Donsol, Part 2: Boating and Snorkeling

As I mentioned in Part 1, Donsol is famous for its whale shark eco-tourism, and we went with the hopes of being able to swim with whale sharks. Unfortunately, the whale sharks weren't cooperating that weekend, and we didn't see any! However, we did enjoy two beautiful 3-hour boat rides, and we were able to enjoy some snorkeling as well.

Elias in his sun protection gear, ready to go out for our first day of whale spotting!

These are the cool boats we did our whale spotting in.

Excited to get started!
Each boat had a crew of 4 locals, and each boat could carry 4-6 passengers. The guide's shirt says "BIO," which stands for "Butanding Interaction Officer." "Butanding" is the Filipino word for whale shark.

The fourth crew member was the spotter, who stood up on the top of this pole for the entire 3-hour tour! Unfortunately, without the whale sharks' cooperation, there's not much for the spotter to do! We were grateful for the crew's persistence, however.
A view of our resort from the water

Daddy and Elias stretching their legs on the boat.

At the end of the first tour, after we hadn't seen any whale sharks, they took us to a small reef area where we could snorkel. In the above photo, that's Justin snorkeling in front of the camera. Elias wasn't a big fan of snorkeling - the murky water made him nervous. So he stayed in the boat for most of the time, while Mommy and Daddy used his underwater camera to get some good pictures for him!

We saw these cool blue starfish!

And some neat coral!
So we were grateful for the opportunity to get outside of Manila and see some beautiful sights, even if we were disappointed not to see any whale sharks. Maybe next time!

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