Thursday, July 26, 2012

Log / Pic 109 Whale Sharks

My next stop this summer was to tackle something that has been on my "Rocking Chair  List" for several years-
snorkeling with Whale Sharks. i flew to Cancun, drove almost three hours north to Chiquila, then took the 9 Hermanos ferry to the island of Holbox (hol-bosh).
Below is the boat I took on my first whale shark excursion. 
On the way out we saw two huge schools of baby manta rays.
On several days we saw dolphins-one day we captured this. 
Below is a huge manta ray. On our last trip out we saw many of them and they stuck around and fed.
So we jumped in the water and were able to snorkel with them.
But this is why we really came-to see the largest shark in the world-coming right towards us!
Below is a manta jumping out of the water-it looked closer than my camera tells.
Here is me in my glory. We saw about 100 whale sharks this first day. They were everywhere! Too excited to be scared. 
In this one me and Lisa had sharks in all four directions. 
They came right up to the boat while feeding.
These open gills were an impressive sight.
Finally I get to swim alongside them.
It takes two pics to see how large
Below is what I saw every time i turned around. 
Good thing no teeth
Beautiful patterns
We saw flamingos at the end of each day on the boat trip home.  I took a golf cart to the end of the island on day and photographed them up close.