Today is our much anticipated tour to go snorkeling with the whale sharks. Hoping that we will be lucky and see them as there is no guarantee that we will see any. We have booked it for early in our stay just in case we don't get lucky, we will try to book again before we leave.
We took a taxi to where we are catching the boat. It is just a 3KM taxi ride. Coffee and pastries are served for breakfast when we arrive. There are 12 people on our tour. We are given the option to rent a wetsuit for $10US. I am the only one who takes the option, the girls decided to go with life jackets. The wetsuit was the way to go as you could swim faster because it did not have drag when swimming. New regulation now in 2020 and you need to wear a life jackets.
There was no wind when we got to the marina and hoping it will stay that way. The marina is at the far end of a very sheltered bay.
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| Great reflections as it is very calm |
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| Lots of beautiful sailboats |
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| Shipwreck or abandoned boat inside the bay. |
From the tip of the island, it is a 15-20 km boat ride to where the whale sharks feed. It is where the water gets colder and deeper. The feed on plankton and small fish/ fish eggs etc. They are not dangerous to people even if the are sharks.
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| Sailing to the spot where the whale sharks may be. |
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| North beach from a distance |
We got to do 3 attempts to swim with the sharks. My best one was the third one. 2 people go in at once with a guide. These fish swim fast, the guide will help you try to keep up!
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| First swim, the shark down when I got to it. |
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| Wendy with the snorkeling guide |
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| Joey getting ready for the first attempt. |
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| Joey got lucky twice |
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| My 3rd swim was the best and I spent about 5 minutes being very close to them. |
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| Dolphins |
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| Lots of boats all around but there must have been over 100 whale sharks in the region, they were everywhere you looked. |
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| They skim the surface for food |
From the boat, it looks like they are not swimming very fast but in the water they move a lot quicker. They are about 30 feet in length and weight 10 tons.
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| Joey on her last swim going eye to eye with a shark. |
After we had our 3 jumps each, one girl was getting green and the captain said we should go back. We could have stayed there all day. I think we must have given the girl the evil eye. She did get seasick during the ride home. We stopped at one stop to snorkel but it was not very good.
On way home from the snorkeling spot, the crew made fresh ceviche for us. We stopped at North Beach
to have drinks and eat the ceviche. We jumped in the water and walked home when we were done with the after snorkeling festivities.
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| The company we went with |
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| Our snorkeling guide having a nap, I think he had a late night last night. |
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| Our Captain. |
We had a great tour and were very lucky that there were lots of Whales Sharks.
For supper, we went to Olivia which is a Mediterranean restaurant. We have been there and the food is good but more on the pricy side. the mojitos were good and we enjoyed the meal..
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| We ordered a bunch of appetizers to start |
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| Open air restaurant |
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| The bar across the street from Olivia |
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We appreciate any comments/questions you would have or any stories about the places we visited.