Butanding

Yeah folks, as noted in my previous blog entry, Dylan and I had one last hoorah by swimming alongside the largest species of shark, a whale shark. The Pilipinas call them Butanding. The experience was exhilarating, humbling, and (to actually use this word the way it was meant to be used) it was awesome. Harmless and beautiful giants of the sea.

We made two trips out to sea to swim with the butanding. The first trip was a bit cloudy and there was little hope of spotting one of the giants in the sea. We sat ready and anxious on the sides of the make-shift catamaran. Finally, the ready command of our guide we readied our flippers and masks. On his go command (literally him shouting "go, go, go!" at us like a drill sergeant) we dove into the velvet blue water passing beneath us.  

You don't see it right away but you wait and swim slowly and then, in an instant it appears. A great blue figure with white spots looming beneath you. Then you see his head and mouth, a mouth that could swallow five of you whole all at once. Then the gills that are the length of your leg and if you look all the way to its back you can spot the tips of its tail that are longer than your entire body. On our first trip Dylan and I swam alongside one for nearly half an hour. Just following it through the great blue watching it just glide through effortlessly and still eat along the way. We only lasted that long, we had to return to the boat and honestly we couldn't keep up with the shark anymore, we were exhausted. We just swam back to the boat in absolute shock.