What's It Like to Swim with Butanding?

Okay, I've had more than two weeks to think about this: When you first get on the banca, you are so excited and apprehensive at the same time. Excited because this trip was planned in our heads over a year ago, and we are finally here, and apprehensive because we travelled so far and so long to get here, and what if they don't show themselves?

When you finally jump in the water, the first thing that hits you is that the water is sooooooo salty. Don't know why, but the waters of Batangas did not seem this salty. We know for sure it was salty because as we dried up in the wind and the sun while on the boat, our bodies were covered in a layer of NaCl! The water is soooo green and sooo opaque that visibility is not so good underwater. They say that the water is plankton-rich, and I am guessing this is what makes the water "opaque".

Then this question hits you, in the words of my mother: if they are sharks, what are you doing jumping in the water?" What nga ba? I am no thrill seeker, and this is probably the boldest foray into nature interaction that I have ever done in my life, bringing my children along pa, and making them jump in the water also. I still don't know, maybe it was my attempt to delve into a world that my children love, and that I don't: the animal kingdom. I also wanted Bea to get over her "fear" of jumping in the sea to swim and snorkle.

So yes, you get a little nervous, I never saw the butanding mouth open, and my view was always from on top. I might have been more scared if I had Agot's frontal, open view. And now that I think about it, I have never been thisClose to a creature this large, a creature that is ALIVE (confession: I touched its tail!)

Then you get overwhelmed, at how little and weak you are (and how poorly you can swim, and how deeply you can sink; isn't salty water supposed to make you more buoyant?) And then you get excited, that here you are, finally here, in front of this magnificent creature, and you forget to breathe...and you swallow that salty water, and then you choke, and you start to laugh (cause now you might die from drowning, when you thought the shark would bite you first....)

Here is what Angelica thinks: First I felt nervous about going down into the water, because the whale shark is a big creature. But when I jumped in, I found out that I was going to be above him, and he would not bite me or touch me and I would just be floating on top of him. When I saw him, I took a picture with my camera, and with my heart.

Here is what Beatriz thinks: I was really really really really really really really really really really really scared. When I saw it from the boat, it looked really big, so I did not want to jump in anymore. That's it.

The one who won the double jackpot of the day was Rocio, China's very brave daughter, who would jump in the water even before our guide, Jun, did. On her final jump, as Rocio was enjoying one whale shark, another one came into the area, so they swam over to the second one! Double whammy, double fun!