whale shark watching: oslob, cebu

brumini beds & beach resort
brgy tanawan, oslob, cebu

 
flight to cebu via mactan-cebu international airport from manila takes about an hour and 15 minutes. from the airport a 20- to 30-minute taxi ride will take you to the southern terminal station. from there, ride a bus to oslob. we took the 2 a.m. air-conditioned ceres bus and reached brumini shortly before 5 a.m.

whale shark (butanding) watching starts from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. before going to the encounter area, tourists are given a short orientation on what to do and not to do while swimming with the whale sharks. wearing of sunscreen is not allowed. if you already applied sunscreen, there are shower rooms near the briefing area. during the encounter, avoid touching the whale sharks. if they swim towards you and made contact with your body, do not touch back. otherwise, you will be have to pay corresponding penalty fees and serve detention time.

because we arrived early, we were able to catch the sunrise while having breakfast.

 
our close encounter with the whale sharks lasted for about 30 minutes. swimming fee was at p500, including free use of a life vest and snorkeling gear. there are underwater cameras for rent but we were not able to find out the rate because we had our own underwater camera. the boatmen can take pictures for you and if you are not comfortable swimming without a life jacket, one of the boatmen will push you down in order for you to have your underwater photo taken with a butanding on the background. pretty neat, huh? remember to take a deep breath before being pushed down and then hold it while underwater.

 
these creatures are indeed a picture of calmness and grace, appropriately earning their nickname–the gentle giants. the boatmen said there were about 10 whale sharks during our visit. watch video clips here and here.

 
meanwhile, we were the only ones booked at brumini for the night so we enjoyed having the whole quarters to ourselves. our overnight stay there felt like a whole week to us with all the activities and sleeping we were able to do in oslob the whole day–more about this in the next posts.