World Above--World Below...

The last 3 weeks have been so jam packed and full of amazing things that it's impossible to recapitulate it properly. Photos give hints to the sentiments of swimming with the massive Whale Sharks (WS) in Southern Leyte; although, the sheer size of this beast cannot be replicated in font of any size.



Sonok Point; dive site

Julian and I were doing a couple of dives in the area and we wanted to give the lesser known area for the WS ample opportunity to impress...it did. Between dives we surfaced and rested for a bit and hired watchmen to paddle out in their tiny boats and try to spot them. The method was definately 21st century and proved inimitable. One man paddled while the other donning a mask, ducked his head under water. To their defense it worked well.

Head shot Tiki-tiki

We hopped in and it was incredible how close we were able to get--the colours that whipped my eyes--and the enormous stature of the silky swimming shark. One moment we were all right with it and one of the daft danes decided he should descend and get a hands-on experience. Just as he touched it, it gave a quick swat of his massive tail and was out in front of us a good 10 meters. I decided to swim with it a bit longer and for some reason everyone else thought he had swum away. The result was me swimming with this beauteous baby all alone for a solid 10 minutes. To paddle my body within 2 feet of this creature was one thing, but then the calmness of his stroke, the tranquility of his face. He let me swim with him and every once in a while he would curl his head around and take a look at me. Looking in his eyes, at the curiousity that mirrored mine put a smile on my face almost big enough to let the snorkel outta my mouth. I really swam incredulously at the fact that not a single person was near us. Then when I felt he was comfortable with me, I decided I'd like to cop a feel as well. Just as I went to make a move he flinched...so I reached further and finally ran my hand down his smooth yet impenetrable skin. Just at that point he tail-whipped me. That hurt like hell not to mention the water I swallowed as a result of being thrown under water. Rock solid and definately a warning...he fled to deeper waters. And still the whole thing came to pass so calmly.



Andy in front, Julian atop and my arm behind

We hopped back in the boat and tried for another spot and were successful with a much larger mother...6+meters to be exact--that's over 20 feet--gliding along the bottom of the seafloor. I jumped out to meet his line of direction and as he approached found myself in awe as he swam in ascension str8 towards me with his mouth wide open; suspended w/out a scare, rather stupefied and totally deer in the headlights. Of course he didn't eat me cuz I'm writing this...more directly, he didn't eat me because I wasn't plankton.

An Approach

At the end of the day, there's no way I can describe the energy of being with something so much larger than ourselves in such an intimate setting.

Me just 4 ft. behind dorsal fin of the larger one...dwarfed!

Shortly after that we headed up to Bicol where the world's most perfect volcano, Mt. Mayon can be viewed, though not summited. Just 4 months ago the super typhoon Reming (durian) caused massive mudslides off the volcano and onto the settlements below. It's not clear how many died--and in fact they still find bodies under the mud now and again--but the true catastrophe was the tens of thousands that were left homeless in such a storm that was relentless; left only to cross up and over mountains to get some sort of shelter.

Note the Mudslide to the right

Mt. Mayon w/ Mudslide down middle

B/W Mt. Mayon w/ Legaspi City

Just seeing the beauty of this volcano and the perfect inclination to the chiseled dome made me want to climb it badly. Instead I would go off to another volcano and end up not summiting that either. However, failure is not a description that is warranted for this region...anything but.

A few more photos of WS, diving & Mayon here.