Whale Sharks, Volcanoes and Zip Lines, Oh My..!!

So this is a trip that I had planned for a long time... I want to thank Tony and his family for making me feel so welcome in what morphed into a family vacation for them with me as a "hanger-on"... We did have a blast....

Thursday, April 1st
So it was a 4am wake-up to catch a cab to the airport for a 6am flight to Legaspi...

Here is Jenn, Tristan, Tony, Samantha and Nick... With Mayon in the background...

Nick, Jenn and I after deplaning... Now Mayon looks pretty tame... They had lifted the quarantine area by now, but it was only back in December that it looked like this:

When we visited, there was only one tremor a day and things had calmed down considerably...

And here is our driver, ready to take us to Donsol...

On the way to Donsol, the rain started (and never let up all day..!!)... It was an hour drive from the Legaspi airport - up over the mountain range and then back down to the seacoast....

By 8:30am, we were on a boat (in the rain) headed out to swim with Butanding - the "Gentle Giants" of Donsol...

Here we are after seeing our first, rather small, whale shark... Rather small means about 20-24ft long...!!! We are wet, cold and HAPPY..!!

Tony and his kids.....

One of our guides that constantly looked for "whale shark sign"...

Whale shark sign is generally a dark shadow on the surface of the ocean... Sometimes a bit of tail might show above the surface....

After seeing our first whale shark, we waited and waited and waited... For over 2-1/2hrs we saw nuttin'.... We were getting cold.... Finally we saw one on the surface.... Then it was 4 more in a row to dive with... As the whale sharks swim faster than you can snorkel, we were able to spend 3-5minutes at the most swimming with them... And if they felt "crowded", they just took off... Typically, these were swimming at 15ft below the surface....

Here is one a bit larger than the first... The water is cloudy due to all the plankton there - one of the main reasons that the whale sharks populate Donsol for 3-4 months every year...

Another shot of the forward part of the whale shark... You can see the head is the widest part of the body....

Here we are, with fins on ready to "bail" at the first sign of butanding... You really only had a few seconds to get out of the boat and into position to be able to spend some time swimming with them... If you dawdled, all you got to see was the tail and not for very long at that..!!!

There were 30 watch boats, and although there was some form of etiquette that was supposed to be followed "one shark, one boat", it invariably turned into a series of "blocking out the other boat" so you could get into position to swim with them....

If you look closely, you can see the remoras attached to the side of the whale shark, just behind the gills... They can feed off the scraps that exit the gills....

Again, looking closely, you can see how large the gills of the whale sharks are..!!

Incidentally, here is a shot of the elusive "red-bellied, fat boy whale" that we encountered... OMG, I gotta lose some weight.....

Here is a good "head on" shot of one...

As you can see the eyeballs are small, black and beady....

And here are the "rules"....
The largest whale shark that we saw was about 28-30 feet long... That was certainly plenty big...

We then headed back to our resort to check in... As the afternoon was still rainy, we walked to the butanding center and bought some souvenirs, t-shirts, etc...

The accommodations were very nice and everything was well maintained... A great place to enjoy Donsol's beauty from...!!!

One of the big attractions here is a boat ride up the Donsol River to enjoy the firefly show in the mangroves... Coming from the Midwest I find this kind of interesting... All we had to do when we were kids was walk out in the back yard on a hot summer night and collect as many as we wanted..!!!

Day 1 Bucket List - Whale Sharks CHECK..!!

Friday, April 2
The most active day of the trip (by far)...
As per my usual schedule, I was up at the ass-crack of dawn and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise...

Here are some of the nipa huts that we located near the beach....

A typical Filipino morning... Tending the cows, the cook fire going in the background... Once you get to the provinces, the basic lifestyle is "nobody move, nobody get hurt".... It is all on Island Time...!!!

This morning we were going fishing and snorkeling... Originally, the plan was to dive with manta rays, but they were not around so we chartered a banka to take us to San Miguel (an island about 1hr off the coast of Donsol).... Here is our guide, carrying our gear out to the banka... We had a 6:30am leave time, so there was no time for dilly-dallying....

Samantha, Nick and Jenn in front of the beach entrance to Amor...

Walking out to the boat, we noticed this juvenile scorpion fish... That would be a nasty surprise to step on...!!!

On our way out, looking back towards Amor....

Enjoying the morning boat ride....

After the crappy weather yesterday, today made up for it in spades... Not a cloud in the sky... I am lovin' it..!!

On our way out we saw a pod of dolphins and lots of flying fish... These fish would go for a couple hundred yards before "falling" back into the ocean...!!

Here we are, approaching San Miguel Island... For all you geography buffs, Halea Island, locally known as San Miguel Island, is a 30 hectare crescent-shaped island located at the heart of the Philippine Islands on the northern tip of Ticao Island off Masbate in the Bicol Region.

Beautiful volcanic islands that made for great ledges while diving....

Here is the cave that we were headed to... We pulled the banka into the cave and spent the next few hours snorkeling....

Another shot of us entering the cave....

Now we are inside the cave... No bats that we could see....

A little grotto area inside...

Gearing up, getting ready to splash...

Tristan with the big "thumbs up"..

I am enjoying it as well...

Here is Nick spreading the joy....

And Tony as well... He will pay the price for not wearing a rash guard... We were surrounded by jellies and some of them put out an ugly sting... Tony swam through a bunch and was still plagued by their sting 5 days later...!!!

The coral here was amazing... Not one bit of dead coral... Everything was alive and beautiful...

A school of fish, flashing in the sunlight....

Coral...

Don't these look like flowers...???

The ledge where we dove...

More beautiful coral....

An underwater garden...

Marley, can you see the clownfish staring straight at the camera..?? He is defending his territory...

Another shot....

At one point, I popped up above the surface and saw this fisherman who was paddling out to the local fishing area for a day's catch....

Isn't the diversity of coral just spectacular..??!!

Another close-up...

Here is Nemo again, defending his turf....

Some staghorn coral....

And some more coral pix....

More diversity....

And here is one of the nasty jellies.... Stay away from these guys... Just ask Tony..!!

The last of the underwater pictures showing some pretty orange coral...

These volcanic islands have such outstanding features: caves, beautiful white sand beaches, crystal clear water...

A pretty little cove...

Some one's idea of Shangrila....

One of the many little beaches...

And of course, the obligatory cigar shot....

Looking through a pass to the other side...

Typical shoreline...

Caves everywhere..!!

Heading out to do some fishing - the boys are happy...

Tony and Jenn enjoying the sun....

Serious business this fishing....

Jerry - Our Butanding guide as well as our charter guide (He is a cousin of one of the guys here at work, so it was nice to have someone local take care of us)...

Tony was the only one who caught a fish... A lapu-lapu (grouper) that was a whopping 5" long.... So there was no fresh sushi for us that afternoon (the bait fish looked nasty)...

I enjoyed the morning on the water too..!!

Father and son competition...

Pretty respectable air I would say....

Heading back in to check out of the resort and head to Legaspi....

Heading back to Legaspi... We all got plenty of sun...

After checking into our hotel we visited the 1814 Cagsawa Church ruins...
The church of Cagsawa, outside the city of Legaspi - also spelled Legazpi - became victim of the still active Mt Mayon volcano during one of its many eruptions on 1 February 1814.

The view of Mayon beyond the ruins was impressive...

Typical tourist pose....

Samantha and Tristan...

Heading inside the ruins...

I just had to take this picture of a Filipino "scooter gang"... It was pretty humorous...

Group photo... sans Tony, he took the shot...

Mayon over my right shoulder and my grandkids on my chest... Yea baby.....

Tony and Jenn

We then headed to Ligñon Hill
Ligñon Hill is another prominent landform in the city located behind the Legazpi Airport Tower and beside the Albay Wildlife Park. The hill stands 156 meter (511 feet) tall. and offers a breathtaking 360 degree view of the City of Legazpi, the deep blue Albay Gulf, nearby towns and islands, and of course the majestic Mayon Volcano.
The hilltop is accessible through a scenic concrete road that winds up the hill offering a challenging 20 minute trek.
The best time to ascend the hill is at early morning just before sunrise, while the air is cool.
We decided to go before sunset and you can see by my face that it was still very hot...
And wow, was that road steep... Glad I got some practice climbing in Banaue..!!

Walking up we passed the Catholic Stations and since it was Good Friday, the place was mobbed by devout Catholics climbing the hill and visiting the stations to pray.

The view of Mayon from the top...

Legaspi and Albay Gulf... A gorgeous view...

Look closely and you can see the zip line....

Sunset...

Mayon in the sunset...

Here I am on the zip line at sunset with Mayon in the background... Bad picture quality as this is a scan of my "souvenir" photo....

Back to the Pepperland Hotel and dinner and bed... This is the atrium at the Hotel... It was rather nice... And they kept the San Miguel beer nice and cold...

Day 2 Bucket List - Zip Line CHECK..!!

Saturday, April 3
The day we had to head home... However, not before we visited Mayon...!! We had seen Mayon from a distance... That just wouldn't do, so we had to go visit Mayon... They are down to 1 tremor a day and the restrictions had been lifted, so why not visit... hehe....

Our destination was the the Mayon Skyline, almost halfway up the side of Mayon...

But first, we had to get inside the danger zone...!! I just love these kind of trips...

Here we are at the Skyline...

The view of Mayon 1/2 way up to the top...

We are above the storm clouds...

A shot of the view looking down towards Albay Gulf..

And here is how they store water... On top of the buildings...

Jenn, Tony and Tristan... The other 2 kids decided sleeping in was a better deal than visiting Mayon...

Tristan wanted to keep on climbing towards the top so he drug me along... We found an abandoned climbing wall on the way up....

The volcanic ash creates such lush foliage...

More views of the flora....

This is as high as we climbed - we are looking down on the Mayon Skyline...

As we were headed back, I just had to take a picture of this mudflap... Only here in the Philippines would a head gasket be used as a mudflap...

Day 3 Bucket List - Active Volcano CHECK..!!

Wow, three incredible days and three bucket list checks, a good time indeed...!!!

More adventures coming soon....