We're both ready to jump off the hamster wheel for the next year, and travel the world to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, experience different ways of living, surf, and slow down...
The next morning, the rain ceases just in time for our walk to the Tourism Center. But we have to wait an hour before leaving as the tide is very low. As we set off it's slightly overcast and actually a little chilly!
About an hour passes, and we're all a little despondant when our BIO (Butanding Interaction Officer) intructs us to get ready! We don our masks, snorkels and fins and line up on a large bamboo on the bow of the boat, ready to drop in one by one when instructed. I'm so excited I forget to put my snorkel in my mouth and just take as many photos as I can as we are right above a whale shark of about 6 meters.
No. 1
Nadine & Mike
Barbara & Martin
Urban & Anja
Ready!
The second time, we see the fin and the tail from the boat but it's too deep by the time we jump in - this one'ss a big one, about 10m!
No. 2 (10m)
The third one disappears pretty quickly too - I mostly see it's tail swimming away.
No. 3
We're about to set course for home when our spotter signals a 4th sighting! This one is the best - we drop in right by the head of the Whale Shark and swim with it for a while - even though it seems to glide forward effortlessly, we have to swim hard to keep up with it! We're all very excited when we get back onboard back onboard :)
No 4
No. 4
No. 4
That night, we join Martin & Barbara for dinner at the cheap place right behind both our hotels, then go to Villa Bianca for the big Friday night show... which turns out to be an odd hybrid... the waiter/waitress/ladyboy singing a mulitude of songs, karaoke style (reading from a sheet), with outfit changes between innumerable sets (we sneaked out after the 3rd set) ;)
In the morning we are also joined by Urban and Anja from Slovenia. It's a gorgeous morning, with glassy waters and only a few clouds. We're surprised how close to the shore the boat is whilst we search for whale sharks. We're told that Donsol River provides lots of plankton and creates a great feeding ground for the gentle "Butanding" as they are known here.
View of the Mt Mayon volcano
Left: Martin & Barbara, Right: Anja, Urban & Mike
After 3hrs, quite a few other boats have spotted whale sharks but we're out of luck, so we all sign up for another go out tomorrow.
That evening we all join up again at their hotel, Villa Bianca (P800 per night for an aircon room), so that we can use their wi-fi briefly. Urban negotiates hard for a couple of tricycles to take us to the Ogod River where we plan to go firefly watching. From P200 each way he manages to get them down to P200 return for the half an hour journey, and that they wait for us. The Ogod River is apparently a better spot to see the fireflies as it has much lower trees than the Donsol River nearby.
Setting off on the Ogod river
We set off on our boat just before dark and stop by a mangrove tree.
On our way to see the fireflies at dusk
The fireflies are starting to light up, 1, 2, 3, 20, 50, then 100s... It's totally impossible to photograph or film, but really quite magical! We all head back and have dinner at the cheap place accross the street from our hotels and enjoy the endless karoake that goes on here every evening :)
We leave for Legazpi on Cebu Pacific - it's only an hour's flight and we see some gorgeous islands on the way. We land in Legazpi with a great view of the Mt Mayon volcano.
Cebu Pacific at Legazpi airport (Mt Mayon volcano in the background)
We try to find some other travellers to share a van to Donsol but they all prefer to take the shared van from the terminus. We don't want to cut it too close since the last van is around 4pm and it's getting close to that time. So we splurge and take the van by ourselves.
We arrive at Armor Farm Resort (P1000 per night for a fan room) around 4:30pm, check-in and walk to the Donsol Tourism Office to register (one off P300 pp) for snorkelling with Whale Sharks in the morning. Shortly after Barbara and Martin from Vienna, Austria, who were at the airport and took the shared transport turn up - they paid about 1/8th what we did (P75pp rather than P1200), so we defintely plan to take the shared van on the way back! As it's up to 6 people per boat (P3500), we decide to go snorkelling together tomorrow.
