Nolen & Sue | Honeymoon Adventure

What better way to celebrate as newlyweds than to explore the world in a honeymoon adventure with your best playmate? We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to take a trip like this, it would not have been possible...
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Eskimo kiss with a whaleshark

Its been an exciting day for both of us and the boat
crew! We saw a whale shark! From what we hear
from the dive shops, sightings are rare so we consider
ourselves extremely lucky today.

Today was only our second day of diving, we dove to
max 75 feet for about 30 min and went shallow to 20
feet for 20 minutes for safety stop. Nolen was close
to running out of air coz he hadn't still figured out
how much weight to wear. Nolen went back to the boat
and I stayed down at 20 feet for another 30 minutes to
finish my tank. Much of the beautiful soft/hard
corals, pretty fish are shallow water anyway so I
bummed around the reef.

I finally finished my tank and went back in the boat.
I found Nolen conversing with the boat crew about
where the nearest videoke was. He found out that the
boat driver owned a sari-sari store up the main road
so we'll likely do videoke tonight.

I rinsed with fresh water and joined in the
conversation. We were telling stories to the boat
crew about our excursion in Donsol, Sorsogon with
Uncle Perfing and Tita May roaming about on a
catamaran for 3 hours searching for a whale shark.
(they call them "butanding") Whale sharks gather in
large numbers in Donsol within the months of March and
April, and there is 100% guaranteed sighting, but June
was a crapshoot. Needless to say, we didn't see one -
till today!

So, as we were telling the story - the boat driver,
looking over the boat yelled, "butanding"! We thought
he was kidding but I also was looking the same
direction he was and yep - there was one in the water.
It slowly brushed up against the boat! It was small, about
10 feet but there was no mistake...it was darkgray
with white spots on it. After the millisecond
of shock, I scurried to find my mask,
found it, put the thing on and jumped in the water.
My heart was pounding so fast from the excitement,
I almost forgot to swim! I swam over to the
edge of the catamaran and peeked in the water. I
thought, "holy shit! this is one big fish!" I
looked over to find Nolen and found him about 15
meters away from the boat towards the whale shark.
He said it swam away BUT it turned back around and
swam towards Nolen. I saw it turning around. Nolen
said when it came around it was full frontal with its
mouth opening and closing so he swam aside to make way
for it. Even though it didn't have teeth, I dont think anyone should be in the way of anything that has the word "shark" associated with it. The whole interaction probably lasted less than 5 minutes.
It swam into deeper water and we were sad to see it go. We were high from the excitement for the entire rest of the day! Even the rest of the divers were disappointed to hear that they missed out on seeing it because they were actually still underwater during the time we saw it. They were totally bummed out.

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Reflection . . .:
I have 6 hours until I hop on a plane home. As I reflect on the last 12 months with a smile on my face, I'm rejuvenated and filled with ...(read more)

rowena: you've done a great job with these photos Ate. i like the offering one too. the color in i... (more)

Stefan Alexis: Nolen, you big, beautiful, poetic bastard your words actually made me salivate. I slobbered all o... (more)

What better way to celebrate as newlyweds than to explore the world in a honeymoon adventure with your best playmate? We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to take a trip like this, it would not have been possible... (more) Sign up for the notify list and receive email when a new entry is posted. subscribe unsubscribe	Eskimo kiss with a whaleshark Its been an exciting day for both of us and the boat crew! We saw a whale shark! From what we hear from the dive shops, sightings are rare so we consider ourselves extremely lucky today. read more » Today was only our second day of diving, we dove to max 75 feet for about 30 min and went shallow to 20 feet for 20 minutes for safety stop. Nolen was close to running out of air coz he hadn't still figured out how much weight to wear. Nolen went back to the boat and I stayed down at 20 feet for another 30 minutes to finish my tank. Much of the beautiful soft/hard corals, pretty fish are shallow water anyway so I bummed around the reef. I finally finished my tank and went back in the boat. I found Nolen conversing with the boat crew about where the nearest videoke was. He found out that the boat driver owned a sari-sari store up the main road so we'll likely do videoke tonight. I rinsed with fresh water and joined in the conversation. We were telling stories to the boat crew about our excursion in Donsol, Sorsogon with Uncle Perfing and Tita May roaming about on a catamaran for 3 hours searching for a whale shark. (they call them "butanding") Whale sharks gather in large numbers in Donsol within the months of March and April, and there is 100% guaranteed sighting, but June was a crapshoot. Needless to say, we didn't see one - till today! So, as we were telling the story - the boat driver, looking over the boat yelled, "butanding"! We thought he was kidding but I also was looking the same direction he was and yep - there was one in the water. It slowly brushed up against the boat! It was small, about 10 feet but there was no mistake...it was darkgray with white spots on it. After the millisecond of shock, I scurried to find my mask, found it, put the thing on and jumped in the water. My heart was pounding so fast from the excitement, I almost forgot to swim! I swam over to the edge of the catamaran and peeked in the water. I thought, "holy shit! this is one big fish!" I looked over to find Nolen and found him about 15 meters away from the boat towards the whale shark. He said it swam away BUT it turned back around and swam towards Nolen. I saw it turning around. Nolen said when it came around it was full frontal with its mouth opening and closing so he swam aside to make way for it. Even though it didn't have teeth, I dont think anyone should be in the way of anything that has the word "shark" associated with it. The whole interaction probably lasted less than 5 minutes. It swam into deeper water and we were sad to see it go. We were high from the excitement for the entire rest of the day! Even the rest of the divers were disappointed to hear that they missed out on seeing it because they were actually still underwater during the time we saw it. They were totally bummed out. « hide more « previous \| 06.15.05 \| Poetry \| comments (0) \| next »	Reflection . . .: I have 6 hours until I hop on a plane home. As I reflect on the last 12 months with a smile on my face, I'm rejuvenated and filled with ...(read more) rowena: you've done a great job with these photos Ate. i like the offering one too. the color in i... (more) Stefan Alexis: Nolen, you big, beautiful, poetic bastard your words actually made me salivate. I slobbered all o... (more) Search this site:
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