled bus ride. The bus departed promptly and the early bus meant we made a magnificent coastal trip in two hours. I slept here and there, but was quite keen on watching the sunrise. Watching the colors creep over the beaches and blue ocean felt idyllic - like Leyte's devastation was on the other side of the world.

After hopping off the bus with a couple other intrepid early morning tourists, we located a hotel that allowed guests to pay a small fee (like $1.50USD) to use their facilities. They would also accompany us to the whale shark watching company and bring us out to the underwater oddity. Afterward, they provided showers and comfort rooms (toilets), and a little cafe.

The highlight, of course, was donning my favorite snorkel and entering the water with enormous fish. The sharks are very docile toward humans though their mouths are massive. When one such creature crept toward me with its mouth open, my thoughts were twofold: that I didn't really want to be in its path and that I was probably also eating some of the krill he was after.

Tumalog Falls in Oslob are gorgeous with cool water.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Philippines law dictates that tourists can only be in the water for 30 minutes, but I swam with about 10 sharks for that time. Sometimes they would sneak up and swim right under me. Other times, they would bob like me in the water waiting to be fed a bit more. Some dove deep down to where the scuba divers anchored themselves on the bottom. The entire experience is rather "canned" and touristy, but I couldn't escape how surreal it felt to see such beautiful whale sharks so close.

After I dried off at the hotel and had a bite to eat along with a mango shake made by Mark, my "tour guide," he took me on his motorcycle up to Tumalog Falls. The beautiful waterfall cascaded down a mossy cliff to create a gorgeous aqua-colored cool pool. The waterfall is fed by a spring and is always flowing.

I was content with my swim with the whale sharks and didn't venture in this pool, but Mark made the short hike with me and I learned some things about the falls, the Philippines, and his life while we walked. Afterword, he timed out the bus and hailed it for me to ride back into Cebu City. The ride back was a bit longer - more than three hours, but I was back in the quiet hotel room by 3:30pm and discovered the Ayala Center Mall a couple blocks from the hotel where I did not eat rice, but found a number of options for meals outside the hotel.

The next day I wandered around that part of the City, repacked my luggage, rested, and prepared to fly out on my third morning. The return trip was quite uneventful and included a much shorter layover in Hong Kong, and a three day layover in Los Angeles where I stayed with my generous and wonderful friends, Seth and Amanda, while saturating myself into American LA culture including Whole Foods, Starbucks, fancy indulgent SUV's, and no rice.