Saturday morning we packed up and headed out on our motorbikes. We drove them to a neighboring town, Sibulan and hopped on a barge that took us across a section of ocean to Cebu Island. Our destination was Oslob where we were going to go swimming with the butanding, Cebuano for whale shark.
I was warned of this outing before I even got to the Philippines, and I was pretty sure I was going to opt out of it. There was NO way in heck I was going to get in the water with sharks. They tried to reassure me that they wouldn't harm me, they could care less about humans, etc... Well, I still wasn't convinced. Then on Wednesday, Faith and I decided to research them for science. So, we looked them up, and found out that whale sharks are actually a type of whale, not a type of shark. Large whale sharks are about 40 feet long--the size of a bus. While they are the largest fish, they only feed on fish eggs and shrimp. (You'll notice in the video the fish swimming around--they know they are completely safe.) Learning this about butanding helped ease my fears, and I decided to do it!
I was still a little nervous to get in the water once we got there. I accidentally left my GoPro on, but you can see me getting a little nervous as I put my goggles on and took the plunge! Once I got in there, I was in heaven! It was so cool! My adrenaline was pumping and the whale sharks were so big and SO CLOSE! I couldn't believe it! We were instructed before to stay 4 meters away, but that didn't really happen.... One time I was trying to back away from it, and ran into the bottom of a boat. It's tail fin grazed my leg--it felt a lot like wet fabric. We had so much fun, and I was bummed when we had to get back in the boat. It was hard to keep track, but I figure I saw 5 or 6 different whale sharks, and the largest 2 were definitely as long as a school bus!
Our time with the sharks was a little over 30 minutes, and I couldn't believe I had swam that long without a break?! I'm not a swimmer, but give me some adrenaline and I guess I can last in the water for a while :)
After our fun time with the whale sharks, we ate lunch and went to these cool ruins in a nearby town. They were from when the Spanish first came to the Philippines. The structures, the ocean near, and the blue skies made for a beautiful setting.
Me with the Ryskamps :)
After we had explored the ruins, we headed up to some water falls called Tumalog Falls.
Sidenote: Thank heavens for the motor bikes! We can go wherever we want, whenever we want, and it's just so convenient! Leo, Angie, and I were the drivers and each of us had two passengers. It just works great!
The falls were unlike anything I'd ever seen! I felt like I was in a scene from Lord of the Rings. I truly thought that falls like these were probably animated when I saw them in movies. There were just so many little trickles of water coming down!
They also had a natural fish spa there that we enjoyed :)
After that we headed to the barge and made our way back home where Angie made us some delicious shrimp for dinner (I'm gonna miss that fresh shrimp!).
The Ryskamps + Saturdays + The Philippines = a dang good time!
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