A Day with the Gentle Giants

Day tour in the Southernmost part of Cebu? Possible! Yes it is by getting the first flight going to Cebu and last flight going back to Manila. Luckily, we got our promo fare tickets from Cebu Pacific Airlines. They have daily multiple flights going to Cebu from Manila and vice versa.

We left Manila at 420 am and arrived Cebu past 5 am. We hurriedly went out of the airport to catch a taxi since we knew its another 3 hours bus ride going to Oslob. From the airport going to South Bus Terminal is about a 20-30 minutes ride. That far! And so at 630 am we are on our way to Oslob. Since I did not had a chance to sleep, the ride from Cebu City to Oslob is a good idea for me  to catch one.

We arrived Oslob at 930 am. A very excited me is ready to jump into the water to see those giants. The community had set some rules and regulations to follow. Before jumping in, we have to listen to a brief discussion on the set rules. 

Now we are ready! The waves are not that friendly as the encounter is not that far from the shore. With only 30 minutes given to us, we geared up and jumped into the water.

Amazingly, we are that close to the giants. I can't say they are friendly but rather they are not afraid of us. They just swim in any course they want. Unlike in Sorsogon where Butandings easily disappear when distracted but they are 2-3x bigger than in Oslob.

This is the best picture that I got. We rented an underwater camera and supposedly the boatman which we thought is already an expert taking pictures with Butanding was a failure. In other words, I made the most of the shots.

I should say that this one Butanding is so Makulit. As much as we try to make a distance between her, she always ended up with her tail on our feet. This makes us so afraid that we might hurt her. By the way, there is also a guard that follows the Butanding. He makes sure that the whaleshark is safe and we dont disobey the rules.

30 minutes is just enough for the Butanding encounter. In less than that time, we are already tired of swimming from those large waves and done with our encounter.  Lucky me, my skin didn't felt anything itchy. Before lunchtime, we are done.