donsol sorsogon
donsol is a beautiful place and i'm really happy that my plans with rax pushed through! but i almost ended up going by myself coz rax and russell almost didn't make it to the airport in time! say what?! rax thought the flight was an hour later and when they found out that i was at the airport already they rushed to get there :) haha luckily they texted their record locator numbers and the people at the check-in counter accepted it! they were given the last 2 seats on the plane!!! thanks to the cebpac people who were kind enough to accommodate us!
so onto the whaleshark watching...or should i say hunting?! since we were going to see them in their natural habitat, we had to get a boat and the boatmen would be on the look-out for these huge creatures! which was an experience in itself! coz other encounters i've had with animals, they were in zoos or in parks. so the animals are right there ready and waiting for you! not this time, there's was a lot of waiting and it was a hit or miss...you had to have luck on your side :)
the first morning we saw a tail...once the boatmen give a signal you jump into the water and start swimming like crazy! coz the whalesharks won't wait for you to catch up. some were lucky coz they were able to swim with the sharks for a couple of minutes. others, like us, barely got a glimpse.
but the day wasn't a bust coz we had the afternoon to ourselves, and rax and i looked into going into legazpi and doing some shopping! :) of course i never passby a chance to look at the products of where ever i visit, coz when will you be able to go back and get anything? i didn't get much, a couple of things for the house. but rax bought a lot - things for the house that she'll be moving into pretty soon :)
after rushing back to the resort in sorsogon (which is about 2 hours away) we were whisked off for firefly watching. ooohh it was so beautiful! we were brought to the donsol river and along the banks you could see trees lighted up with hundreds of fireflys. it reminded me of christmas lights.
the following day we started at 6am to continue our whaleshark adventure. i saw one before i left rax and russ to go diving. after i left they saw a couple more and then went for a city tour to see the Mayon and other touristy sites.
the last time i went diving i was in cebu, so a couple of months had passed. and at the time, my allergies were acting up. so i had a doubly hard time equalizing and it took me forever to go down. a group of 6 foreigners were with me and they were long gone by the time i reached the bottom. hahaha good thing i told one of the divemasters so he stuck by my side.
what did i see? well the dive site is called the "manta bowl"...so mantarays! wow, wow, wow :) really spectacular, it's like they were dancing and their wingspan is a couple of meters long. so they were massive but graceful. there wasn't that much coral to see but the fish were of a different species so it was nice to see something different.
another thing about that dive was during the third one the current was really strong! so we had to keep low and i was grabbing at coral to help me along, coz i was having a really hard time swimming. the soft coral and plants were totally bending and the sound of the current was like the sound the rain makes when there's a storm.
of course i made it a point to take pictures of the sunset, i think we have the best sunsets! the colors are really rich from purple to yellow :) and the trip made me realize that the Philippines is a great destination if you're into nature and going to the beach. there are so many places to go to! i wonder how long it'll take til i can say i've been all over the Philippines?!
so onto the whaleshark watching...or should i say hunting?! since we were going to see them in their natural habitat, we had to get a boat and the boatmen would be on the look-out for these huge creatures! which was an experience in itself! coz other encounters i've had with animals, they were in zoos or in parks. so the animals are right there ready and waiting for you! not this time, there's was a lot of waiting and it was a hit or miss...you had to have luck on your side :)
the first morning we saw a tail...once the boatmen give a signal you jump into the water and start swimming like crazy! coz the whalesharks won't wait for you to catch up. some were lucky coz they were able to swim with the sharks for a couple of minutes. others, like us, barely got a glimpse.
but the day wasn't a bust coz we had the afternoon to ourselves, and rax and i looked into going into legazpi and doing some shopping! :) of course i never passby a chance to look at the products of where ever i visit, coz when will you be able to go back and get anything? i didn't get much, a couple of things for the house. but rax bought a lot - things for the house that she'll be moving into pretty soon :)
after rushing back to the resort in sorsogon (which is about 2 hours away) we were whisked off for firefly watching. ooohh it was so beautiful! we were brought to the donsol river and along the banks you could see trees lighted up with hundreds of fireflys. it reminded me of christmas lights.
the following day we started at 6am to continue our whaleshark adventure. i saw one before i left rax and russ to go diving. after i left they saw a couple more and then went for a city tour to see the Mayon and other touristy sites.
the last time i went diving i was in cebu, so a couple of months had passed. and at the time, my allergies were acting up. so i had a doubly hard time equalizing and it took me forever to go down. a group of 6 foreigners were with me and they were long gone by the time i reached the bottom. hahaha good thing i told one of the divemasters so he stuck by my side.
what did i see? well the dive site is called the "manta bowl"...so mantarays! wow, wow, wow :) really spectacular, it's like they were dancing and their wingspan is a couple of meters long. so they were massive but graceful. there wasn't that much coral to see but the fish were of a different species so it was nice to see something different.
another thing about that dive was during the third one the current was really strong! so we had to keep low and i was grabbing at coral to help me along, coz i was having a really hard time swimming. the soft coral and plants were totally bending and the sound of the current was like the sound the rain makes when there's a storm.
of course i made it a point to take pictures of the sunset, i think we have the best sunsets! the colors are really rich from purple to yellow :) and the trip made me realize that the Philippines is a great destination if you're into nature and going to the beach. there are so many places to go to! i wonder how long it'll take til i can say i've been all over the Philippines?!
posted by bernadette @ 2:15 PM
3 comments
