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| Two whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) at Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
By Ryan Pearson
I've been in the Philippines for a few days now, and we're having a blast. Being fed too much amazing food, and buying too much stuff for super cheap. We are staying with DD's family in Lapu-lapu, in Cebu city. The people are truly amazing and their hospitality is second to none! Today, Chano drove us 3 hours south (and back again) from Cebu city at about 4am to go swimming with whale sharks. Were we excited? Heck yes we were, and we were certainly not disappointed!
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| DD and Matti behind a Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus). Shot from 10m below on breath hold. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
This was everyone's first encounter with whale sharks, and it was incredible. They are massive, and majestic, and the smaller ones (by smaller I mean 4-6m) are even a little bit cheeky. There were heaps of them (probably more than 10 but it was hard to tell) and one character kept swimming towards us and seemingly chased us all down a few times. But he was just being playful and always turned away at the last second even if his fins did clip some of the swimmers.
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| DD shooting a gaping whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with her family looking on from the boat. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) can really suck... while DD does a backflip. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) at Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Impressive size. Jen shapes up to a large whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with her special finning technique. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| A cheeky selfie with my new best friends... three whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Matti scaring off 4 large fish. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Yep. Whale Shark Silhouette. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| What up Suckaaa? Whale Shark (Rhincodom typus) feeding at the surface. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Me with three large whale shark friends (Rhincodom typus). Photo: Diana Virkki |
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| DD almost succumming to a surprise scissoring by a cheeky whale shark (Rhincodom typus). Photo: Ryan Pearson |
After the whale shark fun we went to Tumalog falls, which was also amazing. The 24°C water felt cool, but it was refreshing the scenery was beautiful. Check out some pics below. For now, sleepy time with dreams about the thresher sharks we'll meet later in the trip.
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| DD, Kobe, Clintoris, Jenital, and Matti pose in between Tumalog falls. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
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| Tumalog falls and rock pools. Photo: Ryan Pearson |
2 comments:
Amazing! Nice one Ryan, I just came back from the Philippines too, if you can you should get over to Malapascua and do the Thresher sharks! I will have to put the Whale sharks on my next itineary! Very lucky man!
Thanks guys :)
Anita, we'll be heading to Malapascua tomorrow morning. It's been on my to do list for a long time so I'm very excited to get into the water with some Threshers. Will post some pics when I have them available.
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