Donsol

When Alasdair and I were debating on whether or not we were going to do this trip, we received an invitation from my sister-in-law Ditas to join them for a week snorkelling with whale sharks in Donsol on Holy Week. This was the catalyst to our 8-week holiday, as that very day Alasdair booked the flights to Legaspi, near Donsol – and we were committed.

We arrived in Legaspi City, south of the Luzon on Monday and were shown the ropes by Omar, our very capable Butanding Interaction Officer, or BIO. (Butanding is the local word for a whale shark.) Omar helped to build up tourism in Donsol, organising the whale spotting trips, and other attractions within the area. There almost seems to be some sort of hero-worship for him from local Donsol people – they feel that their province would not have attracted visitors without him. The plan was to go whale spotting Tuesday and Wednesday, and island hopping and snorkelling on Thursday.

We headed off very early Tuesday morning to meet up with Omar and the rest of the boat crew. We had Florante, Omar’s right-hand man, Randy and a couple of boatmen. The routine was simple – the spotter would shout out if there was a whale shark in the vicinity, and we would have to very quickly put on our fins, masks and snorkels and be ready to jump from the boat. Omar had warned us the night before that the first experience with a whale shark can be quite daunting – to find yourself very close to a creature between 10 to 18 metres long can be quite a shock. It’s very easy to forget that they are very gentle creatures – whale sharks only eat plankton, which is why they come to this side of the world.

Our first encounter lasted about 15 minutes. We jumped from the boat, and Randy, my guide, grabbed my hand and led me towards the shark. I was adjusting my mask when Randy suddenly told me to look down – and I saw this absolutely beautiful butanding, around ten metres long, swimming a couple of feet below me. Admittedly, I let out a shriek! After a few seconds though, I got used to (sort of) to the breathtaking sight and we followed the whale shark around for around fifteen minutes. It had a few fish swimming around it – a combination of pampano (a local flat fish) and remora – parasite fish that feed off the butanding and in turn keep the shark clean.

The next jump was done by the children: Mica, Callum, Euan, Nikki, Sevi and Gio. We could not do a jump together as you need a guide to show you where to go. It was actually quite amazing at how the guides spot these mammals. Sometimes I felt as if Randy was just pointing at empty water when a few seconds later my eyes would adjust and lo and behold! A whale shark!


We spent the next three hours jumping from and getting back into our boat for an opportunity to see the butandings. We saw around three in total – at one point, when Randy told me to look down, I found a whale shark’s mouth barely a foot away from me. It swam right underneath me and I pulled my feet up because I was so nervous that I was going to touch him. This made the entire trip worthwhile and in fact, I would’ve stayed in the boat for another six hours for that opportunity…

Later that afternoon, we went on another boat ride - this time to check out the fireflies, or alitaptap (what a lovely word). We left at sunset and went on a very leisurely ride along the river waiting for it to get dark. Since it was such a clear night, we also went stargazing - and trying to find out how many shooting stars we could spot. On our way back, we stopped at a few trees that looked like they had been lit up with Christmas lights – they were just covered with fireflies.

We spent the next day on the boat again looking for more whale sharks and this time we saw more than ten. At one point we had one shark go underneath our boat. Egad. Because of the sheer size of these animals it’s very easy to forget that they are harmless… Admittedly, at one point I was quite sneaky and actually held on to the fin of the shark, but immediately let go as the thought of it suddenly going deeper and taking me with it occurred to me. We also saw a shark swimming very near the surface with both its fins above water (all we needed was the ‘Jaws’ theme tune) and Alasdair couldn’t wait for the guide’s shout of “Go!” and he immediately jumped in. Thank goodness they only eat plankton!


That afternoon Alasdair and Lito decided to borrow a couple of small motorbikes to ride the 45 kms to Legaspi City – we had run out of money and we had to get to a bank. Donsol is still a small fishing village and thus the hotels do not accept credit cards and there are no banks anywhere in the vicinity. They came back four hours later, having had quite an adventure. On approaching the first corner after leaving the hotel, Lito found out that his motorbike had no brakes whatsoever, so they had to stop and have these done. After a few minutes, he had a tyre puncture. So they had this fixed. Then Alasdair’s rear brakes went. So they had these fixed as well. By the time they got back, it was dark and they did not feel the need for dinner, as they had eaten so many bugs and flies on their way back. At dusk in the Philippines, especially in the provinces, all these little creatures suddenly come out, so no, they did not eat them intentionally. And they were obviously exaggerating. But gross, still.



Legaspi City is home to Mayon Volcano, the most active volcano in the Philippines and also considered to have the world's most perfect cone. There is always smoke coming out of it; but according to Florante, they only worry when the smoke starts to turn red. Its last eruption was in July 2006, and like most volcanoes in the Philippines, it comes with its own story:

There once lived a very beautiful native princess who had an uncle named Magayon. He was so possessive of his niece that no man dared to challenge his wrath by courting the favors of the young maiden. One day, however, a brave and virile warrior was so smitten by the princess that he threw all cares to the wind, clambered up through the window of the royal chamber and enticed the girl to elope with him. With Magayon at their heels, the couple prayed to the gods for assistance. Suddenly from out of nowhere, a landslide buried the raging uncle alive. Local folks now claim that it is Magayon's anger bursting forth in the form of eruptions.

On Thursday we went on a bigger boat to go island hopping. We left the island of Sorsogon and made our way around the islands of Masbate. Ten minutes into our trip we saw a school of dolphins - what a lovely site! And you'll just have to trust me on this as my pictures were obviously not very good...


We first went snorkelling on an island near a very


small fishing village. Our boat was immediately approached by smiling local children who had makeshift boats of Styrofoam and clear plastic bags. We then headed off to the second island for our lunch. While the fish which had been caught that morning was being grilled by our guide Florante, Alasdair, Lito, Ditas and I decided to go snorkelling. (The children were playing on the boat’s outriggers, jumping off from them and playing with them like monkey bars.) We spotted a poisonous sea snake and while Alasdair and Lito took photographs of it, Ditas and I hovered behind. Alasdair and Lito though suddenly made a start and started swimming away very very quickly – Ditas and I of course followed. As it turns out, the sea snake suddenly looked up and made very quickly for them. We decided to give snorkelling up at that point…

We moved onto two more islands to look at some fantastic waterfalls. We alit from our boat to visit the first one and drink its very fresh water. Alasdair made a valiant attempt to climb up it, but only made it halfway as the stones were extremely slippery.

Donsol is a fantastic place to visit – the experience of snorkelling with whale sharks is truly magical. Omar said on the first day that so many people go back to Donsol for the whale shark experience. I found this quite odd as I thought that this was one of those once in a lifetime experiences. However, after swimming with the butandings, I can now see how this can be very addictive. I cannot wait to go back.

The only thing that almost ruined this week was our choice of resort: Amor Farm Resort. Although the accommodations were alright, the service was extremely poor – it took an average of one hour every time for our food, which wasn’t that great, to arrive. Then on Wednesday they said that we had to move from our four rooms to three rooms without airconditioning – I got so cross that we ended up checking out the very next day and moving to a hotel in Legaspi after island hopping. It turned out to be a good decision as our flight was leaving very early on Friday. Still though – the proprietor was much too concerned about her profit, which was too short-sighted I think. As a consequence we will not be recommending her resort – on the contrary, in fact.

Alasdair has made a little montage of our stay in Donsol. Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhGh07PFLbE